Catopolis (2022)

Catopolis Review

Catopolis is a 2022 animated short film directed by Victoria Vincent. It’s a trippy, atmospheric movie.

A cat named Penny living in a desensitized, unstable world has to find a new job after she gets fired in order to make her dad proud. The message of the movie is a sound, though obvious one – we live in a society that through media promotes violence and we have all become dangerously accustomed to it. Again, this is a great message, but that the movie is saying this becomes abundantly clear way too early, making the rest of the story in this 13-minute short repetitious.

With that being said, the atmosphere is so incredible that it elevates the weaker material at hand significantly. The trippy nature to the execution is palpable and the feeling of danger and hopelessness prevails. Another highlight is the animation, which is wonderfully artistic, expressive and very unique in the buildings that are impossibly angular. This creates a dystopian feel to the short that made it quite authentic. Victoria Vincent should be applauded for that alone, but I just wish that she got a stronger story to tell.

Catopolis is weakly plotted and repetitive, but the atmosphere is superb and the animation is phenomenal, making for a unique dystopian feel to the short.

My Rating – 3.8