Cat City (Macskafogó) is a 1986 Hungarian animated film created at Pannonia Film Studio about mice being oppressed by cats.The movie opens with a Star Wars-syle text scroll, which tells the main situation: In year 80 AM Anno Mickey Mouse, the mice of Planet X are threatened by humiliation and total apocalypse. The well-organized, fully equipped gangs of evil cats are aiming to wipe out the mouse civilization totally, not caring for the old conventions between mice and cats. But in the last moment, when the mouse leaders are beginning to consider leaving the planet, a new hope rises...The film is a parody of several famous feature films, mainly the James Bond series. The main plot is about a special spy who is sent to the city of "Pokyo" to get the secret plan of a machine which could save the mouse civilization. Of course, the cats don't want this to happen, and send some rat gangsters to stop him, who don't always prove as efficient as their presentation showed.In 2007, the film was followed by Macskafogó 2: A Sátán macskája, a sequel that focuses on a mouse journalist, Stanley, who finds a tribe of untamed cats in the jungles of "Pafrika". The cats summon a demon cat, Moloch, to take the world back from the mice.
The Amazon: The jungle where Lazy Dick's plane crashes. It must be Planet X's equivalent of Central America, as implied by the Mayincatec pyramids and the bats being Mexicanbandits.
Artificial Limbs: Teufel has a metallic left hand with really sharp claws.
Badass Normal: Grabowski is capable of causing some real pain to Teufel.
Bad Boss: Teufel to Safranek and Gatto to Teufel. Implied that Gatto tolerates failure even worse than Teufel, when Safranek immediately accepts Teufel's punnishment instead of risking Gatto hearing about it.
Bilingual Bonus: Lots of it. Teufel's name is a classic example: it means "Devil" in German, but sounds like "tejfel", which means "sour cream" in Hungarian. For further examples see Hurricane of Puns below.
Body Horror: Though there's no blood or visible damage, it's still rather disturbing to see Grabowski with a lock through his lips during the climax at the party.
Cool Car: The car of the rat gangsters. Too bad they can't use it properly.
Cut Himself Shaving: Safranek must do this all the time as his boss, Teufel brutally injures him for every mistake he makes, and pretends not to know about it subsequently.
Teufel : Not another accident? Oh dear. What happened to you this time, Safranek?
Safranek: * gulps* I was shaving, sir.
Teufel: But, your hand!
Safranek: That's what I was shaving with, sir.
The punchline is a bit different in the English dub, where he says he was holding the razor with his hand.
Dangerously Genre Savvy: Teufel immediately saw through the flaws of the experiments Safranek presented to him, as well as the mice's plan to help Grabowski get the plans into safety, and intercepted him on his way.
Evil Is Bigger: Both cats and rats are much bigger than mice.
Expy/No Celebrities Were Harmed: Might be unintentional, but Lazy Dick looks suspiciously similar to Lajos Galambos, a famous Hungarian trumpet musician, including that Dick's favourite music instrument is a trumpet.
Faux Affably Evil: Teufel, who acts cordially towards Safranek... when he's not torturing him for his mistakes. He even acts like he doesn't know what caused his injuries, and pretends to feel sorry for him.
The secret password for the mice's council is "Egy aprócska kalapocska, benne csacska macska mocska" [say: edy op-roch-ko kolo-poch-ko, beh-neh choch-ko mach-ko moch-ko] (meaning "A tiny little hat with a silly cat's dirt in it").
The original title "Macskafogó", although literally it means "Cat catcher", comes from the word "Egérfogó" meaning "Mouse trap", changing the word "egér" (mouse) into "macska" (Cat).
The Police chief, Bob Poljakow promises that he would recruit again Grabowski and "bring back Cincinnatus from the yoke" — a historic reference to Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, this patriotic elderly Roman patrician who left his plow in the field to come to Rome's rescue in its moment of need around 458 BC. However, "cin" or "cin-cin" is the equivalent of "squeaking" in Hungarian...
The boss of the cats (the fat white one) is called Giovanni Gatto. Gatto is an Italian word, it means cat in English (and macska in Hungarian). Also, Giovanni is the Italian equivalent of the Hungarian first name János (John in English) – and if a Hungarian says "macskajancsi" (Johnny Cat in English), it means jerk, lame, loser, or a coward. Also, there existed a mafia clan named Gatti in New York.
The daughter of Safranek, the lame assistant of Mr. Teufel is called CAThy.
Mr. Teufel's name. Teufel means devil in German, but it's also pronounced very similarly to "tejfel" (sour cream), which cats like a lot.
The name of Maxipotzac, the obese chief of the Mexican bats, is of course a play on "maxipocak", or "maxi-belly".
I Know You Know I Know: Cookie delivers this line, pondering if Grabowski knows they're after him.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Safranek was the Chew Toy through the whole movie, but near the end Teufel assigned him to coordinate the battle, and he proved to be frighteningly effective.
One Man Band: Due to their tight budget, the entire orchestra of the mouse police consists of one mouse, Lazy Dick.
Only Sane Man: Buddy thinks he's the one among the rats, but really Tissi is the one.
Ramming Always Works: Grabowski sunk the cat pirates' submarine by ramming it with the ship they thought to have captured, and had in a tow.
Red Right Hand: Exaggerated with Teufel, almost to the level of parody. He has an Eyepatch of Power (with a ruby under it, nonetheless), a robotic hand, a torn ear, and even his tail seems to have its tip cut off.
Ruthless Modern Pirates: The pirate cats attacking Grabowski's ship. Other than having a Jolly Roger flag on their submarine, there's nothing romantic about them.
Slice of Life: The main plot lines are constantly interrupted by scenes of average mice living their everyday life, who are then abused, robbed and threatened by cats.
When the lab mouse defeats the cat hit by the Shrink Ray, he does Tarzan's yell.
Shrink Ray: The cats test one at the beginning of the film, so they could get into mouseholes. It works, but it also weakens the test subject who's easily beaten up by a mouse.
Smart People Play Chess: Grabowski beats himself in chess in eight out of ten games. In the other two, he wins.
Stocking Mask: Buddy says that they'll have to use it if they work in public. Cookie complains that she only has fishnets.
Submarine Pirates: The pirate cats use a submarine rather than a ship.
Tempting Fate: At the beginning, a bank clerk assures a worrying client that to this bank, cats could only break into with a tank. Guess what happens next.
Thirty Seconds Over Pokyo: Portrayed as a hi-tech metropolis, home of the professor designing a Humongous Mecha, an attractive female assistant in kimono, and a cat trying to catch Grabowski with karate moves using chopsticks.
Too Dumb to Live: Billy. When the car gets stuck in a pit, Buddy asks the computer what to do:
Computer: In this situation, push the red button and rest in peace.
Buddy: Wait!
Billy:(pushing the button) For what? (car explodes)
What Happened To The Cat?: The lady cat singing at the party is bitten by one of the bats and apparently passes out from blood loss. She isn't seen in the finale, leaving one to wonder if she died or not.
You Have Failed Me: Subverted with Teufel and Safranek. Mr. Gatto, however, has the mounted heads of Teufel's predecessors on his wall.
Your Size May Vary: The size difference between cats and mice varies. Most jarringly, Grabowski fits comfortably into a bottle that one of the rats drank empty in one scene, and later stands face to face with him, coming up to the rat's shoulder.
The sequel provides examples of:
Animals Not To Scale: Torzonborz is a badger about the same size as a mouse. Justified since she's a mouse in disguise.
Also the film begins with Stanley, a mouse, cutting his way trough the jungle, and accidentally chopping off the tail of a leopard and a python that are in scale with him as if he was a human. Then he runs into the cats, are as big compared to him as real life cats compared to real life mice - which means they're gigantic compared to the leopard. Made even weirder, when the cats leave the jungle and enter the savannah, they're immediately attacked by a rhino, and later by an elephant herd, that are in scale to them, as if the cats were humans.
Applied Phlebotinum: The cats are forced to wear ribbons, which are oppressing their violent nature.
Grabowski after watching a recording of Moloch breaking into the "civilization" Did you notice anything strange?
Edlington Strange? Well besides cats breaking through our outer defense, and pressing two of our guards into a DVD, nothing!
Harvey Those cats are not wearing ribbons.
Edlington Harvey! No, you're right, they aren't wear ribbons.
Grabowski True, but what I meant was that giant cat had red eyes. However only albino cats have red eyes, but there is no such thing as a black albino.
The battle scene between the rebelling cats and the mice is a lot more violent than the first movies'sbattle, including a scene, when a cat is shown to be preparing to eat a mouse child alive.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Nothing too raunchy, mostly just quick, juvenile gags, like the gay soldier saying goodbye to his male partner, or the random nude mouse girl that someone throws into the air.
Interspecies Romance: Lazy Dick is married to the sister of Maxipotzac, a vampire bat.
Karma Houdini: Moloch and the city cats get away scot-free with the carnage and destruction they caused. The wild cats, who summoned Moloch, on the other hand are dragged down to hell by him.
Summon Bigger Cat: Mioka after learning that the mice had defeated the cats, summons Moloch who is a black cat ten times taller than normal cats, with red eyes, who can regenerate his body, and shoots laser beams from his finger tips.
Time Skip: The second movie takes place 20 years after the first one. Almost all characters are redesigned to look older.
Transforming Mecha: The Cat Catcher is revealed to be one near the end of the movie.
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