Directed by: Zlatko Grgic

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A cautionary animated tale about man’s relationship with fire from ancient times to the present.

Cartoon Cat: During the modern section near the end of the film we see a man named Ralph, his wife and their cat at home. The cat is pink with purple spots on his tail.

Ralph just wants to watch television but his wife wants to watch while ironing and then asks him to make some coffee and toast for her during a commercial break. As Ralph does this the cat follows him around asking for cream.

As the tension builds and more and more appliances get plugged in dangerously the cat keeps asking for some cream.

The cat finally asks for anything, not being choosy, but continues to be ignored.

Ralph returns to the television and the cat reminds him that cats need their cholesterol.

Ralph’s wife brings him the sugar in a canister and the cat asks if there’s a mouse in there.

Eventually everything catches fire and Ralph and his wife scramble to put it out. But the cat sits back and waits for a hot mouse. “A Mouse Flamboo!”

Behind the Scenes (added September 30, 2023):

We were thrilled to hear from animator Roger Jakubiec (Eek the Cat; Catdog) whose animation instructor at Sheridan College in the 1980’s was director Zlatko Grgic. As Roger explained: “Zlatko Grgic was instrumental in helping many students hone their animated short stories at Sheridan College in the 1980’s. He was a maven of story-telling techniques, [drawing] from his encyclopedic passion for myths, folk and fairytales. He helped out on our group’s 2nd year project by suggesting a few nuggets of symbolism that gave our film more meaningful structure.”

Zlatko Grgic shared a story with his students about his work on Hot Stuff for the National Film Board of Canada which Roger has, in turned, shared with us:

“As director, [Grgic] fortified Hot Stuff’s ending sequence in a way that offset the humourous self-induced angst of the modern man’s home life. He did this after all the animation scenes were completed by adding a cat to the domestic mix! Gerald Budner, who had performed the voice of the snake, was called back by Zlatko to provide the ad-libbed voice for this 11th hour addition.

“Imagine if you will, a displeased writer (Don Arioli) being reassured by Zlatko that there was not going to be any budget-breaking revisions to the scenes already rendered. The man’s soothing sidekick would literally be drawn as an added layer of relief to the man’s short temper. It was touch and go that Hot Stuff would even be given consideration by Cinema Cats at all!”

If you look at the finished short, you can see that the cat is, in fact, separate from the other action in the scene and definitely could have been added last minute to the finished animation. Many thanks to Roger for sharing this fascinating story with us.

Zlatko also animated a series of short films featuring a similar looking cat named Maxi Cat (seen below). We hope to review these short films some time in the future!

Final Mewsings: Cats become less choosy the hungrier they get.

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