A couple of months ago, my kid started watching this show on Netflix. I could have sworn one of those "This title will be leaving soon" warning popped up, so I told my kid we could watch it, but it might go away soon. And so she watched it religiously for days, trying to soak up every moment before it suddenly disappeared. I endured this bland but innocuous show because I knew it would go away soon.
And then... it didn't go away.
At the end of the month, it was still there. Huh, I hadn't really noted what day Netflix had said it was leaving. Maybe in another week or two. My kid triumphantly said day after day, "Mom, it's still here!" "Yeah," I replied, confused. If you check right now, it's still there. And there's no warning that it's leaving soon. So either I'm crazy and imagined the warning, or my daughter single handedly convinced Netflix that kids were actually enjoying the show because the streaming count spiked, so they decided to leave it on there.
Moral of the story: don't tell your kid when a show is leaving a streaming service unless you're 100% sure it is.
Thankfully we no longer watch this every single day, but I figured it would be worth it to review now that I've had some time away from it.
44 Cats is actually mostly about four cats named Lampo, Pilou, Milady, and Meatball. There are other cats that come and go every episode, but I haven't counted to find out if they add up to 44 in total. According to Wikipedia, the series was inspired by a children's song called "Quarantaquattro gatti," made famous in the 1968 Zecchino d'Oro competition. So maybe the Italian creators of the show just wanted to make a show about lots of cats and knew this song was already well known and thought they'd use that as a title and theme song.
Our main characters form a band called The Buffycats, and they live with an older lady they call Granny Pina. While they and all their cat friends talk, stand on two legs, wear clothes, and even seem to own shops and have jobs, Granny Pina doesn't know this and treats them like regular cats. Well, except for the fact that she feeds them noodles. I didn't realize until several weeks into the 44 Cats marathon I had created that the show was originally Italian and couldn't figure out why these cats were constantly eating pasta.
By the way, the pasta gives them super powers.
There's a whole song about the noodles of Granny Pina and how they're a stress cure, will take away your fever, and will give you noodle power. The cats eat the pasta every time they're feeling tired or need extra strength. But also, The Buffycats all have special, supernatural abilities that I can only assume they get from this pasta, because no one else in the show has such powers (well, except for the couple of cats that are either ghosts or from outer space or whatever).
Lampo's whiskers will guide him to whatever he says he's looking for. Like, he'll just announce, "My whiskers will show us the way!" and they do! It doesn't matter what it is, if he says he's looking for something or wants to know where the problem is, his whiskers obey and yank him in the right direction.
Milady's fur turns pink when someone tells a lie, but I swear this doesn't always work. More on that in a bit.
Pilou... well, Pilou may not actually have powers. She's just really cute. When she uses "the look" people become mesmerized, saying things like, "Oh, how adorable!" and it distracts them or convinces them to do what she wants. But, like, cats can do this in real life, too.
Finally, Meatball is... fat. He has a huge appetite and eats constantly. Wikipedia tells me he's also able to sense danger, but I don't remember seeing that in the show at all. It's all about food with this guy. Sometimes his eating causes problems (he eats while they're putting on music concerts for their fellow cats, for instance, interrupting the show). Seriously, this dude has an eating disorder and needs help. And he needs a personality beyond "fat and hungry."
Most of the show's conflict comes from their next door neighbor, Boss, and his cronies, Blister and Scab. Boss is a bully with very little motivation beyond enjoying making others suffer. There is nothing beneath his tough guy exterior. There's no secret softer side, and no reason to pity him. He lives in a giant mansion and should be plenty happy. There's no backstory to explain why he likes being mean to the Buffycats. Boss is always up to some scheme, seemingly simply to have a scheme, but Milady's fur isn't constantly pink and this is why I don't think her special power works all the time.
Most episodes focus on beating Boss in some competition. I've seen art competitions, eating competitions, several different types of races and obstacle courses, all of which Boss attempts to cheat at, some of which Milady's fur turns pink for.
Sometimes the conflict comes from helping someone find something or gain a skill. By that description you would think this is a perfect show for little kids and they must be learning all kinds of wonderful life lessons about perseverance and kindness and things like that.
But most of the time, there is no lesson. It's more like a punchline. For example, one episode centers on trying to do something nice for Granny Pina for her birthday but these birds The Buffycats invited inside the house keep messing everything up. At the end the birds eat Granny's birthday cake and fly off. Granny Pina shrugs it off and says, "Oh, well, we'll have vegetable soup instead." The Buffycats moan and the credits roll. It really gurns me that the birds never have any comeuppance for being terrible houseguests and the Buffycats don't get anything for their hard work. Granny Pina doesn't even get a birthday cake!
Still, I don't think the show does any harm. It's not like the moral of the birthday episode is "be like these awful birds." I just don't think there is a moral. It's a series of events that ends with a joke meant to entertain kids.
As for the jokes, they are very kid-oriented. Half of them center around how Meatball never stops eating, and the other half are sort of dramatic irony, such as the vegetable soup in place of birthday cake. Lots of episodes end with groans or eyerolls from the Buffycats as they contemplate the futility of their efforts. My kid laughs. I mostly do my own eyeroll.
Overall, it's a show meant for kids and it is entertaining to my young child. She likes the cats. I get annoyed at some of the voice over work. One cat, Gabby, is the epitome of the classic Valley Girl, and sometimes I can barely handle the way she talks.
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| Um, like, what are you talking abouagha? |
It's not great but I don't think it's teaching bad things. As a parent I'd skip it, but if your kid happens upon it, I wouldn't say you should tell them they shouldn't watch it. But, maybe you can go do dishes in the other room while it's on.
