Cats Don't Dance

Cats Don't Dance
Theatrical release poster by John Alvin
Directed by	Mark Dindal
Screenplay by	Cliff Ruby Elana Lesser Theresa Pettengill
Story by	Rick Schneider Mark Dindal Brian McEntee Robert Lence Kelvin Yasuda David Womersley
Produced by	Paul Gertz David Kirschner
Starring	Scott Bakula Jasmine Guy
Edited by	Dan Molina
Music by	Steve Goldstein
Production companies	Warner Bros. Family Entertainment Turner Feature Animation Warner Bros. Feature Animation David Kirschner Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	March 26, 1997 (1997-03-26)
Running time	74 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$32 million[1]
Box office	$3.6 million[1]

Cats Don't Dance is a 1997 American animated musical comedy film distributed by Warner Bros. under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label.^[2] It is the only fully animated feature produced by Turner Feature Animation, which was merged during the post-production of Cats Don't Dance into Warner Bros. Animation after the merger of Time Warner with Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. Turner Feature Animation had also produced the animated portions of Turner's The Pagemaster (1994). It is also the only Turner Feature Animation production to be co-produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation.

The film was the directorial debut of former Disney animator Mark Dindal, and features the voices of Scott Bakula, Jasmine Guy, Matthew Herried, Ashley Peldon, John Rhys-Davies, Kathy Najimy, Don Knotts, Hal Holbrook, Betty Lou Gerson (in her final film role), René Auberjonois, George Kennedy and Dindal. Its musical numbers were written by Randy Newman and includes Gene Kelly's contributions as choreographer, before his death on February 2, 1996. The film was Kelly's final film project and is dedicated to his memory.

Similar to other WB films at the time, it was a box office bomb, grossing $3 million domestically due to lack of marketing and promotion. Despite this, the film received generally positive reviews, with praise for its animation, humor, characters, voice performances and musical numbers.

Plot[]

In 1939, Danny, an optimistic 18-year-old cat from Kokomo, Indiana, travels to Hollywood in hopes of starting an acting career there. After meeting a new friend Pudge, Danny is selected by agent Farley Wink to feature in a film that is in production at Mammoth Pictures called Li'l Ark Angel, alongside Wink's secretary, a white cat named Sawyer. Upon joining fellow animals; Tillie, Cranston, Frances, and T.W., Danny is dismayed on learning how minor his role is and tries to weasel his way into more time in the spotlight. Danny unwittingly ends up angering Darla Dimple, a popular yet spoiled child actress and star of the film; she promptly assigns her 36-foot tall Frankenstein-like butler Max to intimidate Danny into no longer trying to enlarge his part.

Danny learns from the studio's mascot Woolie the Mammoth that human actors are normally given more important roles than animals, whereas animals themselves end up getting minor and often thankless roles to the point of having little to no leverage in show business. Longing for the spotlight, Danny tries to make a plan that will encourage humans to provide animal actors with better scenarios; Danny's ideas include assembling a massive cluster of animals and putting on a musical performance for the humans.

Later, Danny is given advice by Darla on how to interest and satisfy audiences. He takes this information to heart and groups the animals for an audition on the Ark, hoping to attract the humans' attention. However, Darla, fearing that the animals will jeopardize her spotlight, has Max help her flood the stage with 100,000 gallons of water while L.B. Mammoth, the head of Mammoth Pictures, and Flanigan, the film's director, are giving an interview, getting the animals blamed and dismissed for the collateral damage. The animals are depressed at being barred from acting in Mammoth Pictures, especially Danny, who was convinced by Darla that she was trying to help the animals. Woolie advises Danny to return to Kokomo. Later that night, everyone is at a diner, upset with Danny for ruining everything for them, while Sawyer sings a song about Danny trying to keep their dreams alive. Overhearing Sawyer singing, Tilly suggests Sawyer to follow Danny. Sawyer arrives to the bus stop, just seconds after Danny left, finding his hat and to-do list behind.

However, after a comment from the bus driver and seeing Pudge wander the streets, Danny stops the bus and comes up with another plan. He secretly invites Sawyer and the others to the premiere of Lil' Ark Angel. After the screening and a battle with Max that sends him flying away on a Darla Dimple balloon, Danny calls the audience's attention. Upon bringing Sawyer, Woolie, Tillie, Cranston, Pudge, Frances and T.W. backstage to help Danny, the eight animals put on a musical performance that entertains and impresses the viewers. Meanwhile, Darla tries to sabotage the show by tampering with the set and special effects equipment, but her attempts instead cause her to enhance the performance.

Darla furiously yells at the animals for foiling her plan when her voice is amplified over the theater's sound system due to a boom mic she had been tangled up with, unintentionally revealing the truth about the incident to the audience, including L.B. and Flanigan. Darla tries to hide her true colors by kissing and hugging Danny, but Pudge sends her down a trapdoor. The animals achieve their dreams for larger roles, Danny and Sawyer admit their feelings for each other, and Darla is demoted to a janitor.

Voice cast[]

• Scott Bakula as Danny (speaking/singing), an ambitious, optimistically naïve 18-year-old Orange tabby from Kokomo, Indiana, who wishes to become a famous Hollywood star.
• Jasmine Guy as Sawyer (speaking), a beautiful, but disenchanted sarcastic white cat secretary of Farley Wink and Danny's love interest, later girlfriend.
  • Natalie Cole as Sawyer's singing voice.
• Matthew Herried as Peabo "Pudge" Pudgemyer, a little penguin and Danny's first friend who looks up to him as a big brother. Herried was cast after he asked the animators for directions at a cafe, which they instantly thought he was perfect for the role.^[3]
• Ashley Peldon as Darla Dimple (speaking), the villainous human child star of Hollywood. She conceals her anger and sinister nature from her fans and superiors through a facade of sweetness and innocence, and is willing to do anything to maintain her star status. She is referred to as "America's sweetheart, lover of children and animals!" Darla is a parody of Shirley Temple.
  • Lindsay Ridgeway provides Darla's singing voice.
• Kathy Najimy as Tillie Hippopotamus (speaking/singing), a happy-go-lucky hippopotamus who tries to find the best in every situation.
• John Rhys-Davies as Woolie the Mammoth, the aging African elephant who portrays the mascot for Mammoth Pictures. He originally came to Hollywood to write and perform music where he acts as a mentor to Danny upon befriending him. Woolie is a parody of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's mascot Leo the Lion, as he wears mammoth tusks made of marble and a wig, which are placed on him.
• Betty Lou Gerson as Frances Albacore (speaking/singing), a sassy fish who dances with Cranston Goat and always holds a cigarette holder.
• Hal Holbrook as Cranston Goat (speaking/singing), a cranky elderly old goat who loves to dance. He is always seen with Frances and they always dance with each other.
• Don Knotts as T.W. Turtle (speaking), a nervous and superstitious turtle who always relies on fortune cookie fortunes. He originally came to Hollywood hoping to be an Errol Flynn-type star.
  • Rick Logan provides T.W.'s singing voice.
• George Kennedy as L.B. Mammoth, the human head of Mammoth Pictures. He is a parody of Louis B. Mayer. His secret of success when asked by anyone is "Simple, it's Dimple!"
• René Auberjonois as Flanigan, the human film director of "Li'l Ark Angel" who is constantly kissing up to Darla.
• Mark Dindal as Max, Darla's gargantuan valet who obeys her every command and will not hesitate to punish anyone who crosses her. He serves as the direct force that Darla physically lacks as a child.
• Frank Welker as Farley Wink, a human agent for animals and Sawyer's boss, who talks quickly. He thinks Sawyer is cute despite the fact that she dislikes him.
• David Johansen as Bus Driver, a man whose insults towards the animals getting fired from Mammoth Studios inspire Danny with his last plan to give the animals their long-awaited stardom.
• (uncredited) as Kong, a gorilla whose appears while Danny and Sawyer are going to the set of Li'l Ark Angel at Mammoth Studios. His voice is modeled after Joe Besser.
• Dee Bradley Baker as Mammoth Pictures guide tour
• Tony Pope as Alligator
• Peter Renaday as Narrator

Production[]

Development[]

The film was launched in 1993 as a vehicle for Michael Jackson, who would produce, star, and be a consultant in the music and choreography. It would have been a hybrid live-action/CGI film.^[4] By 1994, Jackson ceased to be involved in the film.^[5] In its earlier stages, the film concerned less anthropomorphic stray cats that live among the sets and studio backlots. At one point, David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr. composed songs for the film before Randy Newman was hired.^[6]

The Warner Bros. Animation writing department added cat characters based on stories about the filming of Warner Bros. Studios productions like Casablanca (1942), East of Eden (1955), and The Music Man (1962); stagehands would feed feral cats, which dominated the back lot for decades.^[7] Producers David Kirschner and Paul Gertz then decided to have dance numbers in the vein of classic musical films like Singin' in the Rain (1952). Kershner felt the style would appeal to a wide audience. An old Hollywood backdrop also inspired the premise of anthropomorphic animals being allegories of those who did not look and/or sound mainstream struggling to gain attention in Hollywood in the early 20th century.^[7]

Kirschner contacted Mark Dindal to be director of the project a year after the two met and while Dindal was working on The Rocketeer (1991).^[7] Around the same time, Brian McEntee joined as art director, Randy Newman joined as composer, and Gene Kelly joined as dance consultant.^[7] Dindal, Kirschner, and McEntee noticed the improving animation technology and were excited to see how it would be incorporated with traditional animation in Cats Don't Dance; McEntee himself worked on the computer-animated ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast (1991).^[7] The team watched old musical films for reference before asking Kelly, who instantly joined due to his interest in the story.^[7] One meeting took place at Kelly's house between him and Dindal, and he vividly remembered how the films he starred in were choreographed.^[7]

During production, management at Turner Feature Animation changed repeatedly and each head that came in attempted to take drastic revisions, including updating the setting to the 1950s rock-and-roll era. "It's pretty hard to try and keep what you have finished so far, and then suddenly transition into a different period of time or introduce a different character or have a completely different ending that doesn't seem to fit the beginning you have," said Dindal.^[6]

Dindal's portrayal of Max was initially a scratch track and was never intended to be heard on the film. Dindal wanted Max to be voiced by a professional actor, but as the film started running out of money, he kept his own vocals in.^[6]

Music[]

Steve Goldstein composed much of the score. For the film, Randy Newman composed songs inspired by the classic songs of the Golden Age of Hollywood, including "Danny's Arrival Song", "Little Boat On The Sea", "Animal Jam Session", "Big and Loud", "Tell Me Lies", and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", while the opening and ending pop song "Our Time Has Come" was written by Martin Page and the end credits song "I Do Believe" was written by Simon Climie and Will Downing. Goldstein and Newman gathered a couple of nominations at the Annie Awards, with the latter winning the award for the musical numbers written and composed by him.

Original songs performed in the film include:

Release[]

New Line Cinema, which was a sister company to Turner Feature Animation at the time, expressed interest in distributing the film.^[8] But when Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner in 1996, the film ended up in the hands of Warner Bros., who would later merge with the company in 2008. Pullet Surprise, a newly produced Looney Tunes short film featuring Foghorn Leghorn, preceded the film the original theatrical release, and "The Big Sister", a Dexter's Laboratory What a Cartoon! short, followed the film in its original home video release.

Critical reception[]

Cats Don't Dance received a 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site consensus reads, "Cats Don't Dance, but they should easily entertain all-ages audiences thanks to some colorful animation, sharp humor, and a catchy soundtrack."^[9]

Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote: "Decked out with sharp and colorful design work, some well-drawn characters and six snappy Randy Newman tunes, this first entry from Turner Feature Animation goes down very easily but lacks a hook."^[10]

Box office[]

Cats Don't Dance became a casualty of the Turner/Time Warner merger: it received a traditional theatrical release in 1997 but without fanfare and did not draw an audience. The film's total domestic theatrical gross was $3,566,637 against its $32 million production budget.^[1] Director Mark Dindal and producer David Kirschner were both frustrated with Warner Bros. over the lack of advertising and the failed marketing campaign.^[6][11]

Accolades[]

Despite mostly positive reception, the Stinkers filed the film under the Founders Award in 1997 (which lamented the year's biggest studio disgraces), citing it as "loud, unfunny, and completely over the heads of its intended audience."^[12] On the other hand, when it comes to positive accolades, although failing in gathering any Oscar nominations, it became historically the first non-Disney animated film to win the Best Animated Feature at the Annie Awards.

Home media[]

Cats Don't Dance had its first home video release on VHS and LaserDisc on August 19, 1997, by Warner Home Video.

The film saw its first DVD release on September 3, 2002 as a 4:3 pan-and-scan DVD with bonus features. A re-release of the same DVD, but bundled with Quest for Camelot, was released on May 2, 2006. Internationally, in July 2008, Cats Don't Dance was released on DVD in widescreen in Germany, Spain, and the Benelux countries. A widescreen DVD was released for the first time in North America on November 1, 2016 via the Warner Archive Collection.^[14] The original widescreen presentation is also available digitally for rental or purchase through Google Play and also through Amazon Video. It is unknown if it will be put on HBO Max.

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cats Don't Dance

• Cats Don't Dance at IMDb
• Cats Don't Dance at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Cats Don't Dance at AllMovie
• Cats Don't Dance at Box Office Mojo