Pitch Animation Reel (Pilot)

Introduction

"To the TOY STORE!"
— Mr. Blik

The Pitch Animation Reel Gordon waffle and blik are also known as super robo waffers (Waffle) super robot quidditch (Goradon quid) and super robo black cat sintch (Mr. Blik) is a series of animations made to display the designs and personalities of the colorful characters of Catscratch.

The cats were slightly touched up from their Gear counterparts in these animations before they settled on the final designs we know and love.

Plot[]

There exists a few known versions of the pitch. The plot can be loosely strung together by what few bits have been shown to the public.

Known production took place during 2003 through 2004.

"Catscratch Pitch Animation"[]

"This was the first short I did to pitch Catscratch to Nickelodeon. Mike Dietz helped with the animation and the music was by Mike Glendenning. It's rough but you get the idea." - Doug TenNapel

On a white background with a silhouette of a car, 3 silhouettes of Gordon, Mr. Black and Waffle walk in the car, a reference to the music video for the Gorillaz song "19-2000". They rev up the car and visit the local toy store.

Then it transitions to the scene where Gordon sees the Pinky Bear dolls. It cuts to a white background, where there's a scratch, which then forms the Catscratch logo. In the next scene, Waffle holds a broom, hitting Mr. Black. Gordon looks at Mr. Black. Waffle does the same.

It cuts to Mr. Black looking at his backpack in the mirror. Then it cuts to Waffle, seeing a submarine sandwich. He licks his mouth with his tongue. His tongue gets stuck to his eye. He licks both eyes with his tongue.

It cuts to Kimberly dancing, then Gordon dancing, then Waffle dancing, then Mr. Black taps his foot. Then it goes to Waffle blowing his tail, as it if were a balloon, with his thumb. Then in the next scene, Gordon smiles. Then, Mr. Black uses Waffle's balloon tail to make a dog. Waffle looks at it. The dog comes to life and attacks Mr. Black. Then in the next scene, DJ Waffle spins 2 discs, one of them being a pizza with 2 slices eaten.

In the next scene, Mr. Black comes over to Gordon asking about his opinion of his new backpack. Gordon in fear swallows the bear saying he’s not looking at dolls. It then cuts to the logo.

"RARE Thumbnail Animation of Nickelodeon’s Catscratch Pitch"[]

"I did these thumbnails and slammed them together just to test the character personalities with Rob Paulsen's voice." - Doug TenNapel

On Wednesday, May 30, 2018, series creator Doug TenNapel had uploaded the thumbnail animation of the pitch for "Catscratch". That version contains:

On a white background with a silhouette of a car, 3 silhouettes of Gordon, Mr. Black and Waffle walk in the car, a reference to the music video for the Gorillaz song "19-2000". They rev up the car and visit the local toy store.

Mr. Black stays to meet back in 5 minutes as he wanders off to look at the backpacks. Waffle then spots rubber alligator on the other side and runs off too. As for Gordon, he sneaks to the girl stuff section to find Kimberly a Pinky Bear doll for her while also seeing if the coast is clear from Mr. Black and Waffle knowing he’s looking for dolls.

Gordon jumps to find a Pinky Bear doll knowing if it’s right bear Kimberly wishes for. The Pinky Bear pees all over Gordon, making him throw it in fear. A man then slips in the puddle that the bear made and falls.

Gordon then looks again finding the last limited edition bear in the world. He then hugs the bear in joy when just then, the bear’s voice says "I love you, please feed me". Gordon oddly replies to the pinky bear saying he can’t.

Mr. Black then comes over to Gordon asking about his opinion of his new backpack. Gordon in fear swallows the bear saying he’s not looking at dolls. before Gordon could tell Mr. Black his opinion, the bear then talks through Gordon’s stomach, saying "I love you" and then saying "Please burp me". Mr. Black then picks up Gordon and burps him. The doll then says "please change me", where Mr. Black stops as that was crossing a line. Waffle then passes by holding a rubber alligator, saying he's buying it.

Scenes from the intro sequence[]

There are a few animated scenes playing during the show's intro sequence, some of them appear to fit in with the show's unreleased pilot.

There's a shot of the three of them in excitement over a shop's selection (possibly the toy store that Mr. Blik mentions.)

There's a shot of Mr. Blik breaking apart a purple object with a green robot toy, while Gordon is seen holding a paper bag with both his hands. This is likely the three of them with their purchases from the toy store, as Gordon's paper bag is likely hiding the Pinky Bear doll that he purchased as a gift for the Human Kimberly.

There's a shot of Mr. Blik quizzically looking at himself in a mirror, while Waffle knocks him over with a toilet plunger, aiming for a little red spot on the back of Mr. Blik. This red spot is likely a roach, as storyboards for the pilot show a whole colony of roaches crawling into the aforementioned Pinky Bear doll. Likely how they would have eventually found out about the doll.

Rare Pre-Production Catscratch Clip[]

"I found this rare clip of Catscratch featuring rough backgrounds by Scott Morse, animation by Mike Girard and music by Terry S. Taylor! The music doesn't match because it's from a different part of this episode." - Doug TenNapel

No dialogue can be heard in this clip. What is seen in this is Gordon lamenting while holding a framed image of the Human Kimberly, seeming to miss her.

This sorrow is broken suddenly when he hears a noise coming from outside the window-- presumably being from Human Kimberly, hence Gordon's improved mood.

Sample Storyboard[]

In a model pack intended for the production crew to more efficiently draw the characters, a storyboarded scene from the pilot was included as a sample storyboard.

What is depicted is as follows:

Mr. Blik and Waffle walk into the bathroom, where Gordon is seen coming in through the window. Gordon looks down towards the toilet top below, where the Pinky Bear is seen. He panics, and jumps down in front of it, and tries to scare the two away by saying he has to use the toilet.

However, Mr. Blik has reason to believe that Gordon has been hiding something behind his back, so he demands to have a look to see if Gordon was indeed hiding something in his panic.

For an unknown reason, Mr. Blik and Waffle rush out of the bathroom, and the door slams shut. With the two gone, Gordon rejoices, as he is now able to freely deliver the Pinky Bear as a show of his affection for her.

However, while Gordon is rejoicing, a hoard of roaches are seen crawling into an open seam of the Pinky Bear while he wasn't looking. Once they've gotten in, Gordon turns around, picks up the Pinky Bear, laughs to himself, and jumps back out the window to deliver the bear.

Referring back to the scenes in the intro sequence, a roach is seen on Mr. Blik's back. If this scene takes place after what's shown in the sample storyboard sequence, this may have been how they eventually find out about the Pinky Bear. If it was before, it could be foreshadowing to how the Pinky Bear would be sabotaged.

Trivia[]

Mr. Black is the only one out of the three cats to have kept his original design for the pilot.
In the pilot, all three of the cats were voiced by Rob Paulsen. The only role out of the three he kept was that of Gordon Quid.
The pilot was uploaded as a development trailer onto the Slappy Pictures website on May 10th, 2006 under the filename "CatScratch_Web_320_01.mov".
- This version has the "I'm not looking at dolls!" storyboard scene cut out.

Doug TenNapel uploaded an extended version of the reel onto his YouTube channel on November 12th, 2009, with the misspelt title of "CarScratch640 copy"

This one has the "I'm not looking at dolls!" storyboards intact.

The Pinky Bear dolls that Gordon looks at in the toy store make it to the show as an established in-universe franchise in the episode "Go Gomez! Go!" Where Tad wears a pair of Pinky Bear underwear.

Credits[]

Client: Nickelodeon/Douglas R. TenNapel inc.
Creator/director: Douglas TenNapel
Production company: Slappy Pictures
Animation director: Mike Dietz
Animation: Douglas TenNapel, Mike Dietz, Eddie Fantastic
Production assistants: Robert Doll, Bobby D
Music/sound design: Mike "g/the back bedroom" Glendenning, Mike Dietz

References[]

Lost Media Wiki Article: http://lostmediawiki.com/Catscratch_(partially_found_unaired_pilot_of_animated_series;_2004)
Slappy Pictures Website: http://www.slappypictures.com/
TenNapel's confirmation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TenNapel/status/922494423275012096
Storyboard Sample: https://archive.org/details/Catscratch/page/n67/mode/1up

Chronology[]

Previous:
"Gear" (Comic Series)

Episodes

Next:
To The Moon