Cat videos are the glue that binds the Internet together, and even people who claim to hate them have probably gotten a few surreptitious chuckles out of Surprised Kitty. That makes “The Cats Of YouTube,” an animated short by British filmmaker and illustrator Richard Swarbrick, both a universal translator and quite possibly the key to world peace.
“The Cats Of YouTube” compiles adorable online juggernauts like “Stalking Cat,” “Cat Wearing A Shark Costume Cleans The Kitchen On A Roomba,” “Dramatic Cat,” “Kitten Massage Therapy,” “The OMG Cat,” and Maru, Japan’s biggest feline export since Hello Kitty, and renders them in exquisitely executed watercolor drawings. The animation style and synth-pop soundtrack by London-based band Empathy Test makes “The Cats Of YouTube” a sort of “Take On Me” for a post-Cheezburger world. (And for all the dog people out there, Swarbrick has also produced an animated tribute to Dr. Who.)