Cool Cat Kids Superhero [2018]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

Let me make this one really easy for you: "Cool Cat Kids Superhero" (yes, that's the title; ignore what the DVD cover says) is basically just "Cool Cat Saves The Kids" with some additional self indulgent footage from Derek Savage, a few weird lines removed, a few worse lines added in, and Mama Cat's lines redubbed by Cynthia Rothrock. It's not actually worth it to watch this movie if you can get your hands on "Cool Cat Saves The Kids" but apparently that's a collector's item at this point.

Instead I'm going to talk about Derek Savage, the creator of Cool Cat. I think when we watched "Cool Cat Saves The Cats" we considered it to be a very, very flawed but earnest attempt at making a product for kids with a good message. Now that we have basically watched this movie three times, I think I'm getting cynical. Adam said that the new title for this movie was a result of Derek Savage hearing that kids only care about superheroes and he was trying to capitalize on that. This seems likely because it doesn't seem like Derek Savage cares that much about Cool Cat. On his website, three screenplays he wrote which all sound like movies we would watch at bad movie night (one revenge story, one Christian love story, and one male stripper story) are at the top with Cool Cat underneath next to "Gun Self-Defense For Ladies" and then a bunch of Cool Cat and Trolly The Trout books under that. Considering that Cool Cat is the only thing anyone seems to have consumed of his, you would think this would get a bigger highlight. 

But here's what I think. Cool Cat serves two functions for Derek Savage: 
1. It seemed like an easy money maker. Savage doesn't really want to make kids movies; it's not a specific passion for him. What he does want is to work in film, and because kid movies are easy to make and don't have to be particularly "good," he thought this might be a way to make some money and hopefully get some recognition for his other works, which he may have a stronger attachment to.
2. He's trying to justify owning a fursuit. Throughout the Cool Cat movies, there are scenes that are clearly designed to highlight things Derek Savage owns that he's proud of in the materialistic middle-aged man child way. There is discussion of his guitar signed by the members of Van Halen, a band no kid has heard of. We get to see his car a lot during a parade. And in "Cool Cat Kids Superhero" we get even more of this with an opening scene devoted to his motorcycles and a frankly uncomfortable series of shots of Derek Savage working out. Similarly, he displays clout with who is in the movie. He managed to get a Hollywood actress whose largest roles were a decade ago and a washed up television actor to appear and in this one he is able to cite Cynthia Rothrock on the cover of the DVD even though she just did a voice over. This movie is just a way for Derek Savage to toot his own horn and you cannot convince me that he didn't have that fursuit already before deciding to make these movies. It's just another thing he owns and happens to be a little less proud of so he found a way to use it that wasn't creepy.

If you want me to cite my speculations, I can't. There's very little about Derek Savage on the internet. The only thing IMDb adds to the conversation is the fact that he apparently used to be a Playgirl model. I literally have no idea if this is verifiable or added by Savage himself (although if you find picture evidence of this I DON'T WANT IT). It almost sounds like it was added by him because being a Playgirl model is exactly the kind of thing an out-of-touch guy would think is cool and implies that he was hot stuff to women at one point without realizing that the primary reader base of Playgirl has basically always been gay men.

So anyway, watch "Cool Cat Saves The Kids" instead if you can find it, and avoid Derek Savage if you ever encounter him in California.