Irony and intertextuality in Cat City

Abstract

Most Hungarian cartoons were meant for the whole family rather than just children. Due to this fact, everyone could enjoy the stories, the little ones loved the animal characters, which were often in the center, and the adults could laugh at the ironic and caricaturistic situations and representations. In my research I analyze the hidden meanings of a classic Hungarian cartoon entitled Cat City, brought up through intertextuality, allegory, irony and other rhetorical devices that might communicate an underlying meaning. I also examine the kinds of television tropes and archetypical characters that are likely to appear in the cartoon. The cartoon’s main situation is the fight between cats and mice, and it is a parody of several famous feature films, focusing mainly on the James Bond series. The main plot is about a special spy who is sent to the city of “Pokyo” to get the secret plan for a machine which could save the mouse civilization. These underlying meanings greatly added to the Hungarian cartoon’s popularity, which sometimes represented the symbols and even flaws of the communist system.