"The cat's gone viral"

Frame from British animation production company TANDEM's animated short "Flatworld. (2D, cut-out, stop-frame. Director: Daniel Greaves.) Tuck, who loves a real-world rubber-hits-the-road Los Angeles car chase as much as the next fellow, was enchanted -- as were we -- by the animators' prestidigitational manipulations of paper and light.

"The cat's gone viral" headlines the latest post at Random Tandem, news blog of the internationally-recognised, London-based animation production company TANDEM.

Detail of a frame from Tandem Director Simon Tofield's brilliant animated short "Cat Man Do" -- wherein the pussycat applies the "Think System on Steroids" to get his food source up and at 'em -- that has ailurophiles all over the internet rolling in the aisles. This artist knows how to draw -- the expressive elegance of his line is deceptively simple -- and as everyone who knows cats knows, he KNOWS cats.

We stumbled upon the TANDEM site and blog while tracking down the source of that totally awesome animated short that's been making the rounds of the ailurosphere in the last period of time. We first heard about it from Megan of Bad  Kitty Cats, who first heard about it from Strange Ranger. We also heard about it from blogfriends Annie of Ambivablog, who heard about it from her brother-in-law in Canada, and Teresa of Technicalities, who heard about it from her daughter. In related developments, Goomp and our sis first heard about it from ourselves. As Tandem's blog explains, word of cybermouth has legs:

Tandem director Simon Tofield's short film Cat Man Do is now officially a web phenomenon! Having roared past the half a million hits mark on just one of its numerous YouTube placings, that cat is a runaway success. Although appearing under several alternative titles e.g. Wake up Cat or Kitty Wake Up Call etc. some fans have correctly attributed Simon's work. Click here to see the film.

YouTube giveth -- can you say priceless free advertising? -- and YouTube taketh away -- Yes, you, Hillary!

Comments

[goomp]

My cat Purrky was fascinated by the sound of the cat on the YouTube. He was looking all around for the cat.

[pam]

HA! I love 'Wake Up Cat'! It gives me the warm fuzzies; I'll have to watch it another 17 times...

[Teresa]

I love the sound of the meow and the purr, it has me giggling every time I watch it.

Oh, and you have to wonder how many people got it through email as opposed to you tube or the direct site.

Like Pam, I think I'll run off and watch it another 17 times or so... *grin*

[Megan]

This still makes us laugh. Originally my SnotFace child saw it many moons ago and we lost it, and it's still funny.

Thanks for sharing who gets the credit. I was wondering who the brains behind the reality was and his/her name.

Still laughing...

[Megan]

Oh and ummm, if it's confession time, SnotFace forces us to watch it at regular intervals daily and now has begun "mowing" and giggling. You would think for a 15 year old, well. Hahahaha... another two cents here. Sorry :)

[PM]

thank you for finding the source! a lot of people can identify with this snoozer.