Cool Cat is the coolest


Jacob Thompson, Staff Writer

Cool Cat Saves the Kids is a live action film written and directed by Derek Savage, or Daddy Derek as he is referred to in-universe, that was released in 2015. It has celebrity actors, such as Erik Estrada, Madison Marie Steinacker, and Vivica A. Fox, but the greatest talent in this film has to be Connor Dean (Butch the Bully).

The film starts with Cool Cat putting the finishing touches on a poster which is part of his campaign for school president. As he finishes,  Daddy Derek lets in Cool Cat’s friend and campaign manager, Maria, who brings Cool Cat to their outside office.

Butch the Bully starts antagonizing the duo, or in his words punking them, via phone communication. This sends our hero on a quest to save the kids from threats such as cyber bullying, guns, and graffiti.

Some films pay little attention to their villian(s), and do little to to make them deep, meaningful characters; this is not one of those films. Daddy Derek makes sure to put a lot of focus on Butch the Bully. We learn that his main motivation is his desire to punk people, as he is but a hollow shell without it, and that he has a great distaste for Cool Cat.

We also learn more about him through his dynamic with the Bad Boys. The Bad Boys is a gang of mischievous kids created by Butch early in the film. Butch is the de facto leader of the group, often seen pressuring the others into doing things.

The bad boys are seen as reluctant to participate in Butch’s schemes. This shows that he is a very selfish, intimidating, and ruthless person.

The only character that is fleshed out more than Butch is the main character himself, Cool Cat. We learn droves of information about Cool Cat. Skimming the surface, one would just notice that he is the coolest cat, and that he likes to boogie woogie, but he goes much deeper than that. Cool Cat is actually startlingly similar to his arch nemesis Butch. Cool Cat is also selfish and ruthless.

Cool Cat will often neglect the needs and desires of others when it is beneficial to him. For example, there is one scene where his parents talk about winning 100 dollars from a contest, and what they would do with it. Cool Cat shuts them down by saying that they can’t enter but may help him with it.

This dichotomy between Cool Cat and Butch reminds us that life is full of shades of grey, and people doing the right things for the wrong reasons, and vice versa.

One of the least noticeable features of the film is how meaningful the soundtrack and sound design is. Every single moment sounds beautiful and emotionally deep. From the very first melody, the opening credits tune, we can feel how the characters feel through the music.

If you watch any film anytime soon, it should be this one.