Cats & Dogs

A goofy scientist is about to come up with a formula that will get rid of all dog allergies around the world. All of the cats in the world aren’t happy about this chain of events because they fear that this will make dogs even more popular with people, and diminish their power. So they come up with a plan to steal the formula from the scientist, invert its effects and make everyone in the world allergic to dogs. Woo-hoo!

Not as laugh-out-loud funny as SHREK, not as energetic as SPY KIDS, but certainly an all-around fun movie for kids. I say kids specifically, because the two films mentioned above also worked for me as someone over the age of 12, but this film was a little more kiddie-oriented. Not as many inside jokes or mature potshots in this one (other than one of the funnier lines in the film in which a pissed off dog exclaims “Son of my mom!” (i.e. Son of a bitch!)). Pretty funny, I thought. Overall though, the humor and the very basic Disney-esque plot of the film didn’t engage me as much as I had hoped from the trailer. Having said that, holy special effects, Batman! I gotta give out some major props to the filmmakers here because the movie is shot impeccably and the effects work really well throughout. The dogs really look like they’re talking, the cats really look like they’re smiling and frowning and by God, they all really look like they’re fighting, punching and pulling the wool over every human’s eyes. Very, very well done in that respect. I also have to mention the great vision of the script, which has to do with cats working on a worldwide scale to end the “best friend” token tag of dogs, as well as the whole doggie underworld (which is literally under-ground) packed with futuristic mobiles, sophisticated communication systems, computers and a UN-type organization filled with dogs from all around the planet. Sounds pretty cool, eh?

Well, it’s definitely cool and admittedly most of the action scenes were plenty slick as well. There are two particularly hi-larious characters in the film, both of whom spring from feline. One is the night-goggled ninja cats who break into a dog’s home and kick all kinds of Matrix arse, and two, is a Russian pussy who they send in after the first round of kitties. A true “professional” hitman with a great accent and some real funny lines. The “live” characters on the other hand, Jeff Goldblum and Elizabeth Perkins, don’t really need to do much in this film other than stand around and pretend not to know what’s going on (and Goldblum acts “weird” as usual), while Alec Baldwin’s voice as Butch, the lead dog, is impeccable and the dog even looks like him! (pretty neat) Overall, I certainly did enjoy myself with this picture, but it didn’t really blow me away more than that. Most of the time I was just thinking to myself “oh, that’s clever” as opposed to getting into the whole thing and laughing my head off. But like I said earlier, this movie is definitely more kid-oriented and even though everyone else is likely to enjoy it as well, I don’t think that it’s gonna strike as many chords across the board. BTW, seeing as one of the species comes out the “winner” in this film, need I predict a sequel entitled DOGS & CATS? Natch. Take the kids, they’ll love it!

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian