This film is part of Free
Strangers
Who needs to talk to strangers when you're the only one who can understand the garbled mewling of your best buddy cat, Charley?
Overview
"Do you want to see some puppies?" There can be few phrases so outwardly innocuous that set off more alarm bells than this one, and this film is why. Charley cat is the dream companion not just of children but also every parent, keeping their kids honest, innocent and safe. The somewhat uncanny movement of the flat cardboard puppets, particularly the dark stranger, helped engrain them into the brains of a generation of children.
The series was produced in cut-out animation so it could be produced quickly and on a limited budget, but such lo-fi techniques were familiar to children from a variety of their favourite TV programmes of the time. These new HD transfers reveal the quality of the original artwork, and the clever detailed shading achieved with nothing more sophisticated than felt-tip markers.
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