Emily Vaartstra | rawr reviews
In a world where dogs double as secret agents and cats are trained ninjas with a fierce leader attempting to rule over the human race, there is only one question: who will rise to the top and reign supreme?
In the 2001 action/adventure family comedy, ‘Cats & Dogs,’ unbeknownst to the humans, a war between cats and dogs quickly peaks when a dog named Buddy is ambushed and “catnapped” by an evil army of cats working under the white Persian cat menace, Mr. Tinkles.
Mr. Tinkles (voiced by Sean Hayes), along with his evil sidekick Calico (voiced by Jon Lovitz), plans to conquer the world by making all humans allergic to dogs through preventing Buddy’s owner, Professor Brody (Jeff Goldblum), from creating a serum to cure dog allergies.
An adventure-seeking Beagle puppy named Lou (voiced by Tobey Maguire) gets adopted by the Brody family and gets caught in the crossfire as Buddy’s replacement to protect the Brody house and the serum from the cats.
Lou — with the help of an Anatolian Shepherd named Butch (voiced by Alec Baldwin), a Chinese Crested dog named Peek (voiced by Joe Pantoliano) and an English Sheepdog named Sam (voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan) — tries hard to succeed as a secret agent, and in being a friend to the young Scotty Brody (Alexander Pollock).While the humans continue through their busy lives, the cats make several attempts to capture the formula as their canine foes work endlessly to stop them.
Although this is a family-friendly comedy, even college students will find themselves entertained by the ongoing battle of which animal is superior between cats and dogs.
Like many pet-oriented films, there is always the issue of cheesy dialogue and predictable plot twists with a few questionable special effects (talking pets being one of them), as well as the oh-so-familiar conclusion of uniting boy and dog, but the movie makes for light-hearted entertaining night nonetheless.
‘Cats & Dogs’ was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Family Feature Film (Comedy) and Best Performance in a Feature Film — Leading Young Actor (Alexander Pollock).
The sequel, ‘Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,’ was released the summer of 2010 with the return of actors Duncan, Pantoliano and Hayes in their roles as Sam, Peek and Mr. Tinkles. Nick Nolte and Wallace Shawn replace Baldwin and Lovitz as Butch and Calico.
Lou, now an adult dog, is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris and joined by James Marsden, Christina Applegate and Bette Midler as the voices of new characters named Diggs, Catherine and Kitty Galore.