Simon's Cat

''Simon's Cat'' is a British animated web and book series written by Simon Tofield. It features a fat, hungry white cat who uses various tactics to get his owner to feed him.

Following the success of its first animated films, it was announced in January 2009 that ''Simon's Cat'' would be published in book format. Canongate Books released the first book on October 1st 2009 in the United Kingdom, which was later released in 26 other countries. Since then, 9 more titles have been released.

In June 2012, Walt Disney Animation Studios began releasing specially-made shorts of ''Simon's Cat''. In addition to the shorts, the ''Daily Mirror'' ''ran a Simon's Cat'' newspaper strip, which ran from 2011 to 2013. Later, in August 2015, it was announced that Endemol Shine UK had acquired a stake in ''Simon's Cat''.

In May 2016, ''Simon's Cat'' partnered with the American children's television program '' Sesame Street'' as part of their Love to Learn campaign.

Later on, many game developers made a variety of games based on ''Simon's Cat''. In June 2017, the game ''Simon's Cat Crunch Time'' was created. In February 2018, ''Simon's Cat Dash'' was created, but as of 2023, this game is no longer available to download. In June 2018, the game ''Simon's Cat Pop Time'' was created. In April 2021, the Apple Arcade game ''Simon's Cat Story Time'' was developed.

Background

Simon Tofield, who has over 14 years of experience with animating commercials for companies such as Marmite and Tesco, came up with the idea for his first short film as a way of teaching himself how to animate using Adobe Flash. He also revealed that the inspiration for the series came from his experiences with his four cats – Teddy, Hugh, Jess, and Maisie, with Hugh being the primary inspiration.

Production

The series is animated with Adobe Flash Professional (now Adobe Animate) and TVPaint. The pictures are hand-drawn electronically, using an A4-size Wacom Intuos 3 graphics tablet. The animation is completed before the sound is recorded, which is unusual for western animation.

Characters

* Cat: A hungry fat white cat, the main character and the star of the show. His antics include his quest for food. His signature gesture is to point at his mouth or bowl and meow when hungry, and other ways of vexing his "owner", Simon. Besides eating, he also enjoys chasing birds, mice, and catching fish out of Simon's pond. His efforts in these endeavors create a significant amount of the humour in the book. He has not been officially named, although writer Simon says that he is based on his own cat, Hugh (in the show, Simon has been hinted to call his cat Gilbert).
* Simon Tofield: A human, the long-suffering owner of Cat and a graphic artist. He is shown as good-natured, gentle, easily startled, and accident-prone. As shown in the episodes "Scary Legs", "Scaredy Cat", "Spider Cat and "Bat Cat", he has arachnophobia. Simon is from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
* Kitten: A kitten, the playful little brother and the sidekick of Cat, who first appeared in the episode "Double Trouble." He was brought home by Simon in October 2011. In spite of his tender age, he appears to be considerably smarter and more cunning than his big brother. Kitten will point to his mouth or bowl and mew when hungry, just like his big brother. Like Cat, Kitten has not been officially named, but is based on the 4th cat, Teddy.
* Simon's Sister's Dog (named Oscar): A dog who first appeared in the episode "Fed Up!", in which he's fed underneath the table by Simon and the family. He also appears in the book and he likes to play fetch. It's revealed that his name is Oscar.
* Bird: A bird or robin who Cat chases. He generally outsmarts him. And is also featured as a squeaking toy bird or even a Christmas ornament.
* Hedgehog: A hedgehog who lives in Simon's back garden. Cat likes to annoy him by impaling objects such as apples, leaves, and tennis balls onto his prickles. He has children and he also has a girlfriend named Daisy, who is a hedgehog like him.
* Bunny: A rabbit who lives in Simon's garden. She has the ability to hop and run in circles around Cat.
* Squirrel: A squirrel who lives in a tree in Simon's backyard. He loves to pelt Cat with acorns when he chases him.
* Garden Gnome: A garden gnome who likes to go fishing. He is similar to the one broken by Cat in the episode "Let Me In." He is seen holding either a fishing rod, a net or sometimes a checkered flag in the episode "Ready, Steady, Slow!." Cat often tries to get him to help in his schemes to catch food. Cat considers him a friend, apparently unaware that he is an inanimate object.
* Toad: A toad who lives in Simon's garden. He is similar to Frog.
* Frog: A frog who lives in Simon's garden. He appears in some episodes as well, and he is differentiated from Toad in the "How to Draw... Frogs and Toads" video as well as in the "Simon Draws" section of the ''Kitten Chaos'' book.
* Chloe: A girl cat who wears a heart collar. She is the love interest of Cat. Chloe is depicted as demure and somewhat snobbish, as well as exhibiting a finicky appetite, munching on a trail of cat treats or even butterflies, but angrily refusing Mouse offered by Cat.
* Mouse: A mouse who is often chased by Cat. Despite their adversarial relationship, he aided Cat in an elaborate plot intended to impress Chloe in the episode "Smitten", later helping him to get food in another.
* Maisy: A Tabby cat who likes Cat, even though it is shown that he has grown to be terrified of her.
* Crow: A crow who sometimes annoys Cat.
* Jazz: A grumpy territorial Persian cat and arch-nemesis of Cat who Cat often gets into fights with.
* Teddy: A stray cat living in a box who Cat befriends. As of late 2022, he appears to have found a forever home. Though he lives with a neighbor, the story of Teddy is actually based on one of Simons own rescue cats.
* Muffin: A puppy who first appeared in the episode "Pup sitting." He is playful when Simon feeds him dog treats. He's also shown to be energetic, but also scared of rain and lightning.
* Tess: Tess is the owner of Teddy and a neighbor of Simon.
* Simon's Sister: She is the owner of Muffin and, like Simon, is from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.

Episodes

Main series

This is a comprehensive list of all the Black & White (rarely in colour) episodes of ''Simon's Cat'' including holiday specials. There are over 130 episodes of ''Simon's Cat'', ranging from episodes published in 2008 all the way to 2024.

Off to the Vet and Color Episodes

In the summer of 2015, a crowdfunding campaign was launched to raise funds to allow Simon and his team to make a 13-minute colour episode of Simon's Cat. Everybody who contributed at least £5 was offered free access to the clip and other perks. The campaign was successful and the clip was released to supporters in August 2015. In January 2017, the clip went on sale (unlike the other episodes, ''Off to the Vet'' previously was not offered for free viewing). It was released for free viewing on 26 October 2017. It was then re-released in black & white on 26 April 2018 at the request of fans who were curious to see what the film would be like in the series' signature black & white style.

Simon's Cat Logic

A series of animated cartoons with embedded live footage that explains cats' traits and behaviour and what can be done to keep them happy and healthy. It is introduced and narrated by Simon Tofield (animated intro, live throughout the episode) and features cat behaviourist Nicky Trevorrow (live). Each episode is illustrated with animations of cats and excerpts from ''Simon's Cat'' episodes as well as Behind the Scenes footage.

Simon's Cat – Sketches

Simon Tofield released a new series titled ''Simon's Cat – Sketches''. Unlike its main shorts series, these episodes are faster to make, giving it a looser look and feel, while keeping the humour and relatable comedy intact. This series features fresh gags, adventurous characters and new locations.

Awards

Also, ''Simon's Cat: Pop Time'', a video game for iOS, Android and Amazon Kindle, was nominated for "Best Casual Game" and "Best Puzzle Game" at The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards 2018; another game for iOS and Android, ''Simon's Cat Dash'', was nominated for the "Heritage" award.

Bibliography

All books authored by Simon Tofield.

* ''Simon's Cat'' (2009)
* ''Simon's Cat: Beyond the Fence'' (2010)
* ''Simon's Cat in Kitten Chaos'' (2011)
* ''Simon's Cat: Feed Me!'' (2012)
* ''Simon's Cat vs. The World!'' (2012)
* ''Simon's Cat: Wake Up!'' (2013)
* ''Simon's Cat: Play Time!'' (2013)
* ''The Bumper Book of Simon's Cat'' (2013)
* ''Off to the Vet... and Other Cat-astrophes'' (2015)
* ''Simon's Cat: It's A Dog's Life'' (2019)

References

External links

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{{Endemol Shine Group

Mass media franchises introduced in 2008
British animated short films
British animated web series
Banijay franchises
Internet memes introduced in 2008
Canongate Books books
2000s YouTube series
2010s YouTube series
2020s YouTube series
2000s British films
Television series by Banijay
2008 animated short films
Cats in popular culture