By Gordon Foote.

I remember a simpler time, when the internet was the refuge of nerds, and we (for I count myself amongst their number) used this marvel of human ingenuity mostly for illegally downloading music, looking at naked ladies, and playing text based adventure games.  These days however, for better or worse, the net has refashioned itself into a digital homage to Ancient Egypt, where everyone is writing on walls and worshipping cats.

In the last few years, the likes of Keyboard Cat and Grumpy Cat (soon to star in her own movie) have become, not only, internet sensations and household names but, perhaps more interestingly, booming businesses.  The whys and wherefores of this social trend are investigated in Lil Bub and Friendz, released this week online.

In all writing, the bias of the author (or in this case reviewer) is often worth knowing before reading, so in the interests of full-disclosure, let me prefix by saying, “I am not a cat person”.  Maybe it’s the aloof nature? Maybe it’s fact that their little balls of fluff, pointy bits, and malice? Maybe I’m jealous of their ability to breeze through life doing the bare minimum?  I’m not sure, but whatever the reason, they’re not for me.  As such, when this hour-long documentary landed in my inbox, it was met with an audible groan and some foot stamping.  Fortunately for me, however, Lil Bub and Friendz isn’t half bad!

Filmmakers, Andy Capper and Juliette Eisner, tackle two topics during the feature (being broken down into four manageable portions on Youtube for the ADHD sufferers amongst you); the first of these foci is the life and times of Lil Bub; a cat with a shopping list of genetic mutations to her name, who has achieved internet stardom and over 187,000 likes on Facebook despite being a dwarf with poorly functioning limbs and being polydactyl (no…you’re thinking of pterodactyl, very different thing).   These sections are heart warming as we learn of Bub’s ever-present health concerns from the family who found her and the man who would later adopted her, Mike Bridavsky and get a whirlwind glimpse into the life online casino of an internet celebrity.   The documentary does a wonderful job of highlighting the bond between Bridavsky and Bub, as well as several other meme sensations and their owners. Eccentricities are very much on show throughout the feature as cats are kissed, praised, and mollycoddled, and a beard is licked for a disturbing length of time…

Depending on how you feel about cats and cat people this may come down on the weird/creepy side of the fence for you, but Capper and Eisner portray it with parity and manage to avoid adoration or open mockery.

Lil Bub’s story is liberally sprinkled with cursory glances at how cats came to rule the cyber world.  This includes looks at why people feel the need to communicate via their feline friends and the kind of life-styles those whose pets have been chosen for internet stardom have been catapulted towards.    These parts of the film were well spaced and succeed in breaking up Bridavsky and Bub’s journey enough to prevent it from getting stale, even for a cat-sceptic like me.

Sadly, the sections less directly focused on Lil Bub seem content to skim over the surface of the psychology and history behind the craze and could easily have been expanded to dig deeper into the human side of the cat/fan dynamic.  It is debateable whether this was done for filming reasons (to keeps the pace high and the topics fresh) or whether, upon closer inspection, Capper and Eisner found there was scant little holding up the current phenomenon.

Films like this will always divide audiences.  Those of you who are onboard with Team Lolcat are probably already watching the documentary on Youtube and will continue to do so regardless of the score I  put on this charming wee film, and those of you who don’t know your Nyan Cat from your Maru are probably going to give this one a miss.  Realistically, it’s not a bad standpoint for either group.   For all the documentary’s warmth and insight, there is little here which will inspire converts to the feline cause.

For the few of you who are fence-sitting, it is worth taking into account that Lil Bub and Friendz took the prize for best Feature Film at the Tribeca Online Film Festival in April this year (at which Lil Bub got to meet Robert De Niro! My jealously of cats grows…) which should allay any fears of this being an amateur effort or an exercise in fan-service.

To my surprise, I enjoyed Lil Bub and Friendz: it hasn’t made me a cat person, and the ‘z’ in the title angers me every time I have to write it, but the narrative is cohesive, the structure keeps the film flowing, and the occasional toe-dipping into the wider issues surrounding a meme-centric society helps stop the cuteness from getting suffocating.

3/5

GF

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