Reviewing Cats Don’t Dance; very underrated musical! · 10:19pm April 27th
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for you all today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing yet another Warner Bros’ animated feature film called “Cats Don’t Dance”, released in 1997. Now this movie is certainly…positively…GREAT! Yeah, I gotta say this film was quite a blast to watch for the first time on Tubi, and I can say for certain that this still holds up for its unique storyline and musical numbers.
“Cats Don’t Dance” is about an eccentric cat who loves to dance and sing from the bottom of his heart. Arriving at Hollywood, he encounters a group of animals who are among many others who are looked down on by humans. Determined to get them all in the spotlight, Danny and Sawyer work together through this musical journey.
Yeah, um, I didn’t expect this animated movie to tackle on themes of prejudice and racism—well, racism against animals. They coexist with humans, but they are still treated as second class citizens due to having zero status or recognition in society.
Nevertheless, I still appreciated how they didn’t hesitate to bring to light how prejudice can cause harm in so many different ways to various groups of people who are different from the rest. It shows the level of maturity this film contains, and it shows both kids and adults why unity is very important.
Now, the primary core of this movie is the element of music—hence why it’s a musical. It shines the most as such due to the catchy lyrics and how melodious it sounds overall. There isn’t any song that stood out more to me, honestly, but I think they’re pretty much great to listen to.
As far as the animation is concerned, it holds up to this day. The character designs look quite neat, their wacky facial expressions are…too good, and the whole setting looks visually appealing. Every single animation sequence reacts well to the dialogue and the action taking place; in fact, this animation feels more ambitious and over-the-top which works well for this film.
Now let’s talk about the characters, shall we? Danny is a decent character; he’s not a good character, but he’s decent. I say this because I don’t like how annoying he is and how carried away he gets with his own singing or acting style. I get that he wants to share the joy of singing with everybody, but there’s a time and place for that kind of stuff.
Sawyer doesn’t have much personality or charm except she’s obviously caring, sarcastic, and thoughtful. Her chemistry with Danny is heavily cliché but kinda cute to watch. If there’s one thing I wish they would’ve improved on, it would be making her a rival to Kitty Katswell in terms of visual attraction. But I bet furries still had a field day with Sawyer.
Pudge is pretty cute as a little brother type of character for Danny. Oh, and that just reminds me: I could’ve sworn I’ve seen this character before in a promotional teaser or something. I am 100% certain I didn’t see this movie when I was a kid until just two days ago. Why does Pudge look so familiar?
Darla Dimple certainly is one of the most insane, psychotic villains I’ve seen in animation. I can almost imagine the faces Ashley Peldon had to make in the recording booth in order for her character to sound so vile, maniacal, and utterly evil. From the outside, she’s sweet, friendly, and charming, but inside, she’s murderous, short-tempered, and cruel.
I’m serious, I found myself impressed by the amount of good writing surrounding her. As a spoiled little brat, all she ever wants is praise, fame, and undivided attention. It’s always about her, and she always gets what she wants. It’s very simple, yet it makes more sense for a child villain like her…unlike a certain pegasus filly who believes that friendship alone is power and can get all the friends she wants despite having absolutely nothing to give in return.
And I have to appreciate the animators for their blood, sweat, and tears for making Max this terrifying in stature and demeanor. He looks like a Frankenstein dressed up as a butler. What I find interesting about him is how he seems to secretly enjoy spreading fear to others while emotionlessly serving Darla.
But as shown in his final fight scene with Danny, when he sees he’s about to be defeated, his intimidation factor instantly falls apart the moment he shows fear. I just love it when villains reveal themselves who they really are in their final moments.
I admire the rapid pacing of the voice acting throughout this film. You notice how all these characters speak a certain way or shout or scream in a Looney Tunes kind of way? Yeah, that’s Warner Brothers for you. Huge props to Scott Bakula, Jasmine Guy, Matthew Herried, Ashley Peldon, John Rhys-Davies, the late Betty Lou Gerson, and Mark Dindal for their voiceover performances.
Oh, and I find it interesting how the director of the movie—Mark Dindal—also voiced Max . He did a great job in both directing this movie and voicing that absolute behemoth of a valet.
From what I got out of this movie, it’s the lesson about hanging on to your dreams in spite of what people think of you. People may judge you for who you are and make fun of you for even dreaming about doing something fun like singing or dancing.
No matter what they may think or say, if you remain determined to follow your dreams, sooner or later your dreams will become a reality. Because of that determination, the animals finally got their spotlight they’ve been wanting forever, and Darla is exposed for the psychopath she truly is.
Overall, this movie is a lot of fun. It has flaws in terms of humor and the main characters being rather annoying or shallow instead of compelling, but it’s still worth a watch every now and then. I’ll give this an 8/10.
RIP George Kennedy, Tony Pope, René Auberjonois, Don Knotts, and Hal Holbrook.
I...love this movie. I love its music, love its animation, love its villain, love its climax. It's a glorious diamond in the rough.
I haven’t seen this movie in full, but I’ve been wanting to for a very long time.
Also, I find it interesting that Randy Newman was the guy who wrote and composed the songs for the film, which made this his animated film debut before composing and writing songs for a whole host of other animated features!
I always found this to be a pretty good film, though your view on Danny is spot on. Haven’t seen it in a while despite digging out the dvd.