Hollywood Capers: A Seven-Minute Catastrophe

Should you watch Hollywood Capers? If you’re a fan of classic rubber-hose animation and don’t mind a total lack of a cohesive narrative, sure. It’s a breezy time-waster. If you’re looking for something with the narrative weight of The Scarlet Daredevil, you’re going to be disappointed. Heck, you’ll probably be bored to tears.

Beans is basically a menace. He just wanders onto a studio lot like he owns the place, which is honestly a mood. The movie doesn't bother explaining why he's there or how he bypassed the guard shack. It just drops him into the middle of a set.

The pacing is frantic, which is fine, but sometimes it feels like the animators were just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. There’s a bit where he ends up in a costume that feels like a leftover gag from The Cruise of the Jasper B. It’s funny, but it’s over before you can even register why it was funny in the first place. 🐈

I caught myself staring at the background art more than the actual characters. Some of those painted backdrops look like they had more effort put into them than the main gags. It’s odd, right? You’re watching this cat cause a wreck, but your eyes are drifting to a prop door in the back that looks weirdly detailed.

There’s a scene involving a film camera that goes on a bit too long. It’s just the same loop of Beans getting tangled up, and eventually, I found myself checking my watch. It lacks the punch of, say, The End of a Perfect Fray. That movie knew exactly when to cut a bit short. Here, the joke just kind of runs out of gas.

Observations from the sidelines:

• The sound effects are incredibly loud. Like, jump-scare loud.
• I swear the studio guard looks exactly like a character from The Hero of the Hour. Reuse of assets, maybe?
• The way Beans runs is just plain weird. His legs move like rubber bands.
• That one background extra with the hat is clearly just three lines drawn in a circle.

It’s not a masterpiece, and it doesn't try to be. It’s just a cat making a mess in Hollywood. Sometimes, that’s all you need on a Tuesday afternoon. It’s definitely not as sharp as Special Delivery, but it’s got a weird, frantic energy that I kind of respect.

It’s definitely the kind of thing you watch once and then forget about entirely. And really, is that such a bad thing? 🎞️