This feature-length animation is an odd little film. On the surface, it looks like a crazy 70s musical romp with a script based on Mel Brooks’ Broadway show about the love affair between a cat and a cockroach. Seriously.
In reality, its a pretty serious feeling movie with some clunky songs sung by vocal greats like Carol Channing (one of the greatest voices EVAR). Most of these animals are poor and unhappy while living on the streets of New York, and the look of their surroundings are chaotic and cluttered. That, mixed with some pretty horrible melodies, make for a dour experience overall.
BUT I CAN LISTEN TO CAROL CHANNING ALL DAY LONG.
Worth a watch as a buried gem, but you may be done with it long before it ends.
Here’s the blurb on Netflix:
Carol Channing, Eddie Bracken, John Carradine and Alan Reed lend their voices to this animated tale based on Mel Brooks’s Broadway musical adaptation of Don Marquis’s stories. Set in New York City, the tale follows Archy, a cockroach who’s madly in love with Mehitabel, a footloose and fancy-free cat. Archy’s on top of the world when he joins the feline fatale for adventure, but rugged alley cat Big Bill competes for Mehitabel’s affections.
