Review: Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

Slackerwood editor Jette Kernion was very surprised when I offered to review Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. While I'm an open-minded film fan whose cinematic tastes include everything from local mumblecore to classic exploitation to the occasional Hollywood blockbuster, I'm not really into kid-oriented talking animal movies. And I'm totally not into watching kid-oriented movies in theaters full of, uh, actual kids. (I like kids, except when they're being disruptive during movies. Okay -- disruptive anywhere.)

But as I told Jette, sometimes a critic needs a challenge. It's easy to review a hipster-darling indie in which Catherine Keener frets about her life choices; it's far more difficult, however, to write insightful commentary about a film in which anthropomorphic dogs discuss butt sniffing. So, to test my critical skills -- and my patience -- I braved a preview screening of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, a sequel to 2001's Cats & Dogs with a few carryover characters.

I could have done without the theater full of restless, yammering young'uns. But I must admit the movie (opening today in wide release) surprised me, in that it isn't bad. Really, it's mostly good. You and your young'uns could do a lot worse at your local multiplex.

The title character's name is, of course, a family-friendly variant of Goldfinger Bond Girl Pussy Galore, and the film essentially is a furry homage to Bond films. The story is predictably kid-film simple: The villainous Galore (voiced in over-the-top fashion by Bette Midler), a former agent for cat spy organization MEOWS, has gone rogue with a diabolical plan involving dog debilitation, cat subjugation and world domination. Faced with this threat, cats and dogs unite to save themselves (and perhaps more importantly, the humans who feed them).

In lieu of a single Bond-like hero are Diggs (voiced by James Marsden) and Butch (voiced by Nick Nolte), a crime-fighting canine duo straight from every buddy-cop film ever made. The bumbling Diggs and gruff, streetwise Butch (see clichés, buddy-cop film) join forces with standoffish cat Catherine (voiced by Christina Applegate) and smart-mouthed pigeon Seamus (voiced by Katt Williams) to find Galore and foil her evil plan.

The plot and characters aren't exactly the stuff of first-rate family cinema, and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is no Toy Story 3. But it's pleasant, engaging and often funny, with zippy action sequences, plenty of cute four-legged friends for the kiddos and enough grown-up pop-cultural and film references to keep parents interested. The Bond references are expected and generally dead on; if not for the canine and feline silhouettes, the slick opening credits could be from You Only Live Twice or Diamonds Are Forever. But other cinematic nods are totally surprising, like dialogue from Scarface and a clever spoof of The Silence of the Lambs with a fluffy, fully restrained cat named Mr. Tinkles quoting Hannibal Lecter.

Although the film isn't visually memorable, its special effects are seamless, and it makes better use of 3D than any other film I've seen this year. The 3D imagery is more than just a marketing ploy or an afterthought, and the foreground vs. background contrast is more vital to the action than in most films. As an added bonus, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore screens with an hilarious Warner Bros. 3D cartoon short featuring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. The coyote's classic mishaps are absolutely meant for 3D; he alternately slams into the foreground and then rockets into the distance, and his pratfalls have never been funnier. Mel Blanc and Chuck Jones no doubt would approve.

Unfortunately, the characters are underwritten and the dialogue is a bit simplistic (at least when it isn't borrowed from other films), so the cast hasn't much to do. But they do give the animals fair amounts of personality. Midler is delightfully brash as Galore, and if one accepts that dogs can talk, Marsden and Nolte are thoroughly acceptable talking dogs. And 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer – a talented comic actor who's funny without saying a word – is greatly goofy as Galore's owner, a dunderheaded magician named Chuck.

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore isn't quite in league with top-tier family films. It's an enjoyable diversion, but lacks the artistry to be this year's Up. The story is paper thin, and the action drags at times. Some jokes miss their marks, and the movie sometimes stumbles over its look at the puppies! cuteness. But it's smarter and better than most of its genre, and is the sort of film adults can truly enjoy, rather than merely tolerate -- especially if they're fans of Agent 007 or Hannibal Lecter.