Black Cat Detective

March 3, 2011 12:33 PM

Have you ever wished Tom (of Tom and Jerry) was more like Dirty Harry? Maybe just shoot Jerry once in a while? Then you're in luck! 黑猫警长 (Hei Mao Jing Zhang, literally Black Cat Police Chief, more commonly translated as Black Cat Detective) was a hugely popular children's cartoon that ran from 1984 to 1987 in mainland China. Episodes featured the eponymous police chief taking down criminals any way he could, whether it's shooting fleeing mice in the back, burning locusts with exploding arrows, or administering beatdowns with shock batons. Beyond the police brutality, children also got to see baby animals eaten by giant eagles and learn about sexual cannibalism in praying mantises. And it's on Youtube!

Or at least the first five episodes are. Audio is in Mandarin, but you don't really need to understand Mandarin to follow most of the plotlines.

Episode 1 (Part 1, Part 2): The police cats go up against a horde of mice that try to steal from a warehouse full of food. At the end, the leader of the mice, who will be the primary antagonist for the rest of the episodes, earns his nickname of "One Ear".

Episode 2 (Part 1, Part 2): One Ear enlists a giant eagle to get revenge on the police cats and other friendly animals.

Episode 3 (Part 1 Part 2): A rhino, a hippo, and an elephant steal and eat red clay. Yeah, I don't understand either.

Episode 4 (Part 1 Part 2): A giant battle between locusts on one side and praying mantises/bees/police cats on the other starts off the episode. Things take a turn when two of the praying mantises fall in love, get married, and then the groom is found dead and eaten the next day.

Episode 5 (Part 1 Part 2): One Ear goes to Africa (?!) to enlist his uncle and his uncle's friends in trying to get back at the police cats.

The catchy theme song. Also available on iTunes/Amazon along with Hei Mao Jing Zhang audiobooks.

Wikipedia
TVTropes

posted by kmz (21 comments total)

Like probably any kid that grew up in mainland China in the 80s, I was a big fan of Hei Mao Jing Zhang. I even had coloring books and stuff. But I didn't remember the WTFery of the actual show. This post reminded me of the show and lead me down a O_o filled nostalgia trip.

Some bonus Chinese cartoon nostalgia: The Smurts theme in Chinese and 一休 (in Japanese, couldn't find a Chinese version).
posted by kmz at 12:40 PM on March 3, 2011

There is an episode where Tom shoots Jerry. He shoots him with a handgun and the episode suddenly ends. My best friend and I were watching TV once when we were teenagers and we saw it and we both simultaneously sat up in amazement, like, "Holy @#$!, did we just see that?!" There might be other episodes where Tom wins, but that's the only one I've seen.
posted by cribcage at 12:41 PM on March 3, 2011

There is an episode where Tom shoots Jerry. He shoots him with a handgun and the episode suddenly ends.

YouTube or it didn't happen.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:47 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Have you ever wished Tom (of Tom and Jerry) was more like Dirty Harry?

No, but I used to wish Sylvester would eat Tweedy Bird. God that little twerp was annoying. But then I also wanted Wiley E. Coyote to catch and eat the Road Runner, for Scrappy Doo to meet with some dire calamity, and for someone to shut the Pillsbury Doughboy in the oven and bake it.
posted by orange swan at 12:56 PM on March 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

黑猫白猫，只要抓老鼠就好！
posted by jiawen at 12:59 PM on March 3, 2011

Another show featured a cat, firearms, attempted suicide, homicidal executioner mice, and a guillotine. The cartoon? The 1948 Sylvester/Porky Pig feature, Scaredy Cat.
posted by zamboni at 1:13 PM on March 3, 2011

It doesn't matter if a cat police chief is black or white, so long as it practices police brutality on mice.
posted by vorpal bunny at 1:16 PM on March 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Once, just ONCE, I'd like to see an episode of Tom and Jerry that portrays Tom's real pain as a creature. Like, show him starving to death, hair and teeth falling out, while Jerry dances all over his emaciated body, feasts on cheese, and shits in the homeowner's beds.

So tired of childrens' cartoons being antifoodchain. Fuckin hippies.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:43 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

My daughter would love these! Unfortunately she lives in Yunnan and YouTube is blocked in China.
posted by squalor at 1:44 PM on March 3, 2011

Simpsons did it.
posted by zephyr_words at 1:45 PM on March 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

Since I have been a homeowner, it has been clear to me that the cartoons are totally on the wrong side. Tom should be eating Jerry's by the bucketful. I'd laugh at that now.

Of course, I also have six cats in my household, so I may be biased now...
posted by Billiken at 1:48 PM on March 3, 2011

But then I also wanted Wiley E. Coyote to catch and eat the Road Runner

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/coyote-catches-road-runner-2.html

Not as satisfying as I had hoped.
posted by squalor at 1:48 PM on March 3, 2011

Hoping I don't derail my own thread, but in terms of recurring cartoon nemesis tropes, my main pet peeve was the Buttons and Mindy segments on Animaniacs. I couldn't watch them after a while. I felt so bad for Buttons and wished Mindy would just get run over or something. Argh, it's making me mad just thinking about it again.

Unfortunately she lives in Yunnan and YouTube is blocked in China.

I bet she could find it on VCD or DVD if she looked. It's still pretty popular in China, from what I understand. And man, I didn't even think to look on Chinese video sites, but it looks like there's at least some stuff on Youku and Tudou.
posted by kmz at 2:17 PM on March 3, 2011

So it's Redwall with cops?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 2:58 PM on March 3, 2011

Never heard of this, thanks for the post. 森林公民向你致敬, apparently.
posted by Abiezer at 3:02 PM on March 3, 2011

Wow! The cop subdues the clay-eating elephant by applying an electric baton to it's nostril?

I visited my relatives in Belfast back in the 80s, when I was drawing backgrounds for cartoons. Whenever work came up in conversation, they always asked, "you mean like Tom & Jerry?!!". Never Mickey Mouse, never Bugs Bunny, always Tom & Jerry.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:40 PM on March 3, 2011

There is an episode where Tom shoots Jerry. He shoots him with a handgun and the episode suddenly ends.

"They'll never let us show that one again! Not in a million years!"
posted by kurumi at 3:41 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

God, that opening theme song lasted 7000 years.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:04 PM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's as if Courageous Cat and Judge Dredd had a baby.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:39 PM on March 3, 2011

"Please don't arrest us! We were only scrounging for worms like proper poor people!"

Real criminals want to drink your booze, eat your cake, and kill snitches.

Some kuh-razee life lessons to be learned here, boyee.
posted by artof.mulata at 5:40 PM on March 3, 2011

I don't remember watching this cartoon even though I was in the right demographics. But the unpopular security guards at our (boarding) high school, whose primary duty was to keep students from leaving campus without proper notes/authorization, were all nicknamed 'Hei Mao Jing Zhang'...
posted by of strange foe at 11:40 AM on March 4, 2011