Cats Don't Dance

Cats Don't Dance
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mark Dindal
Produced by	David Kirschner Bill Bloom Timothy Campbell Paul Gertz
Written by	Mark Dindal Robert Lence Brian McEntee Rick Schneider David Womersley Kelvin Yasuda
Starring	Scott Bakula Jasmine Guy Natalie Cole Ashley Peldon John Rhys-Davies Kathy Najimy Don Knotts
Music by	Steve Goldstein (Score) Randy Newman (Songs)
Editing by	Dan Molina
Studio	Turner Entertainment Warner Bros. Animation
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Family Entertainment
Release date(s)	March 26, 1997 (1997-03-26)
Running time	75 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$32 million
Box office	$3,588,602

Cats Don't Dance is a 1997 animated musical film, notable as the only fully animated feature produced by Turner Entertainment's feature animation unit (later merged into Warner Bros. Animation, after the merger of Time Warner with Turner Broadcasting in 1996, in which Time Warner purchased Turner; Turner Feature Animation had also produced the animated portions of The Pagemaster in 1994). The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. Set in a world where human beings and anthropomorphic animals live side-by-side, it focuses on a cat named Danny who wants to break into show business in Hollywood.

The film features the voices of Scott Bakula and Jasmine Guy, and was the directorial debut of former Disney animator Mark Dindal. It is also notable for its musical numbers, written by Randy Newman, and for Gene Kelly's contributions as choreographer. Cats Don't Dance was Kelly's final film project,the film is also dedicated to him.

Plot

An anthropomorphic cat from Kokomo, Indiana named Danny dreams of becoming a film star, so he travels to Hollywood, California in hopes of starting a movie career there. Danny is selected to feature in a movie that is currently in production alongside an anthropomorphic female cat named Sawyer, but is dismayed upon learning about how minor his role is and tries to weasel his way into more time in the limelight. However, Danny winds up upsetting the star of the film; a spoiled, popular child actress named Darla Dimple, and is intimidated by her hulking valet Max into no longer trying to enlarge his part in the movie.

Later, Danny learns from his fellow anthropomorphic animal film extras that human actors are normally given more important movie roles than animals, a fact that none of them are very happy with but know they must accept. Danny, however, longs for the spotlight and tries to come up with a plan that will encourage humans to provide animal actors with better parts, such as by assembling a massive cluster of animals and trying to put on a musical performance for the humans to see. Later, he is given advice by Darla Dimple (while masking her true heartless personality with a sweet one, as she always does) through song on how to interest and satisfy audiences, and Danny takes this information to heart and groups together the animals for yet another performance in hopes of attracting the attention of the humans. However, Darla, fearing that her spotlight is in jeopardy with the animals around, has Max assist her in flooding Mammoth Studios while the director is giving an interview on her latest film and getting the animals blamed and fired. Everybody is depressed by being barred from acting in Mammoth Studios (especially Danny, who was convinced by Darla that she was trying to help the animals), who comes up with a plan for attracting the humans' attention yet again.

On the night of the premiere of the Darla Dimple movie that was being filmed, "Little Ark Angel," after the viewing of the movie, Danny calls the audience's attention and the animals put on a musical performance for everyone (while a threatened Darla attempts to thwart the creatures' attempts at making it to stardom) that entertains and impresses its viewers. However, Darla, frustrated and agitated by her poor attempts at wrecking the animals' show, shouts at Danny for trying to attract all of the focus away from her, and confesses to flooding Mammoth Studios. However, Darla's screaming is inadvertently picked up and amplified by a nearby microphone, unveiling the truth and having her fired. So, the animals are rewarded with larger movie parts from then onward, their dreams coming true.

Voice cast

• Scott Bakula as Danny, an ambitious, optimistically naive cat who desperately wants to become a famous Hollywood star. He is the protagonist.
• Jasmine Guy (Natalie Cole, singing) as Sawyer, a sassy but pessimistic she-cat secretary and the deuteragonist.
• Ashley Peldon (Lindsay Ridgeway, singing) as Darlene "Darla" Dimple, the obnoxious and bratty human child star of Hollywood. She serves as the main antagonist.
• Kathy Najimy as Tillie Hippo, a happy-go-lucky hippopotamus who tries to find the best in every situation.
• John Rhys-Davies as Wooly the Mammoth, the aging elephant mascot for Mammoth Pictures. He originally came to Hollywood to write and perform music and acts a mentor to Danny.
• George Kennedy as L.B. Mammoth, the human head of Mammoth Studios whose secret of success is "Simple, it's Dimple!".
• Rene Auberjonois as Flanagan, the human director of "Li'l Ark Angel" who is constantly kissing up to both Darla and L.B. Mammoth.
• Betty Lou Gerson as Frances Albacore, a sarcastic, cranky fish who dances with Cranston. The cigarette holder she always holds may be a nod to Cruella de Vil, who was also voiced by Gerson. This was Gerson's last film role before she died in 1999.
• Hal Holbrook as Cranston Goat, a cranky elderly goat who surprisingly loves to dance. He is always seen with Frances and they always dance with each other.
• Matthew Herried as Peabo "Pudge" Pudgemyer, a little penguin who is Danny's first friend when he comes to Hollywood. He looks up to Danny as a big brother. He serves as the tritagonist.
• Don Knotts as T.W., a nervous and superstitious turtle who always relies on the fortunes from fortune cookies. He originally came to Hollywood hoping to be an Errol Flynn-type star.
• Mark Dindal as Max, Darla's enormous manservant and personal human assistant and the secondary antagonist. He obeys Darla's every command, and will not hesitate to punish anyone who crosses her. He serves as the direct force that Darla physically lacks, as she is just a child.
• Frank Welker as Farley Wink, a human agent for animals.
• David Johansen as Bus Driver, a human whose insults inspire Danny with his last plan to give the animals their long-awaited stardom.

Musical numbers

1. "Our Time Has Come" - James Ingram, Carnie Wilson
2. "Danny's Arrival Song" - Danny
3. "Little Boat on the Sea" - Darla, Danny
4. "Animal Jam" - Danny, Animals
5. "Big and Loud (Part 1)" - Darla
6. "Big and Loud (Part 2)" - Darla
7. "Tell Me Lies" - Sawyer
8. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" - Danny, Sawyer, Tillie, T.W., Cranston, Frances
9. "I Do Believe" (end credits) - Will Downing

Release and response

Warner Bros. attached "Pullet Surprise", a newly produced Looney Tunes short featuring Foghorn Leghorn, to the original theatrical release, and "The Big Sister", a Dexter's Laboratory What-A-Cartoon! short, following the film in its original home entertainment release.

Cats Don't Dance was released to mixed to positive reviews (it has a 69% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and 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, perhaps due to minimal advertising, a lack of promotional merchandise (only two book adaptations and a set of toys from Subway) and having only one theatrical trailer prepared. Director Mark Dindal was angry with Warner over the lack of advertising and the failed marketing campaign. It was also overshadowed by the overlapping releases of The Devil's Own and the re-release of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the last of the Star Wars trilogy "Special Edition" re-releases. Its total domestic theatrical gross was $3,566,637, making it a box office bomb in contrast with its $32 million production budget.

Despite the film's commercial disaster, Cats Don't Dance was the first non-Disney animated film to have won the Best Animated Feature award at the 1997 Annie Awards.

Home media

Cats Don't Dance got its first home video release on VHS and Laserdisc on August 19, 1997 by Warner Home Video. While a standard 4:3 VHS, the Laserdisc was special in the fact that it remains to this day the only home video release of the film in its theatrical widescreen format in North America (the film is available on DVD in widescreen in Europe). The Laserdisc was never re-released and has become very rare. The VHS re-released for its second and final time on March 2, 1999.

The film saw its first DVD release on September 2, 2002, as a 4:3 pan-and-scan DVD with no bonus features. The most recent release was a re-release of the same DVD, but bundled with Quest for Camelot, which was released on May 2, 2006. In July 2008, Cats Don't Dance was released on DVD in widescreen in Germany, Spain, and the Benelux countries (Belgium/the Netherlands/Luxembourg).

External links

• Cats Don't Dance at the Internet Movie Database
• Cats Don't Dance at AllRovi
• Cats Don't Dance at Box Office Mojo
• Cats Don't Dance at Rotten Tomatoes
• The unofficial Cats Don't Dance fansite
• Cats Don't Dance fansite