Top Cat: The Movie

On February 26, 2011, Warner Bros. Pictures Mexico, Ánima Estudios, Illusion Studios announced that the film would be in production, to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary.[14] The film took a total of 34 months to develop.[14]

While the production of the film mainly took place in Mexico, Warner Bros. suggested that the film was written by Americans, when Timothy McKeon and Kevin Seccia wanted to write a familiar story to match the spirit of the original TV series.[14][15] Before writing the screenplay, they reviewed the show's set of the 1960s.[15] They wrote several versions of the script until they finished the final draft the script.[15] It took them six months to write.[15] Jesús Guzmán, a Mexican comedian and actor who provides the Spanish voice of Demostenes (Brain), adapted and translated the script in Spanish.[15]

It was originally rumored to be a live-action/CGI hybrid, but it was later confirmed to be a 2D/CG animated feature.[16] Animated in Adobe Flash with computer animated backgrounds, the animation was done by Ánima Estudios in Mexico, while post-production (including the CGI backgrounds) and stereoscopic 3D services were done at Illusion Studios in Argentina.[15]

Alberto Mar, the film's director, did a scouting in New York City in 2011 and took pictures of the city's buildings, alleys, and drains.[15] He also used locations that were not featured in the TV series, such as Times Square.[15]

During character development, all of the film's characters had to be approved by Warner Bros. Animation.[15] The goal was for the characters to look like they were drawn in style of other Hanna-Barbera works.[15] Ánima Estudios created new characters that were not featured in the series, such as Trixie, Lucas Buenrostro (Lou Strickland), the army of robots, and over 100 incidental characters.[15]

While the film features a voice cast different from the original series, Jorge Arvizu reprises his role as Benny and Choo Choo from the Spanish version of the show[16] The U.S. version casts actors, Rob Schneider and Danny Trejo, dubbing over Jason Harris voice roles as Lou Strickland and Griswald, respectively, from the international English versions of the film.[8]

The film's original score was composed by Leoncio Lara.[17] The TV show's theme song was featured in the film. The song, "New York Groove" by Ace Frehley, was also featured in the film's trailer and end credits.

The original Latin American version was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 2, 2011, from Warner Home Video International[26] as well on Blu-ray 3D in Brazil, distributed by PlayArte Home Entertainment, while the UK version was released on Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on October 15, 2012, distributed by Entertainment One.[27] It was the first film from Ánima Estudios to be released on Blu-ray. The film was released in the United States on DVD on September 3, 2013.[28] A Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D release in the United States has not been announced yet.

Though the original Spanish version of the film was received mostly positive reviews in Mexico and Latin America, the English dub of the film was universally hated in both the UK and the US.[29][30][31][32] The film currently scores a 14% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 14 reviews with an average score of 3.20/10. It is the lowest-rated film produced by Ánima Estudios to date.[33]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the English film 1 out of 5 stars, saying "It's the bottom of the heap, and it frankly looks cheap, the disaster of the year is – Top Cat".[34] Derek Adams of Time Out London also gave the English film 1 out of five stars, writing, "a pity, then, that the key elements – storyline, dialogue, comedy value – are so woefully ineffectual. An air of boredom permeated the screening I attended and laughs were universally non-existent."[35] Colin Kennedy of Metro criticized the English film, calling it "a dog's dinner of a film which will bore new viewers and disappoint old ones" and "post-Pixar kids will be bored rigid."[36] Rob of The Shiznit gave this 1 out of 5 stars and wrote, "It looks like Top Cat, sounds like Top Cat, but it doesn't feel like Top Cat. It's as if a Mexican film company (Ánima Estudios) has taken an iconic American cartoon and slapped together a budget version... oh, wait, that's exactly what's happened."[37]

Bethany Rutter of Little White Lies criticized the English film saying that "it's heroically unfunny, the lame script is one of many sticking points. Awkward, clunky and predictable, it propels the film forward at a pace that manages to be both deathly slow and annoyingly jumpy."[38] Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent gave the English film 2 out of 5 stars and said that "neither the voice work (much of it done by Jason Harris) nor the animation is distinctive. Officer Dibble has only a marginal role. The use of 3D seems entirely tokenistic (an excuse to hike up ticket prices rather than an artistic decision.)"[39] On the positive side, Matthew Turner of ViewLondon enjoyed the English film, saying that " This movie provides a handful of decent laughs, though some of the jokes are a bit dodgy, the 3D effects are entirely superfluous and younger children might be a little bored."[40] Eddie Harrison of The List also gave the English film a positive reaction, saying that "adults looking for undemanding fare for their kids may find Top Cat's brand of sass, irreverence and cheeky charm offer a persuasive alternative to today's crasser children's entertainments."[41]

This film has earned $40.7 million in Mexico and grossed a total of $112.25 million pesos.[2] It has also become one of the biggest box office openings in Mexican cinema history.[10][42] In Argentina, it opened #5 on its opening weekend, earning $0.7 million and grossed a total of $3.3 million.[43]

In Brazil, this film opened at #7 behind, earning R$0.9 million. It grossed a total of R$2.2 million.[44]

The UK release of this film opened at #7 at the weekend box office with £0.4 million from 452 theaters throughout the country, and grossed a total of £2.8 million.[45] In Spain, this film earned €34,085 on its opening weekend and grossed a total of €96,848.

This film grossed $0.3 million in Uruguay, ₺0.28 million in Turkey, and $2.4 million in Peru.

There is currently no box office data for the film, but it is one of the highest-grossing independent animated films released in the United States.[46]

In 2012 it was nominated at the 13th Golden Trailer Awards[47] as Best Foreign Animation/Family Trailer for "Trailer 1" on YouTube and "Trailer 2" on YouTube.

On the same year the movie won into the 9th edition of Canacine Awards as Best Animated Feature Film and Best Advertising Campaign for a Mexican Film.