Toei's Kitten

Several major themes run through Orphan's releases: rescuing shows stranded on the wrong side of the Digital Divide; rescuing shows abandoned by other groups (orphans); and the works of Tezuka Osamu. But there's are minor themes as well. One of them is cats, and another is the early works of Toei Douga, the pioneering Japanese animation studio. Orphan has released Saiyuuki, Wan Wan Chuushingura, Horus: Prince of the Sun, and Kaitei 3-man Mile, among Toei's feature-length films, and we'd like to do more. Today, we're releasing a double feature, a pair of short Toei cartoons from the late 1950s that are part of both themes: Koneko no Rakugaki (The Kitten's Doodles) and Koneko no Studio (The Kitten's Studio), from animator Mori Yasuji. Both feature an artistically-inclined kitten and a pair of mice antagonists/sidekicks. Doodles is black-and-white, without dialog; Studio is in color, with some dialog.

With a cat as protagonist and mice as adversaries, I was expecting a Japanese version of Tom and Jerry, but the Konekos doesn't resemble standard 1950s Hollywood fare. For one thing, both are longer - about 15 minutes vs the Hollywood standard of 8. For another, there's no real violence. The kitten bosses around the mice, and the mice tease the kitten, but they're all just having a good time.

In The Kitten's Doodles, the kitten is penciling doodles on the white wall of Grandpa Bear's house, much to the displeasure of the owner. The doodles come to life, and kitten and mice have a slapstick chase on trains and in automobiles (no planes).

In The Kitten's Studio, the kitten is trying to direct the mice in a samurai epic. Out of frustration with the ineptitude of the mice and the totally antiquated movie-making equipment, the kitten creates an automated studio with robot actors. With a little help from the mice, matters get totally out of hand.

In the tradition of Hollywood cartoons, all the voices are done by a single seiyuu, Nakamura Meiko. She played the title roles in Uchuujin Pipi and Shounen Jack to Mahou Tsukai, among other roles in early anime productions.

This project is Skr's brainchild. He found the high-definition TV streams (both are remastered), encoded, translated, typeset, and did the initial timing. I did a bit of timing and additional typesetting, as well as editing on Studio, and QC. Nemesis and Uchuu also QCed. The images are fairly wobbly, so the signs, although simple, all had to be motion tracked. (Skr also found this tweet, which clarifies that the kitten is named Miko and is doodling on Grandpa Bear's house.)

These short films are simply wonderful: gentle, humorous, and inventive. With the world engulfed in pandemic and war, they're a welcome break. You can download The Kitten's Doodles and The Kitten's Studio from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #new on irc.rizon.net