“Cats and Dogs,” the latest children’s movie by Warner Brothers incorporates action, adventure, and comedy fit for all age groups.
The style of the movie could be compared to the hit Disney film “101 Dalmatians,” in its charismatic interactions between actors, animals and their evil nemeses.
The cast of “Cats and Dogs” stars Jeff Goldblum who plays Professor Brody, a scientist trying to find the cure for relieving people of allergies to dogs. Elizabeth Perkins plays his wife, Mrs. Brody, who buys a puppy for their son, Scott (Alexander Polluck), who seems unwilling to accept this new member of the family.
Complications arise when Lou (voice of Tobey Maguire), an adventuresome and energetic Beagle, stumbles upon an evil feline plan to take over the world.
Lou teams up with a mutt named Butch (Alec Baldwin), a seductive Saluki Hound named Ivy (Susan Sarandon), a Chinese hairless Crested named Peek (Joe Pantoliano), The Huggable Sheepdog (Michael Clarke Duncan), and The Mastiff (Charlton Heston).
These cunning canine agents defend the humans against this vicious cat overthrow and keep their place as “man’s best friend.” They have a state-of-the-art communication center equipped with Snausages hidden inside Butch’s dog house. Peek even has his own Radar station to find “any non-residential cats within a three block radius.”
Mr. Tinkles (Sean Hayes), menacing leader of the cats, is determined to steal the allergy formula from the Brodys in order to rule the world, as they once did in ancient Egypt. His assistant is short-haired Persian named Calico (Jon Lovitz).
The cats are well-equipped with detonating hair balls, parachutes and ninja suits, equipped with live-fish. A cute little British shorthair kitten plays Russian Blue, an experienced attack cat with a group of rare Devon Rexes as a team of fighting ninjas.
When the feisty felines kidnap the Brodys, the dogs are put to the test. With Lou prepared to risk everything for his family, he just might become a secret agent.
Warner Brothers uses cutting-edge technology to create robots and computer-generated images in the majority of the dare-devil scenes.
“We made a conscious decision early on to create characters that existed in multiple mediums. We wanted to introduce live animals in a natural setting and then, through the use of puppets and computer animation, take the audience along an escalating path of credibility. Until the time they see a dog leaping off of a two-story building onto a a log-loader being driven by a cat, they’re okay with it,” said Chris deFaria, producer of the film, in the “Cats and Dogs” Web site.
More than one hundred animals were trained by 27 trainers. No animals were harmed during the production of the film.
