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If vampires and werewolves can work together, why not cats and dogs?
Because the resulting kiddie movie, "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore," is nowhere near as entertaining as "Twilight" or even 2001's "Cats & Dogs." It introduced a couple of key characters and voice actors and the notion that four-legged creatures have sophisticated spy equipment, secret lairs and skirmishes about which humans have no clue.
- Starring: Chris O'Donnell and voices of James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Bette Midler, Christina Applegate.
- Rating: PG for animal action and humor.
In the first movie, a professor's plan to invent a vaccine that would cure humans of dog allergies touched off war between the camps.
This time around, it's evil and hairless Kitty Galore (voice of Bette Midler, who's purr-fect) against her fellow felines and dogs everywhere. She is one ugly puss, thanks to her pointy teeth and an unfortunate accident involving a tumble into a tank of hair-removal cream.
Kitty's family kicked her out and the one-time spy for a cat organization has gone rogue with a plan to eliminate dogs and enslave mankind. Yes, it's always about world domination, isn't it?
That puts her in the sights of a covert canine operation where a new recruit named Diggs (voice of James Marsden) has landed. He's a German shepherd and police dog who took the wrong bite out of crime at a hostage situation and was bounced from the force and separated from his partner, played by Chris O'Donnell.
Diggs finds himself having to learn to play well with others, including an experienced Anatolian shepherd (Nick Nolte in his best "48 Hours" mode), a cat called Catherine (Christina Applegate) and a pigeon with a bum wing named Seamus (Katt Williams). They doggedly search for Kitty Galore as a clock ticks down to the execution of her plan.
"Cats & Dogs" uses a mix of 100 real animals, puppets and computer animation to create a world in which all critters talk, dogs can devise James Bond-style gadgets or sniff each other's butts depending on the occasion, an indulgent granny lets her cats rule the roost, and humans have no idea of the peril they face.
The movie is only occasionally, very mildly amusing and never worthy of hearty laughs and that includes a Hannibal Lecter parody with a returning Persian longhair named Mr. Tinkles (Sean Hayes voice). Consider that catnip for the captive adults.
"Cats & Dogs" was converted after the fact to 3-D and it's a blatant bid to cash in on the lucrative trend but it's no "Despicable Me," which delights in the technique. In fact, the 3-D in "Cats & Dogs" produced some distortion in one corner of the screen now and then, and I don't suggest anyone pay the extra couple of bucks for the 3-D version.
Having said all that, two 8-year-old boys at a recent preview gave it their stamp of approval. The mother of one pronounced it clean, a factor in her endorsement.
Although I preferred the dogs to the cats, which sometimes resembled stuffed animals, my favorite part was "Coyote Falls," the vividly colored 3-D Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon that preceded the movie. Now that was fun, but just not worth the price of admission.
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