All Rise...

Judge David Johnson thinks the humane thing would be to put CatDog down.

Editor's Note

Our review of CatDog: Season Two, Part 1, published May 27th, 2012, is also available.

The Charge

Before The Human Centipede there was…CatDog.

The Case

In 1998, Nickelodeon unveiled its latest unique cartoon creation. CatDog, created by Peter Hannan, told the story of two siblings, a cat and a dog, conjoined at birth. Unsettling premise aside, this was a show that even I recall hearing scuttlebutt about, despite the fact I was a junior in college (or maybe, because of it).

My fleeting memories reflect favorably on this demented endeavor, but how will it stack up 13 years later, with the fog of nostalgia firmly replaced by a Bored Cynic?

Ten episodes, two discs, Part 1 of Season 1:

Disc One
• "Dog Gone / All You Can't Eat"
• "Flea or Die! / CatDog Food"
• "Full Moon Fever/ Car of the CatDog"
• "Pumped/ Dummy Dummy"
• "Nightmare/ CatDogPig"

Disc Two
• "Squirrel Dog/ Brother's Day"
• "The Island/ All You Need Is Lube"
• "Party Animal/ Mush, Dog, Mush!"
• "Diamond Fever/ The Pet"
• "Shriek Loves Dog/ Work Force"

Wow…This is pretty nuts. But I like it. I missed the CatDog train, but my exposure to is lunacy now is refreshing. It's not gross-out stuff—just deeply, deeply bizarre and sporadically laugh-out-loud funny (Dog getting roided up in "Pumped" is simultaneously hideous and hilarious). CatDog is/are satisfying character/characters. Their personalities are distinct and they complement each other and, ah, who cares! They're a dog and cat melded together! That's funny!

Not funny: the mystery of how they defecate.

Shout! Factory's DVD set is low-impact, starting with a soft full frame transfer, continuing into a standard-issue 2.0 stereo mix, and ending with zero extras.

The Verdict

Not Guilty. The staying power of the funny lingers from 1998. And you have to give it up for a show that titles one of its episodes "All You Need Is Lube."

Give us your feedback!

Did we give CatDog: Season One, Part 1 a fair trial? yes / no

What's "fair"? Whether positive or negative, our reviews should be unbiased, informative, and critique the material on its own merits.

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