One pleasure available for the modern culture-flaneur is picking out the curios of globalisation: the unlikely cultural friendships struck up. I never knew Top Cat (or Boss Cat, as British viewers may remember him) was big in Mexico until last week, when I saw that a new feature-length animation version had been squatting on top of their box-office charts like a patronising moggie on a trashcan. How, in the age of the ubiquitous remake, had I not heard about this one?

Because it turns out that TC is even more of a local hero than first intended. Apparently Don Gato, to give him his Spanish name, has been one of the most beloved cartoon imports in Mexico since it was first broadcast there in the 1970s. One former viewer I spoke to said, "You could ask any middle-aged Mexican about the programme and they'll probably be able to name all of Don Gato's gang and a few of the incidental characters, as well as a good number of catchphrases and the storylines of quite a few shows." So Warner Brothers, owner of the Hanna-Barbera properties, has turned to Latin American animators to produce a film just for that market.

Don Gato y Su Pandilla (Top Cat and His Gang) opened handsomely on 16 September – 11 days before TC's 50th anniversary – with the highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a Mexican film in Mexico: 41m pesos ($2.9m). Most effectual – but not quite the indisputable leader of the gang yet. After a month on release it's cleared the $7m mark, putting it in with a shout of becoming the most successful ever local film at the Mexican box office – a title currently held by the 2002 Gael García Bernal drama El Crimen del Padre Amaro ($16.3m). It's also come out in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, with a Peru release happening this week – but no news about the US, or anywhere else, yet.

That's curious thinking by Warner, considering Top Cat seems on the surface to be a pedigree American pussycat. Thirty 25-minute episodes, sponsored by Kellogg's and pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers, were broadcast from September 1961 to April 1962 on ABC; the show's knockabout feline squad was Sergeant Bilko reborn in Manhattan back-alley form, right down to Maurice Gosfield (who had played Private Duane Doberman) voicing Benny the Ball. Just the kind of fallow pop-culture backlot, in other words, that's been routinely dug up in the last decade for global audiences, in everything from Bewitched to The A-Team.

Warner farmed the new version, available in 3D as well, out to Mexico's Anima and Argentina's Illusion studios. It's in keeping with the current trend in Hollywood towards productions for local markets, or – if Warner are planning a US release in this case – co-productions that outsource the risks of R&D and market-testing to other parties. American writers created the first drafts of the script – in which both Top Cat and Officer Dibble (Oficial Matute in the Spanish-language version – Matute is Argentinian slang for policeman) are wrongfooted by the appearance of a tough new police chief. Screenwriter Rubén Arvizu then tweaked their work for the Latin American market, as he did for the original cartoon in the 1970s.

In some ways, though, retailoring for local audiences has always happened, and it seems to be responsible for Don Gato's popularity in the first place. The 60s version was converted for Mexico with unusual care: they built on Top Cat's succinct visual brio by filling the scripts out with Mexican references, and invested heavily in the vocal dubbing – essential in a country that, 30 years ago, still had high illiteracy rates. Another thing I never knew was that there was such a thing as a Mexican voice-acting legend, but Jorge Arvizu (brother of Ruben), the Mexican Mel Blanc, is one. He voiced Benito Bodoque and Cucho (Benny and Choo-Choo) for Don Gato, as well as Bugs Bunny, Fred Flintstone, Popeye, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Michael Corleone in Mexican redubs. Giving his Cucho (which roughly translates as "wonky") a Yucatán accent was typical of the deft touches in evidence as Top Cat became Don Gato.

The producers have lured Arvizu out of retirement for the new version – a good PR move. The spruced-up animation is, next to the classic Hanna-Barbera style, a bit too busy for my tastes. Reviewers, though, have cut it some slack. "The kids walked out very happy," said FilmAffinity.com, while cinepremiere.com's Luis Miguel Cruz reckoned it was "undoubtedly the best Hanna-Barbera adaptation to date, far exceeding the lamentable versions of The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear". Anima Studios seems to be zeroing in on the pop-culture remake – it already turned out Kung Fu Magoo, with the famous myopic fogey, for US release in 2010 – and all of a sudden Mexico looks like it's bidding to curate America's animation heritage. Whether it succeeds or not, one thing is clear: a former New York wise-cat has emigrated south of the border. Reason? Improved employment prospects.

• What global box-office stories should we be writing about? How does Hollywood hawk its wares in your country? Let us know in the comments below …