Top Cat: The Complete Series [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Arnold Stang, Allen Jenkins, Maurice Gosfield (VOICES)

Release Date: September 17, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

In the tradition of great screen con men – one of the few with a visible tail – Top Cat holds a top spot in the hearts of classic animation fans. The second of Hanna-Barbera’s prime-time network animated sitcoms, TOP CAT debuted on ABC television on Wednesday, September 27, 1961. The series only ran for one season at night, but continued to be popular through a mix of continued Saturday morning network reruns and syndication for more than two decades thereafter. Arnold Stang provided the voice of the smooth-talking New York City cat, known as T.C. to his gang of cohorts Benny the Ball, Choo-Choo, Spook, The Brain and Fancy Fancy. These cats were always on the make toward a big score or swindle. And the bothersome – and ever exasperated – Officer Dibble, (voiced by legendary character actor Allen Jenkins) is relentlessly on Top Cat’s case (although always one step behind). This 4-disc Blu-ray set contains all 30 original episodes, newly remastered in 1080p HD from 4K scans off the original camera negatives, with the series offering top-shelf entertainment for fans. More than 60 years after it debuted, Top Cat continues to be a comic delight of animated fun for audiences of all ages.

The original smooth talking and scheming cat that runs the alley, ‘Top Cat’ follows the various schemes and misadventures of Top Cat, better known to his friends as T.C. who along with the other members of his gang Benny the Ball, Choo-Choo, Spook, The Brain and Fancy Fancy repeatedly end up in trouble as their money making attempts and other often shifty scams never fail to draw the attention of the alley’s cop, the lovable yet honest Officer Dibble who is intent to finally take down T.C. for good one day. So get ready to take a trip back in time and spend some quality hours with your favorite animated alley cat and his close group of cohorts with all thirty episodes from Hanna-Barbera’s beloved animated sitcom.

‘Top Cat’ first debuted on the ABC network as part of their prime-time lineup in September of 1961 and ran for a single season consisting of 30 episodes which concluded its run in April of 1962 and was crafted as a way to further boost the interest in primetime animated content following the success of The Flintstones. Alas, as fate would have it ‘Top Cat’ unfortunately never managed to attract the audience that the Bedrock gang did, even with its similar and somewhat original approach in addition to a formula that made it broadly attractive to all ages, at least initially and it did gain fans in its numerous years of syndication and replay on various networks shortly after its run.

The series has additionally attracted countless fans in the 60 plus years since it initially premiered and still manages to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable time that’s as humorous as it is beautifully animated and even quite clever in its approach, as well as the amusing antics that T.C. and the gang repeatedly seem to find themselves in. It’s a tremendous show that still delivers in most respects and for any fan of the various Hanna-Barbera gems over the decades who may not have had the pleasure of ‘Top Cat’ the series is absolutely worth giving a shot and should have little trouble leaving you giggling for most of each episode at the very least. Now ‘Top Cat’ arrives home on Blu-ray in its entirety, fully remastered for a whole new generation to discover, not to mention for previous generations to revisit looking and sounding better than ever.

‘Top Cat’ makes his way onto Blu-ray at last in the 4-disc ‘Top Cat: The Complete Series’ Blu-ray release courtesy of Warner Archive Collection. The new set delivers all thirty original episodes of the fan-favorite animated series with quite impressive new high definition video presentations newly remastered in 1080p HD from 4K scans off the original camera negatives which bring the animated sitcom into your home looking better than ever before. The solid new HD presentations are further complemented by very nice DTS-HD MA dual mono soundtracks which combined are easily the best video and audio ever available for the beloved series.

In addition to the solid new video and audio presentations on all thirty episodes the release also offers a collection of previously released extras and as a whole make for the top option to add ‘Top Cat’ to your collection. For the dedicated fans of the series that are already contemplating a purchase, this new 4-disc Blu-ray release is definitely recommended and well worth picking up whenever possible, even with the few minor issues and imperfections it suffers such as some minor moments which look slightly less stellar and a curious hiccup with Disc 2 that when selecting play all only plays seven of the eight episodes on the disc which requires the viewer to manually go to episode 8 and select it to watch after the other seven. There have also been reports that there is one brief scene supposedly missing in an earlier episode.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Top Cat: The Complete Series’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation on all 30 episodes of the series newly remastered in 1080p HD from 4K scans off the original camera negatives and utilizing the show’s original 1.33:1 4×3 Aspect Ratio. The video presentations look great as a whole and deliver clean, sharp and rewardingly filmic presentations from start to finish on every episode of the series. Detail is tremendous for the most part and looks quite good down to nearly every animated line, with character specifics, background animation and everything else looking better than we’ve ever seen it previously; all vibrantly colored and even retaining some of the grain and other elements representative of its film source. Overall, these are largely wonderful new high definition presentations that should have fans of the iconic animated series thrilled.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release includes a 2.0 dual mono DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 30 episodes of the animated series. These dual mono DTS-HD MA soundtracks are generally solid and capable in their own right and provide mostly clean, crisp and well balanced audio presentations for each episode, although some feel slightly muted or muffled at times, likely a result of some additional noise scrubbing or cleanup. Even so, they offer altogether clean, crisp and capable presentations that do a nice job of balancing the various audio elements within and never allowing any simultaneously occurring effects and/or music and dialogue to contradict or negatively affect one another. Overall, these are quite good 2.0 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that do their job ably and should satisfy the majority of fans.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Top Cat: The Complete Series’ features a decent collection of enjoyable, previously released extras. Included on the release are ‘Audio Commentary’ tracks for 3 key episodes: “Hawaii, Here We Come”, “A Visit from Mother”, and “The Late T.C.”, although as opposed to being included on the new HD presentations are instead offered under special features and feature the commentary playing over an SD version of each episode, likely due to the version they were initially synched with. Also included on the release are some Featurettes and other videos including ‘Back to Hoagy’s Alley: The Making of Top Cat’ (running approximately 17 minutes in length), along with a comparison video featuring ‘Storyboard/Finished Cartoon Sequence for The Missing Heir’ (running approximately 21 minutes), plus ‘Cool Cats In Interview Alley’ (approximately 21 minutes) and a ‘Top Cat Sing-Along’ comprised of the show’s opening but with an instrumental version and the lyrics on screen. Also included is the ‘Top Cat Collection of Art, Stills, Sketches and Backgrounds’ (7 minutes) and some ‘Vintage Commercials’ (3 minutes) featuring a lot of Kellogg’s!

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Top Cat: The Complete Series’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray from Warner Archive Collection

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You can Purchase ‘Top Cat: The Complete Series’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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