Cats and Dogs

My wife and I went to see this film soley on the basis of the trailer, which was hysterically done and, seeing as we saw it due to the trailer, a very successful one. It had fantastic elements to it... and, unfortunately, held most of the funny moments of the movie, which was a shame.

This is the problem with trailers. Big Daddy. That trailer showed the movie. Showed the funny parts, showed the plot, showed everything, and ruined the film for me. The trailer for Cats and Dogs, subsequently, did the exact same thing.

This is a high concept film. This is the type of film you can sell to producers, no problem. It has great comedy, great gadgets, great heroes and villians, everything a kids movie is supposed to be. For anyone over, oh, say 15, you won't think much more about this film other than... those talking cats were cute for a little bit. Oh, and the dogs, they were cute too.

The story is way too formulaic. But, again, this film is pandering to a specific audience, so it can be. Familiar is good... but old.

John Requa and Glenn Ficarra wrote this one, and I'm sure, like I said, it was a very easy sell. These two guys came out of nowhere. This is their first produced feature, and other than some visual effects on two B-movies, Ficarra has done nothing else. In a way, that's exciting. Two unknowns got their film made. They got a huge budget, a great star, some great voice talents and...

Lawrence Guterman. The director. Now, how Lawrence got this gig, I have no idea. He got a degree in Physics and Harvard (I'm sorry, what?) and then went on to direct movies. Oh, ok. His last movie, Headless!, was in 1994 and there is absolutely NOTHING about it in the IMDB. Nothing. This guy was from nowhere, got to direct this film. This is something I truly do not understand in Hollywood. Where do they find these people? I'm going to say, even though it's not technically true, that this was Guterman's first film. He, somehow, convinced the executives that he could direct this movie, and I have to be honest, he did not do a bad job.

There are two things to avoid when making a movie, if you can help it. One is working with babies. The second is working with animals. Both of them, animals and babies, are too random, you can't control them.

The acting, in regards to the animals, was brilliant. This is no Babe, but it certainly can stand on its own as a fantastic animal movie.

There was a fantasic vocal cast for this film.

Alec Baldwin, Michael Clarke Duncan, Sean Hayes, Jon Lovitz, Tobey Maguire, Joe Pantoliano and Susan Sarandon rounded out the animal cast in this film, and I really enjoyed all of them (except Sarandon's character, who was useless (yes, I agree Carpe)). There is a wonderful thing that happens in movies that are animated, whether live action like this, or actual animation. You can physically see the actors, occasionally, in the final product. This has specifically happened in the last ten years, as technology has caught up with the animation side of the business. I was really digging the voices in this movie.

Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins and Alexander Pollock round out the humans. Eh. There was nothing too spectacular about these roles because, lets face it, the audience wasn't interested in humans.

A Zide/Perry production, these two gentlemen are really making a name for themselves. Their credits are reading something like a wish list, in regards to the money making abilities of their films. Their first big hit was American Pie in 1999. The two have four other films to their credit, including Final Destination, Cats and Dogs, American Pie 2 and Repli-Kate, both of which should be out this year.

Ed Jones is one of those names that you don't come upon that much, but when a film really needs kick ass visual effects, it's a good idea to have him running the show, from ILM. His list of credits is only a quarter as long as documented on the IMDB site. But, it serves its purpose in showing his ability to create some of the greatest effects out of Hollywood.

His work began (oh, man, can you believe this?) with The Empire Strikes Back, as a lab tech. He stayed a laby tech through Always and Raiders of the Lost Ark, before moving to optical line-up in some incredible movies: Poltergeist, Dragonslayer, Jedi, Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, Starman, Cocoon, and Big Trouble in Little China. He then upgraded himself to Executive in Charge of Post-Production on Back to the Future III, Death Becomes Her, Die Hard 2, Terminator 2 and Hook. He won an Academy Award for his work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988. His most recent work was on Almost Famous, as a visual effects supervisor, and even though his name is not listed in the IMDB site, you can see his handi-work all over Cats & Dogs.

What impressed me most about this film was the effects. I'm always astounded at the seamlessness of such work, and it's films like these that stand out in my mind, when it comes to difficult visual effects.

Over all, this film is ok. The concept was great, the execution was great, but I thought the story was too weak and formulaic. I thought it could have gone much farther than it did. But, then again, for a kids movie, it was pretty neat.

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