Cat Tube: Episode 1 "Try Not to Blink" (Lost full version of YouTube indie animated short by João Pereira Criações, 2018)

Official YouTube video thumbnail.

Status: Lost

Cat Tube (now Cat Funnies) is an indie web cartoon project created and started by Brazilian adult furry artist João Pereira (aka João Pereira Criações, Pereira Cartoons, joaoppereiraus and JP_Criacoes) in November 2017. It is centered around four different domestic cats, Dan, Chloe, Lou and Sam, who would do various internet challenges.

In January of 31st 2018, João released the finished animated short in his own YouTube channel, titled TENTE NÃO PISCAR | CAT TUBE, Episódio 1^[1]. The story of this episode, as the name implies, is that four cats are trying the said challenge involving keeping eyes open without blinking for a long time, starting from Dan, a British Shorthair male cat. Unfortunately this short was never properly archived before the YouTube channel was terminated in Feburary 2021 following YouTube's changes in content policy alongside with infamous implementation of COPPA following the FTC lawsuit since 2019, namely "nudity or sexual content", which is something João clarified that such content from said channel is far from ^[2].

Premise

The story of this episode, as the name implies, is that four cats are trying the staring contest while, as the episode's name suggests, keeping eyes open without blinking for a long time. It starts with Chloe, the only female cat, Lou and Sam, sphinx and fat ginger male cats respectively, decided to join in to play this do-not-blink challenge, only for their eyes to red out and inevitably blink. Dan decided to try it by himself, only for Chloe shortly come there, much to her surprise.

Availability

Very little information about this whole short can be found due to its obscure nature not helped by its original YouTube channel's termination in January 2021. To add insult to injury, it is not available in Wayback Machine. In October 28 2022, João posted a statement on DeviantArt and Twitter, saying that he's wondering if someone has downloaded the fully-finished video before ^[3]. As for now, only one animated WIP footage remains intact in his own second official YouTube channel, along with other development pictures found on DeviantArt and Tumblr.