Cats Don't Dance

Cats Don't Dance is a 1997 animated film, notable as the only animated feature produced by the short-lived Turner Entertainment animation unit (later renamed as Warner Bros. Feature Animation) and one of the last American animated to use traditional animation cels. The film was distributed to movie theaters 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 Cat 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 songs written by Randy Newman, and for Gene Kelly's contributions as choreographer. Cats Don't Dance was Kelly's final film project. The movie is dedicated to him.

Plot
An ambitious young cat named Danny travels from his small hometown of Kokomo to Hollywood who dreams of making it big in the movies. Danny finds an animal talent agent, as well as his clients, and his receptionist, a sassy and rather cynical, but stunning lady cat named Sawyer, whom Danny falls in love with. When Danny lands a small role in Mammoth Pictures' Li'l Ark Angel, the latest film of Darla Dimple, "America's Sweetheart, Lover of Children and Animals", he's thrilled until he realizes how small the part is. He knows his talent demands a more promising role, so he takes matters into his own paws, turning his one line of "meow" into an impressive bit of music, but in so doing upstages Darla Dimple, who's playing the Li'l Ark Angel. This is a big mistake, as Darla's true self is then revealed as a brash, obnoxious, horrible child star of the worst degree. Miss Dimple states that the animals (whom she actually does not like) and the people involved in the film have to respect her and not make any more interruptions. The director and crew have to agree, lest they face her further wrath, or (to put things on a scale much worse), the wrath of Max, her gigantic manservant.

Danny learns that all of the other animals came to Hollywood with big dreams like he did, only to realize that humans are always given the starring roles, and animals are resigned to the supporting cast. Realizing this Danny sets up an impromptu dance session in the alley, to remind the animals why they came to Hollywood in the first place. Here he also convinces Sawyer, with some difficulty, to dance again. Danny also figures out how to prove the animals' talents to the rest of Hollywood.

Darla Dimple invites Danny to her mansion and offers to call studio boss L.B. Mammoth to set up a chance for Danny and his friends to perform for him. Danny accepts this offer openly and enlists the assistance of all the animals. Unfortunately, the truth is that Darla has no such intention to let the animals perform for L.B., and instead floods the sound stage, destroying a press release that is going on outside and blaming the animals for it. The animals are summarily kicked out of the studio and told that they'll never work in Hollywood again. Defeated, Danny prepares to go back to Kokomo, but he soon changes his mind and decides to work together with Pudge to come up with an idea for the animals to finally show their stuff.

Danny sneaks into the studio and invites all of the animals to the premiere of Darla's film. After the film rolls (and a fairly intense battle between Max and Danny atop Grauman's Chinese Theater), Danny addresses the audience, informing them that he and his friends are going to sing and dance for them, as requested, Danny says, by Ms. Darla Dimple. What follows is a spectacular production number by the animals, while Darla's insane attempts to stop them only results in more flash and fireworks, and in the process electrocutes herself and is badly bruised in the end. Darla, trying to prove that she is the real star, inadvertently screams the truth about her sabotage of the sound stage flooding into a microphone for all to hear, and the production number is a resounding success. Everyone learns the truth about what actually happened and what Darla is really like. Pudge opens the trap door, and Darla falls through it. L.B. and the director Flanigan apologize for the mistakes they have made. The animals are given starring roles from then on, creating a number of amusing parodies of classic films. Later, after the movie poster parodies, it is revealed that Darla has lost her fame and has wound up as a grumpy janitor.

Voice cast

 * Scott Bakula as Danny
 * Jasmine Guy as Sawyer (speaking)
 * Natalie Cole as Sawyer (singing)
 * Ashley Peldon as Darla Dimple (speaking)
 * Lindsay Ridgeway as Darla Dimple (singing)
 * Kathy Najimy as Tillie Hippo
 * John Rhys-Davies as Woolie Mammoth
 * George Kennedy as L.B. Mammoth
 * Rene Auberjonois as Flanigan
 * Betty Lou Gerson as Frances Albacore
 * Hal Holbrook as Cranston Goat
 * Matthew Herried as Peabo "Pudge" Pudgemyer
 * Don Knotts as T.W. Turtle
 * Mark Dindal as Max
 * Frank Welker as Farley Wink
 * David Johansen as Bus Driver

Soundtrack album listing

 * 1) "Our Time Has Come" - James Ingram, Carnie Wilson
 * 2) "I Do Believe" - Will Downing
 * 3) "Danny's Arrival Song" - Scott Bakula
 * 4) "Little Boat on the Sea" - Lindsay Ridgeway, Scott Bakula
 * 5) "Animal Jam" - Scott Bakula
 * 6) "Big and Loud (Part 1)" - Lindsay Ridgeway
 * 7) "Big and Loud (Part 2)" - Lindsay Ridgeway
 * 8) "Tell Me Lies" - Natalie Cole
 * 9) "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" - Natalie Cole, Scott Bakula, Kathy Najimy
 * 10) "Darla's Premiere" - Steve Goldstein
 * 11) "Once Upon a Time..." - Steve Goldstein
 * 12) "Danny's Theme" - Steve Goldstein
 * 13) "Farley's Office" - Steve Goldstein
 * 14) "Reporting for Work" - Steve Goldstein
 * 15) "Max Enters" - Steve Goldstein
 * 16) "Tea Time for Danny" - Steve Goldstein
 * 17) "The Flood" - Steve Goldstein
 * 18) "Battle with Max" - Steve Goldstein
 * 19) "Triumph of the Animals" - Steve Goldstein
 * 20) "Our Time Has Come" [Movie Version] - James Ingram, Carnie Wilson

Release and response
Warner Bros. attached Pullet Surprise, a newly produced Looney Tunes short featuring Foghorn Leghorn, to Cats Don't Dance for its original theatrical release. Although Cats Don't Dance was critically acclaimed (it still retains a 67% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes), it was a casualty of the Turner/Time Warner merger: it received a traditional theatrical release in 1997 but without fanfare and failed to draw an audience, 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. It was also overshadowed by the overlapping releases of Disney's Hercules and the "Star Wars" special edition. Its total domestic theatrical gross was $3,566,637, making it a huge box office flop in contrast with its $60 million production budget. The film did win Best Animated Feature at the 1997 Annie Awards.

Pop culture references
The film takes place in April of 1939 (the date is posted on Danny's script) to the early 1940s setting, allowing it to parody the Golden Age of Hollywood, and it features caricatures of Mae West, Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, King Kong, and Toto from The Wizard of Oz. The art and directing styles of the film reflect the influence of 1930s/1940s cartoon makers such as Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and the artists at the Fleischer Studio. The main antagonist, Darla Dimple, is an evil caricature of Shirley Temple, Jane Withers, and Darla Hood all rolled into one. Mammoth Pictures is a caricature of MGM, with L.B. Mammoth as Louis B. Mayer.

Before the end credits of the film, many parody posters of famous movies starring the animals are shown. They include Singin' in the Rain, Casablanca, The Mask, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Witches of Eastwick, Grumpy Old Men, Superman, Beetlejuice, Twister, Batman and Robin and Free Willy.

Home Video Releases
Cats Don't Dance got its first home video release on VHS and Laserdisc on August 19, 1997, which at the time was relatively quick for home video releases. While a standard 4:3 VHS, the Laserdisc was special in the fact that it remains to this day the only way to watch the film in its theatrical widescreen format until its Cartoon Network HD airing starting in February 2008 (all VHS and DVD releases have been 4:3 full-screen). 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 bare-bones 4:3 panned DVD with virtually 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. There has yet to be a DVD release of the film in its theatrical widescreen format.