Review Fix Exclusive 2013 Tribeca Film Festival Coverage: Lil Bub & Friendz Review: Cat Crazy

The Internet cat craze has finally hit the silver screen with “Lil Bub & Friendz,” a documentary based on a famous cat that goes by the moniker “Lil Bub.” In this incredibly long and drawn out film we’re given a look at how an internet cat video goes viral and the success that might follow that feline and its owner.

The creation of this documentary comes as no surprise as hundreds of thousands cat videos are readily available online for your viewing pleasure. Since the uprising of social media websites such as YouTube, tumblr and reddit, cat videos are a hot topic and in high demand. With that, “Lil Bub & Friendz” is loosely focused on Lil Bub and her friends. The “Friendz” part consists of a few small snippets of other famous cats but doesn’t go into detail. Instead of having Lil Bub or her friends as the stars, we’re given delightful scenes of cat obsessed lunatics who have nothing to do with Lil Bub and are representative of a minority of people who enjoy cat videos.

One man who gets featured in this film, goes as far as to say that he’s just like a serial killer, sans the part of having killed anyone. Why this mentally disturbed individual got more than fifteen minutes of on screen camera time was a complete mystery.
In the scenes where we see Lil Bub, we’re distracted by how cute and adorable this little cat is with her physical handicaps and soon forget about the wasted minutes we had to endure in between her appearances. When she was off screen again, you’ll wonder, “Where’s Lil Bub?”

When the big-eyed feline does make an appearance again, it’s apparent that the love between Lil Bub and her owner, Michael Bridavsky is completely genuine. Seeing Lil Bub scoot over to her owner is cute enough for even the manliest of men to give a low “aww.” These heartfelt moments are one of the redeemable qualities of an otherwise lackluster documentary.

This film is geared towards the internet-addicted twenty-somethings who spend most of their time on a computer and will be mostly lost on older generations who are still wonder when Youtube will come to their house and film their cat. (Yes, some people think Youtube is a company that comes to your house, film things and then upload it to their website)

This documentary seems to have only skimmed the surface of viral cat videos and doesn’t seem to cover much at all. The content is lacking and is shallow. Sure we understand people want to buy Lil Bub merchandise and take pictures with her, but do we really need so many different scenes of it? The cat video craze is a huge phenomenon but all we’re shown is a few crazies and a boring cat video screening festival.

The content is so deficient that the film could have actually been cut down to a 15-minute short and still have had been as effective as the hour and five minute feature version. But it’s hard to dislike a film that features a cute cat who could warm the hearts of the grumpiest of old men but the documentary didn’t do the topic justice. It’s entertaining for a lil bit, but falls completely short of being “purrfect.”