Friday, January 13, 2012

“Simon’s Cat” Animated Cartoons are Simply Meowvalous

By Julia Williams

I love cats, and I love cartoons. So today I decided to share some information about my all-time favorite cat cartoon called Simon’s Cat. Now, I’m sure some of you know about this animated series and have watched the hilarious films on YouTube or Facebook. If you’re a cat lover, you can’t help but love the Simon’s Cat cartoons! I may have a lot of “favorite things involving cats,” but Simon’s Cat cartoons are at the top of that long list. They always make me laugh…and laugh… and laugh. The cartoons are such an incredible mood lifter, but I learned the hard way that I must put down any drink or snack before clicking the play button on my computer screen.

About the Simon’s Cat Cartoons

Simon’s Cat was created by Simon Tofield, an award-winning English illustrator, animator and director at Tandem Films in London. Simon is a “cat guy” who not only clearly loves and understands felines, but brilliantly translates that into the funniest animated cat cartoons I’ve ever seen! The Simon’s Cat cartoons center around the relationship between a man and his mischievous cat, who is always getting into some kind of trouble. If you’ve ever shared your home with a cat, you’ll recognize many of this cartoon cat’s antics, which Simon illustrates so hilariously. This “foodie cat” will do just about anything to get noms, including stealing a giant turkey off the table and leaving a small can of cat food in its place. The cat’s signature move is pointing to his mouth and making an amusing “feed me” meow that cracks me up no matter how many times I see it.

Simon’s Cat made his first appearance in March of 2008, in a film called “Cat Man Do,” described as “A hungry cat resorts to increasingly desperate measures to wake its sleeping owner.” Simon’s Cat has a huge fan base on Facebook and on YouTube, where that first cartoon has more than 29 million views! All of the Simon’s Cat films (there are 16 to date!) can be watched for free on their website and YouTube, and there’s talk of making a special DVD compilation of the films with added extras. I think that’s a splendid idea, but I’m not sure my body could survive all that laughing; I’d have to pace myself and only watch 5 minutes at a time.

The Simon’s Cat franchise has branched out since that first cartoon, and merchandise now includes three books as well as calendars, food bowls, t-shirts featuring that infamous ‘feed me’ pose, limited edition prints, notebooks, cards, coasters and more. There are also two iphone apps and a brand new Simon's Cat plush toy in three sizes. The large plush cat has a sound chip that meows when you press his paw!

About Simon Tofield

Like most children, Simon Tofield loved watching cartoons on television. However, these cartoons sparked a creative fire within the young Simon, and he began creating basic flip-books emulating the techniques he saw on the TV screen.

As you’d expect, Simon has a cat in real life – he couldn’t possibly dream up such spot-on “cat-versus-human” scenarios without at least one cat in the house. He actually has four cats, and sometimes posts photos of them on the Simon’s Cat website.

The Simon’s Cat films are drawn and animated in Adobe Flash using a Wacom stylus and tablet. However, they are still hand-animated in a traditional manner, frame to frame, and it takes between 12 and 25 drawings to create a mere one second of animation. This means that a finished Simon’s Cat film requires hundreds and even thousands of drawings. And that doesn't count all the rough sketches Simon creates on paper before he puts digital pen to tablet. Wow. That's a lot of drawing, isn't it? I'm so glad Simon Tofield loves to draw!

Read more articles by Julia Williams

17 comments:

  1. I have never seen or heard of this CAT-Toon before. Thanks!!

    hey I saw yesterday that Mr.Chewy thingy carries some of your favorite pawducts.

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  2. Simon the cat is just the greatest. Did you see his Christmas one?? I have watched them all at least three times and laugh my head off every time. Take care.

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  3. Never heard of Simon's Cats before. Went to the website- so funny. It's going to be a favorite now.

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  4. Thanks for introducing me to Simon's Cats. Hilarious. I've successfully wasted a good portion of my day watching all the videos, and I'm still laughing. Fantastic!

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  5. Oh yes, we all love, love, love Simon's Cat!!!

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  6. I am such a fan of Simon's Cat, that my loving family bought me all three of his volumes of cartoons for Christmas!! Thanks for giving him a shout out here. Makes you proud to be British … almost! lol

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  7. You and me both, Julia, five minutes at a time is the only way I can watch Simon's Cat, which just stretches the enjoyment out that much longer! He's great and, even though we knew about him and his cat, I love when someone mentions him and features a clip because then we get to read the post and laugh, too!

    Thanks and have a great weekend!

    Tom, Mom Julie & Mittens

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  8. Like everyone else I am a HUGE fan of Simon's Cat and I thank you for telling us much of the background info that I didn't know.

    of the products that you mentioned, I have his notebooks, his calendar and the red photo you have on the bottom I had ordered from his site (it is a T-shirt)

    Along with the adorable animation and spot on scenarios from life, another thing I just love about his videos that amazes me are the SOUNDS. The SOUND of the cat...the sound of his little "chirps", his scratches...I think the sound effects are also pure genius and to me is also an important part of why his videos are such a success.

    No matter what, Simon and his cat ROCK!

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  9. Simon is so awesome for creating Simon's Cat. Love the cartoons. Sooooo funny. Funny how cats behave the same in some ways and so different in others!

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  10. Julia - I'm with you - if I had to pick a list of my top ten favorite things, the Simon videos would be one of them!

    This Christmas we were blessed to have a house full of family. What did we do? We all grabbed a chair and sat around Dan's computer screen to watch every single Simom video!! After that, the "kids" (they are in their late twenties), kept pointing to their mouths all weekend to let me know they were hungry!!!

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  11. Ha ha ha! We loves loves loves Simon's cat--we a-members the first one we ever seed where the kitteh was trying to wake him up!

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  12. Oh, thank you so much for sharing it. I didn't know anything about Simon's Cat at all and I've fallen in love with it now.

    It's so lovely and creative!

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  13. We LOVE Simon's Cat! Thank you for sharing this background information ... it's really cool. :)

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  14. Hilarious his cartoons are! The "morning" one is my fav! Great post!

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  15. I LOVE Simon's Cat....They are hosting a 'Cutest Cat Competition'
    Winner get a fee illustration from the author. So cool.

    You can enter the competition here:

    https://www.facebook.com/Xskinsco/app_254553244581393

    http://www.xskins.co/design-store/simons-cat.html

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