Even if we completely ignore everything in the film that could be attributed to budgetary issues, like if you didn't give a shit about anything except trying to teach kids morality, is it not fair criticism to call the movie out on its failure to deliver those morals? If you're gonna have Cool Cat say to look both ways before crossing, you might not wanna show him darting into the middle of the fucking road less than two minutes after saying it.
One of the many spectacular failures of Cool Cat Saves the Kids is that it doesn't even manage to get a clear message across:
- One scene has Cool Cat's friend Mikey nearly get hit by a car, which of course leads to a lecture about how you should always look both ways when crossing the street. Then, in the very next scene, Butch the Bully appears on the other side of the street with candy that he just stole from babies, and Cool Cat runs after him across the street without looking both ways.
- One of the film's main messages is to tell an adult about bullying or if you find a gun. That's all very well, except Adults Are Useless is in play throughout the entire film. Erik Estrada and Vivica A. Fox do absolutely nothing to prevent Butch from bullying Cool Cat at Vivica's house, Daddy Derek endangers the kids unnecessarily by making them walk home on their own while there's someone on the loose who's threatening people with a gun, and Butch's parents are told that their son has a gun and yet do nothing to stop him bringing it to school.
Cool Cat Kids Superhero
- A new scene adds a pro-recycling message where Cool Cat talks about how much he loves to recycle cans and bottles. This is then broken by one of the original scenes, where Cool Cat is playing "treasure hunters" and finds a can in the bushes, and decides to just leave it there rather than recycling it.
- There's a scene where Cool Cat finds a lollipop lying around and sings a song about how yummy it is, but then decides he "doesn't want candy" and puts it back without eating it. This is potentially meant to provide a moral about healthy eating, but Cool Cat never gives any reason why he shouldn't eat candy, making it come across as Do Not Do This Cool Thing. There's also the obvious issue with the supposed children's safety mascot deciding to eat some unwrapped food that was left lying about for who knows how long.
- Cool Cat manages to give some kids some surprisingly good advice about social distancing and wearing masks. The problem is, they stick to these rules for about ten seconds before abandoning them completely. Cool Cat doesn't wear a mask for the entire film, one of the girls takes her mask off to perform a rap song, and they all come in for a group hug at the end. That, and Cool Cat supposedly ended the pandemic by punching COVID so hard that it exploded, so should we still worry about it or not?
- The film contains the rather shoehorned message "Respect other people's opinions and beliefs about coronavirus". Ignoring whether or not this message is even appropriate, it's completely undermined because the only character in the film who thinks COVID is a hoax is an asshole who goes around deliberately infecting people For the Evulz (despite him apparently not believing in COVID in the first place).
