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The names William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are huge in the animation world. Creating icons of animation since the 1950s, their characters became engrained in the childhoods of many and are still regularly featured on Cartoon Network for the next generation of children to become familiar with the beloved stars of yesteryear. It makes sense, then, to bring the most popular Hanna-Barbera creations to the silver screen every once in a while, particularly after the commercial success of 2010s Yogi bear. The only problem however, is to decide whether to breathe new life into these traditional characters; modernising them to align with modern audiences or whether to maintain a sense of nostalgia; presenting these characters in the same way that made them so famous in the first place. Unfortunately, Top Cat attempts to do both but succeeds in neither, creating a curious mish mash of conflicting ideas that doesn’t quite know whether to be a throwback to the glory days of Hanna-Barbera or a modernised take on a classic.

Beginning like the Top Cat cartoon of old, the movie opens with a traditional montage of TC doing what he does best; scamming his way through New York City with confident swagger as the mischievous yet loveable back street alley cat. As a heady wave nostalgia sweeps over courtesy of the memorable theme tune and classic animation style, the early signs are indeed positive. Unfortunately, as the music stops and the film gets going, any expectation that this big screen adaptation would do ol’ TC justice steadily begins to dwindle.

The movie sees Top Cat and his gang of misfit felines, Benny, Choo Choo, Fancy Fancy, Spook and Brain, face off against a new narcissistic police chief who isn’t too happy with TC’s shenanigans or Officer Dibble’s inability to control him. As the new chief, Strickland, aims to police the city with an army of robot minions, it’s up to Top Cat and the gang to help Officer Dibble take his rightful place as New York’s chief of police. The characters themselves are lovingly portrayed like they always have been. The design of everything, from the grimy alleyways to the gang themselves, appear pretty much exactly as we remember and are a respectful nod to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Aesthetically, then, the film really does hit the mark. Maintaining the visual charm of the original TV show, the 3D is subtle but effective, with traditionally crisp and colourful 2D illustrations popping out above the rendered 3D backgrounds. It is actually quite refreshing to see the instantly recognisable Hanna-Barbera style relatively untouched in a modern world where detailed CGI and mo-capped animation is the norm. Alas, as classic as the visual style of the movie is, everything else fails to maintain any sort of appeal. Admittedly, the story is far from groundbreaking, but as a film aimed solely at the children, it’s fair to expect such a bare bones hero versus villain tale complete with nonsensical hi-jinx and simple physical humour. There is however, a lack of appeal for the parents who will be forced to sit through 90 minutes of regurgitated jokes and annoying character voicing.

With studios like Pixar setting the standard for storytelling nowadays, the story Top Cat: The Movie tells and the jokes that litter it just don’t seem relevant anymore. A more telling factor for this notion is that in a screening filled with children juiced up on free cartons of Um Bongo, I didn’t hear one shred of laughter at any point. These kids were either the most well behaved bunch in all the land or the humour they were being force fed just isn’t funny to them. As a result, it just all felt a tad patronising. It was clear that a few jokes were lost in translation (the film is actually Mexican and did perform well in its native country), but a curious inclusion of an unexplained solar eclipse gag that made no sense and a villain that is downright annoying made it seem that the writers were scraping the very bottom of the comedy barrel in their attempt to revive TC as a comedic property. To help masquerade an inability to make Hanna-Barbera feel relevant, the film is bafflingly awash with an unnecessary and incessant inclusion of modern gadgetry that is just thrown in to say, “look, Top Cat can live in the 21^st Century”. Overall it just seems a very half hearted and cheap attempt to modernise a classic. Shamefully name checking GPS Trackers, MP3 players and a constant reference to modern surveillance is just bizarre more than anything, especially since the setting, characters and even design is all so respectfully portrayed in an old-school 60s style.

Essentially the film is 90 minutes of jokes lacking any real humour, a littering of absurd anachronisms and an animated villain that is one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a shame really that Top Cat and his gang are lost in this alternate 1960s limbo. TC and his gang deserve better. **

Top Cat: The Movie will be released nationwide on June the 1st.

Vertigo is one of the most beloved films from the 20th century, considered by some to be Hitchcock’s masterpiece, it is an undeniably complex and dizzying marvel. So then, what could (or needs to) be added to this movie’s story? One answer comes in the form of The Testament of Judith Barton, a book by Wendy Powers and Robin McLeod that expands upon the character of Judy Barton, shifting to her perspective and in the retelling flesh’s out the character who remained, until now, a tragic mystery.

Judy Barton is often a little overlooked in Vertigo; the obvious assumption is that she’s damaged goods and possibly a mistress of Gavin Elster, used by him and then discarded. Her story is tragic yes, but largely the audience feels for the more manipulated victim Scottie, played fantastically by James Stewart, or even the unwittingly doomed Madeleine Elster. Until now I’d given very little thought to Judy’s backstory or motive and perhaps what is most successful about this book is how easily it alters your perception of Hitchcock’s film by cleverly highlighting the misfortune and folly of her character.

Going right back to the beginning of her life, The Testament of Judith Barton tells the story of Judy’s childhood in small town Salina Kansas, her growing up and moving to San Francisco, and then to her untimely demise tumbling from the San Juan Bautista clock tower. In the process of doing so it slowly layers up the motivational keys that help to explain how Judy ended up where she did: her fondness of jewels – in particular emeralds, a love of acting, the thrill of taking centre stage and becoming a character, the love and loss of her father, a weakness for older men, and the more obvious need for money. Suddenly there’s a greater picture of who she was and how she ended up being led to impersonate Elster’s wife to begin with.

This is not to say she isn’t culpable in the deceit of Scottie and the murder of Madeleine Elster – she makes some very stupid decisions, some of them out of desperation and a need for money, others perhaps from not questioning things enough – but the backstory creates a sympathy for Judy that perhaps wasn’t so readily present before. Her death is only more tragic in the knowledge of the loss of her father, her brush with success and the loss of another father figure in San Francisco, her loathsome treatment at the hands of Gavin Elster, and then the troubling transformation forced upon her by Scottie.

The Testament of Judith Barton is a welcome addition to the story created in Vertigo, it adds depth to a character that was not present before. Whilst this is true though, the story is more heavily weighted in the events that took place before the film’s timeframe, and when it does get into covering old ground it seems to proceed through the narrative events of the movie very quickly, perhaps too much so. It does manage to add a few extra tidbits to that storyline, thoughts and feelings of Judy’s, but very little in comparison to its earlier descriptions – arguably the film says enough so the book’s focus is elsewhere. Another thing it does succeed in doing is to push forward Gavin Elster who, whilst the instigator of the whole plot, is somewhat ancillary in Vertigo. This is not the case here; Elster is slimy, cruel, frightening, and a true villain through the eyes of Judy.

Since we know what’s going to happen (if you’ve not seen Vertigo why are you reading this, and more importantly what have you been doing with your life?) The Testament of Judith Barton has a sense of inevitability, but it’s the mystery of how we end up at that conclusion that makes the twists and turns of the story ever more compelling. This book is tightly written with an obvious reverence for the source material and for anyone who has seen Vertigo and perhaps wondered who Judy Barton really was this book is a must read.