On planet Sefi 14d, Will Ziffel (Bill Hedges) and his space cat Penny (Penny Hedges/Cosmo Hedges) are enjoying a quiet evening listening to radio waves from other planets. Penny begins playing with the dial and finds a broadcast that sounds a lot like an SOS signal. Will determines that the signal is coming from this planet and is about 45 kilometers away. He decides that he must find where the signal is coming from in case someone needs help. That night Will and Penny decide to take a road trip.
Will and Penny leave the Andromeda and head out into the night in an old van that Will picked up on Earth. Everything is going fine, and the trip is smooth until something flies past the van. Will hits the brakes. Just then a minor earthquake sends some huge boulders down from a nearby cliff, just missing the van. Had the van still been moving, both Will and Penny would have been crushed. As Will is assessing if any damage was done to the van, a raven swoops down and lands inside the van. The raven begins spouting various subjective quotations and relaying bits of vague prophecy.
Will manages to maneuver around the boulders and continues on his way. Will and Penny drive off into the night not realizing that what is up ahead could prove to be the most frightening night of their lives.
“Cat’s All Folks” was released in 2024 and was written and directed by Bill Hedges. It is a 27-minute home-spun science fiction short and is the 8th episode of the “Cosmic Cat” series. The short is done in the psychological thriller style and is a bit of a parody.
The episode is reminiscent of the “Twilight Zone” episode “The Hitchhiker” which starred Inger Stevens. The Twilight Zone episode was based on a radio play by Lucille Fletcher for Orson Welles’ radio program “The Orson Welles Show”. The music score for the radio play was written by Bernard Hermann, who was married to Fletcher at the time. Welles’ episode aired in 1941. Serling’s adaptation was released in 1960.
Bill has added some more offspring to his family. One of them, Cosmo, has taken the job of understudy for Penny. Katie Otten reprises her role as the talking raven. Katie’s original appearance as the raven was in episode 6, “You Had Me at Meow”.
Bill said that about 95% of the short was filmed in his studio, with the help of miniatures. Some of Bill’s Easter eggs consist of the MIT yearbook, and the detective book of short stories, both of which point to future episodes. Bill added touches that harkens back to the television series “Lost in Space” and “Star Trek”. Specifically, the alien mask which was one used in the Star Trek “Spectre of the Gun” episode and the crashed spaceship is similar to one in “Wish Upon a Star” from Lost in Space.
The episode is actually a little creepy. Making it a night trip added more mystery and suspense to the film. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode and look forward each year to the next one. Having seen a lot of really bad movies recently, this little film was a pleasure to watch.
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