8mm Forum: Top Cat 400ft Colour Sound "Dibble breaks the Record"

This is topic Top Cat 400ft Colour Sound "Dibble breaks the Record" in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 26, 2016, 03:42 PM:

I thought as the Halifax building society in the UK has now taken Top cat as there new advertising we should put on one of our two 400 ft colour sounds. These dont come up that often, released by columbia with absolutely top colour, image and sound quality. Like many of us i grew up watching these at 4.30pm after school days along with The Flintstones.
Unfortunately, like the Flintstones the Top Cat cartoons are without the title sequence, a pity really as these and the Flintstones opening tunes were a big part of them. I dont know how many Top Cats were released in the colour sound 400ft format but the two we have is enough for us. Both are in there original boxes and neither is suffering from any fade at all.
Here is the summary plot of this episode,
Dibble attempts to break the record for being the longest-serving police officer on the beat. If he wins, he goes on holiday... and leaves the gang free from him. With this in mind, Top Cat does everything he can to help Dibble win.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on May 27, 2016, 11:35 AM:

Fascinating - I'd never heard of these releases but I have a Columbia '400 featuring the Jetsons, although I think that one does have the opening sequence and song. I think my Jetsons copy also retains good colour, so considering how badly faded many of the Columbia films are, it makes you wonder if these animated releases were printed at a different lab?

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 27, 2016, 12:10 PM:

I thought that to Adrian. The flintstones we have are like new.

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on May 28, 2016, 08:51 AM:

According to a 1977 catalogue,Columbia released ten complete Top Cat episodes, (five of which are in my collection!) It is one of the few tv cartoons that I like.Perhaps because the Hanna-Barbera limited animation and stylisation was still fresh and definitely because the scripts were by live action comedy writers Harvey Bullock and R. S. Allen.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on May 28, 2016, 09:37 AM:

The Top Cat and Flintstones prints I have all have excellent colour still.

They are all the 400ft editions, 5 in total.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on May 28, 2016, 12:59 PM:

Panayotis - I wondered if your catalogue also indicates how many Flintstones and Jetsons releases there were at the time? Any other animated 400' releases?

No doubt the good colour encourages collectors to hold on to them, but the scarcity of these in the UK makes me wonder if relatively few were imported.

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on May 28, 2016, 05:29 PM:

35,(yes! Thirty Five) Flintstones and 10 Jetsons.All the other Hanna-Barberas are one reelers.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 01, 2016, 12:32 PM:

I have a strangely edited down (15 minutes) of the "Flinstones
Flyer", which was one of the 1st episodes. Love to find the full 400ft version, but this does have very good color, however.

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