Review of Cats Don't Dance (1997) by Steven P — 25 Jan 2011

69%? Really? Maybe it's because I did not see this film as a child, but Cats Don't Dance is a litterbox clump in the pet store of WB's better animated films, like The Iron Giant and Batman: The Mask of The Phantasm.

I first saw this film at age 14. My body was changing. The Wii was out, Pokemon was now handled by a different dubbing company, and this was the movie our theater in Sweet Home ended up showing instead of Cars.

It tries to invoke the feelings of classic cartoons and classic cinema in general, but it ends up being less Bugs Bunny and more Dudley Puppy. The Hollywood parodies are generic and muggy; especially when you consider the power of the "Springtime For Hitler" sequence in The Producers, the literal breaking of the fourth wall in Blazing Saddles, and pretty much everything in Spaceballs or Tropic Thunder.

One more problem with this movie-Scott Bakula, giving a performance that is somehow less energetic than on Star Trek Enterprise or Quantum Leap. He sings about making it big in Hollywood, but I just kept hoping that he tried to drown himself in the pool of a more successful person, like Nick Nolte in Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

I admit Cats Don't Dance is not as bad as Quest For Camelot in terms of attempting to leech of the Disney style, but it is still unacceptable given how much variety there was in animation in the 1990s. Now, I think I go watch Mulan to block this memory that had been carefully put away for so long.