Sumith Prasad
In Netflix’s German action film ‘Sixty Minutes,’ Octavio “Octa” Bergmann sets out to buy a cat for his daughter Leonie as a birthday present. Even when he confronts death at a short distance, Octa tries to stick to his plan, which leads him to an animal shelter from where he picks up a cat he names Onion. The MMA athlete fights several men who come after him, including their head Chino, without losing the cat. The cat that features in the movie is small and appealing. Since it symbolizes Octa’s love for his daughter, Onion also becomes an integral part of the action thriller’s narrative! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Onion the Cat: Real or CGI?
Onion the Cat is seemingly real. First of all, the crew members of ‘Sixty Minutes’ include an animal wrangler named Orsolya Latranyi. Since a wrangler is usually hired to take care of animals in a filming set and considering that Onion is the only animal that features in the movie, Olsolya must have joined the crew to take care of the real cat. Furthermore, CGIs cost immensely from a production standpoint. Since Onion doesn’t feature in any risky or adventurous scenes, it doesn’t make sense to rely on costly measures to create the cat in the film when a real one can be chosen for a minimal cost.
Nowadays, film and television productions mostly use CGI only when it comes to wild animals that pose a threat to the cast and crew members. In the cases of cats and dogs, real ones are preferred over CGIs. Harry the Cat in Prime Video’s ‘Somebody I Used to Know,’ Gonker the Dog in Netflix’s Dog Gone,’ Jax the Dog in the action thriller ‘Lou,’ and Cupcake the Dog in Netflix’s comedy series ‘Man vs Bee’ are some of the prominent examples of real animals that feature in productions of recent times.
In ‘Sixty Minutes,’ Onion is a representation of Octa’s love for his daughter Leonie. The MMA fighter holds onto the cat even when his life gets threatened, just like how he holds his love for Leonie close to his heart when he gets chased by a group of criminals. His desire to see his daughter accepting and cherishing Onion’s presence, or in other words his love, in her life makes Octa overcome varying challenges to continue his journey towards Leonie. Mina asking her lawyer David to not move forward with filing for her daughter’s sole custody while holding Onion can be seen as her accepting her ex-partner’s affection for their little girl.
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