Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

cinephile-27690 I saw this for the first time at 17 or 18. As you can imagine, it just didn't appeal to me. It wasn't bad, but there were moments that I felt too silly to be watching it. The little girl who is a brat is probably the best part. If you are single digit aged, see it.

lisafordeay Cat's Don't Dance is a 1997 Warner Bros Family Entertainment animated film that tells the story of Danny(voice by and sung by Scott Bakula who was in Quantium Leap and he played Zachary Levi's father in the TV show Chuck)who dreams of going to Hollywood to pursue an acting career opposite Darla Dimple(voiced by Ashley Pendon)who is a big hit in Hollywood as she is a lover for animals...or is she?So Danny goes to Hollywood and meets other animals too including a grumpy goat,a fish,a hippo,a elephant who's name is Mammoth,a cute pengiun and a sassy cat named Sawyer(voiced by Jasmine Guy and sung by Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole). What I like about this film is the songs as every song fits this movie perfectly. In some animated films the songs don't actually suit at all,like in Disney's Hercules as the songs in that film were all over the place,here in Cat's Don't Dance all the songs had a Broadway/Jazz sound to them,and who is the composer for this film,why its Randy Newman (who also did music for Monster's Inc,all the Toy Story films and of course The Princess & The Frog).Overall I found this film very entertaining and enjoyable to watch. I still have this on VHS ever since I was a kid,and I still watch it. The animation is vivid,the charcthers are likable,some of the songs are sorta forgettable but hey you gotta love them all the same. Also I love how they make fun of the 1930s genre and have films that Warner Bros made in the 1990s or 80s like The Mask,Batman & Robin,Grumpy Old Men,Beetlejuice and many more. Its a shame that its such an underrated film like Swan Princess,another film I love to watch all the time. 7/10

Blueghost I caught a rendering of a scene on Deviant Art, and was told that the scene was from an animated feature called "Cats Don't Dance". I took a chance on it, and saw a film that I think could have been better than it ultimately became.When I think of classic MGM cartoons I immediately think of Tom and Jerry, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel and a few others. Well, "Cats Don't Dance" is none of those, but it does have a certain charm. A lot of the classic ultra violent slapstick that is that hallmark of the classic cartoon has been replaced with high energy benign comic styleings that, to be honest, don't really hit the mark. I'm sorry, but even kids know that comedy is the misfortune of others, largely because it makes us feel superior to the poor guy who suffers misfortune, because he's done so through his own stupidity.Now, not all humor has its genesis in laughing at the other guy's plight, as there are a lot of humorous things that can be done through expressions, reactions and close calls of all sorts. But when you strictly base humor solely on the benign, or rather delegate the bad- taste humor because it involves cartoon violence to the "black hats" in the piece, then you're making a value judgment that the public is smart enough to figure out.People can get swept up in trends and hysteria, but to presuppose that children, or specifically all children, will mimic violent slapstick, is perhaps not unrealistic, but perhaps making too much of an assumption of the human character (regardless of age).And that's the real problem with this film. It tries to make up for a lack of humor by injecting tons of energy into every routine, every bit, every gag that's displayed for the audience. It thus feels like a quickly put together patch job of gags that were story boarded and retrofitted to a basic story and plot.The voice acting is fine, the sound effects and other facets of the production are first rate, but, as I say, we essentially have a neutered production. The small evil Shirley Temple like antagonist is over the top and cliché, the protagonist is cliché, pretty much the whole array of characters are from central casting. Even so Bakula and Guy do a respectable job of thesping the part, but they're hard pressed to carry a production that has other issues.To be honest it's not a production I'd take my kids to see (if I had any). Not because it's offensive or lacks morals, it's just not that good, and at times is so high energy as to be incomprehensible. Give it a whirl if you must, but watch at your own risk.An okay production, but nothing sterling.

TheLittleSongbird I remembered seeing Cats Don't Dance when I was 10, and really liking it. To this day, I still find it a mystery as to why I didn't see it again since, and I can't think of a convincing enough reason why other than I forgot about it. Then, I was reading some reviews by chance that were praising this film, and I decided I must give it another chance. Thank goodness for YouTube. And you know what, I am glad I did that, and now I am kicking myself for only seeing this film once in my childhood. Seriously I loved it, why it is so underrated I don't know.I am also scratching my head on some of the aspects of the film critical reviews have picked up. Critics complained of dull characters, and others of forgettable songs. Now I will admit that Cats Don't Dance is surprisingly ambitious, but I cannot disagree more with the criticism that it has forgettable music. I thought it was wonderful, the incidental music itself was beautiful, but the songs were amazing and definitely memorable, from the wonderfully energetic end number, to the poignant one sung by Sawyer in the rain. Though special mention has to go to Big and Loud, where Lindsay Ridgeway did a spectacular job with the singing voice of the antagonist Darla Dimple.And the characters certainly weren't dull. Danny is a very likable Gene Kelly-like protagonist, and Sawyer is lovely. And if you're looking for a character for comic relief, look to Flannigan especially. But the most memorable character is easily Darla, wonderfully voiced by Ashley Peldon. You could say Darla is like Shirley Temple's evil twin, she is very cute yet she is mighty mean too. Her bodyguard Max for some reason frightened me at the end when he was chasing Danny when I first saw Cats Don't Dance. The animation is colourful and detailed, and the voice cast is excellent. Other definite pros are in the surprisingly consistent and mature scripting, the inspired story, its constant sense of fun and the glamorous and irresistible choreography. All in all, despite the decent enough rating on IMDb(though I personally think it should be in the 7s) this is a very underrated and almost forgotten film. 10/10 Bethany Cox