Aug. 04, 2010 - Issue #772: The Outsiders
Cats and Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Cats & Dogs 2 a forgettable CGI romp
The formulaic spy story has secret-agent cats and dogs teaming up to thwart Kitty Galore's diabolical plan to turn all pooches on their owners. A pigeon flaps along as the requisite smart-mouthed buddy. From the 007 opening (neither homage nor parody—more like a lazy screen-saver) to the Hannibal Lecter psycho-cat Mr Tinkles, any allusions for adults are stiff. And the kids' stuff rarely goes beyond the novelty of cats and dogs zipping off one-liners at a frenetic pace.
Some of the post-production 3D is like 3½D, keeping humans in one plane while pushing their backgrounds into another. The movie's in a limbo between animation and real-life, with the animals gizmo-jetting around through specific areas of San Francisco for whizbang stunts that could be made inventive if they were animated instead of CGI-d. The plot isn't even daring enough to lead the top dog and prima caterina into talking-animal cinema's first interspecies romance.
The voice cast—including Wallace Shawn (!?!) and Roger Moore as spymeowster Tab Lazenby—must've found the movie an easy way to cash in while remaining anonymous. There are a few decent jokes ... OK, one: "Today's seminar is on sexual harassment in the workplace—doberman or not, don't pinch her."
Sadly, this is the feature debut of Newfoundlander Brad Peyton, whose gothic animations (including the short-lived CBC series What It's Like Being Alone) in the early '00s raised some hopes he'd become Canada's Tim Burton. Instead, with Cats & Dogs 2, he's hit the big-time as a factory boss overseeing production of a forgettable, clunky CGI tinkertoy. V
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Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Directed by Brad Peyton
Written by Ron J Friedman, Steve Bencich
Featuring James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate
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Cats and Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty GaloreDirected by: Brad Peyton
Written by: Ron J Friedman, Steve Bencich
Featuring: James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate
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