If further proof is needed that some lost films are better off that way, here's Cat City, a low-budget animated feature from 1987. Cat City owes much of its gritty, urban look to the work of Ralph Bakshi (Heavy Traffic, Coonskin), but very little else. Bakshi's early films looked cheap but made the most of what they had, sculpting perceptive social critiques and occasionally nightmarish imagery out of limited resources. Cat City, on the other hand, is happy exploring less lofty aims. It's content to tell the story of Planet X, whose mouse (good) population is locked in an ongoing struggle with its cat (evil) population. As the film opens, the situation is on the verge of reaching critical mass, with the fate of the mice in the hands of superagent Gary Gumshoe. Cat City resembles nothing so closely as a comic book made by a group of unimaginative 10th-graders who somehow scored a film deal. Nothing in it speaks to the world outside of Planet X and Mousetropolis, except possibly a quickly abandoned subplot concerning a cat child's unprejudiced affection for her mouse playmate. Aside from that touching element, which has reportedly brought about an end to prejudice among Cat City's viewers, there's nothing to be learned from the reappearance of Cat City, except possibly to be wary of animated films whose opening credits consist of a series of still drawings.