Sep 18, 2014

Mexican Studio Anima creates CGI "Top Cat" feature

Mexican animation producer Anima Estudios has announced production on Top Cat Begins, a sequel to its 2011 hit Top Cat: The Movie. Both are based on the early-Sixties Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon character designed by Ed Benedict.

“It's not a sequel but rather a companion piece to the first Top Cat, and will be in CGI, not 2D like the original,” Anima executive v-p Jose Carlos Garcia de Letona told Variety.

Although the 2011 film was only the 27th highest-grossing film at the Mexican box office, it was the top-grossing Mexico-made film of the year, earning $8.2 million from Mexican filmgoers. In Mexico, the film performed nearly as well as Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and did better than American family pics like Hop, The Adventures of Tintin, The Muppets, Happy Feet Two and Gnomeo and Juliet.

Top Cat Begins will be directed by Andres Couturier and premiere on August 7, 2015 in Mexico. The studio has also announced that they are in pre-production on a feature-length animation adaptation of the late-Sixties DePatie-Freleng TV series Here Comes the Grump, which was created by John Dunn.

Here's a clip from the first Top Cat feature produced by Anima: