Simon's Cat
The short of it is if you like Mutts, Garfield, Noodle Cat or are a cat person then this is probably for you. Simon's cat is one of the best channels on YouTube. It's a cartoon series created by Simon Tofield including shorts and a few longer projects.
How I Found Simon's Cat (I don't remember)
I develop amnesia when it comes to how I discovered YouTube channels. Did someone recommend it to me? Did I look up cartoons? Was it mentioned in another video? I haven't a clue. YouTube is one relentless blur of film and television clips, music videos and whatever other random stuff I fill my brain with on a regular basis. The best I can figure is sometime after 2008, when Simon's Cat premiered on YouTube, I watched it for the first time. As a cat person who grew up on comic strips about cats, I was very happy to find the series.
My Thoughts
I decided to binge the Simon's Cat shorts playlist. With each video averaging about 2 minutes, the playlist still promised to entertain me for a while with the playlist currently being 118 videos long.
Simon's Cat sits in my brain in the same place as Peanuts, Mutts, Calvin and Hobbes and other class comic strips. The art is simple, black and white (aside from a few color specials) and iconic character to tell brief stories. Traditional newspaper comic strips are printed in black and white, except on Sundays when they are printed in color and some comics publish their comics on the internet in color. Though some comics (like Garfield and Pearls Before Swine) publish color versions of their black and white comics on the internet. The storytelling is funny with simple events.
The aesthetic of the character designs are cute with little ball eyes that remind me of Muppet monsters in the best way. Maybe it's a cat person, maybe it's not but the titular cat is adorable while begging for food or causing general chaos. Simon's Cat even includes a spider that this arachnophobe finds a bit cute.
The characters draw the eye even when the surrounding scene is more detailed. This is impressive to me because the style of the art is all line art with minimal line thickness variation. It could become mixed up and look messy but it doesn't. The characters stand out.
The main difference between Simon's Cat and the other classic examples like Mutts and Garfield is Simons' Cat doesn't talk. The cartoon Simon barely talks. It's not the first cat character who couldn't communicate in English with either the other characters or the audience but it is a well done version. Simon's Cat communicates as expertly as my cat when she sits by my desk, fixes me with a stare and meows until I get up and refill her food bowl.
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