Cats Don't Dance


Cats Don't Dance is a 1997 American animated musical comedy film distributed by Warner Bros. under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label. It is the only fully animated feature produced by Turner Feature Animation, which was merged during the post-production of Cats Don't Dance into Warner Bros. Animation after the merger of Time Warner with Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. Turner Feature Animation had also produced the animated portions of Turner's The Pagemaster.
The film was the directorial debut of former Disney animator Mark Dindal, and stars the voices of Scott Bakula, Jasmine Guy, Matthew Herried, Ashley Peldon, John Rhys-Davies, Kathy Najimy, Don Knotts, Hal Holbrook, Betty Lou Gerson, René Auberjonois, George Kennedy, and Dindal. Its musical numbers were written by Randy Newman and includes Gene Kelly's contributions as choreographer, before his death in 1996. The film was Kelly's final film project and is dedicated to his memory.
The film became a box-office failure by grossing around $3 million domestically due to lack of marketing and promotion at the time of its release. Despite this, it generally received some positive reviews with praise from critics and audiences toward its colorful animation, humor, voice performances, and musical numbers.

Plot

In 1939, Danny, an optimistic young cat, dreams of Hollywood stardom, so he travels from his hometown of Kokomo, Indiana, to Hollywood in hopes of starting a career there. After meeting a new friend Pudge, Danny is selected by agent Farley Wink to feature in a film that is in production at Mammoth Pictures called Li'l Ark Angel, alongside Wink's secretary: A white cat named Sawyer. Upon joining fellow animals; Tilly, Cranston, Frances, and T.W., Danny is dismayed on learning how minor his role is and tries to weasel his way into more time in the spotlight. Danny angers Darla Dimple, a popular, extremely spoiled child actress and star of the film, so she assigns her butler Max to intimidate Danny into no longer trying to enlarge his part.
Danny learns from the studio's mascot Woolie the Mammoth, that human actors are normally given more important roles than animals. He longs for the spotlight and tries to make a plan that will encourage humans to provide animal actors with better scenarios, such as by assembling a massive cluster of animals and putting on a musical performance for the humans.
Later, Danny is given advice by Darla through song on how to interest and satisfy audiences. He takes this information to heart and groups the animals for an audition on the Ark in hopes of attracting the humans' attention. However, Darla, fearing that the animals will jeopardize her spotlight, has Max help her flood the stage, while L.B. Mammoth, the head of Mammoth Pictures, and Flanagan, the film's director, are giving an interview, getting the animals blamed and dismissed for the collateral damage. The animals are depressed at being barred from acting in Mammoth Pictures. Woolie tells Danny to return to Kokomo. Later that night, everyone was at a diner, upset with Danny for ruining everything for them, while Sawyer sings a song about Danny trying to keep their dreams alive. Tilly overhears Sawyer singing and suggests Sawyer to follow Danny. Sawyer arrives to the bus stop, just seconds after Danny left, finding his hat and his to-do list behind.
However, after a comment from the bus driver and seeing Pudge wander the streets, Danny stops the bus and comes up with another plan. He secretly invites Sawyer and the others to the premiere of Lil' Ark Angel. After the screening and a battle with Max that sends him flying away on a Darla Dimple balloon, Danny calls the audience's attention. Upon bringing Sawyer, Woolie, Tilly, Cranston, Pudge, Frances and T.W. backstage to help Danny, the eight animals put on a musical performance that entertains and impresses the viewers. Meanwhile, Darla tries to sabotage the show by tampering with the set and special effects equipment, but her attempts instead cause her to inadvertently enhance the performance.
Furious and fuming at the animals, Darla berates Danny, accidentally confessing to flooding Mammoth Studios when her voice is amplified over the theater's sound system thanks to a boom mic she had been tangled up with, revealing the truth about the incident to the audience, including L.B. and Flanagan. Darla tries to hide her true colors by smiling, hugging, and kissing Danny, but Pudge sends Darla down a trapdoor. The animals achieve their dreams for larger roles, Danny and Sawyer admit their feelings for each other, and Darla is eventually forced to work as a janitor.

Voice cast

The film was launched in 1993 as a vehicle for Michael Jackson, who would produce, star, and be a consultant in the music and choreography. It would have been a hybrid live-action/CGI film. By 1994, Jackson ceased to be involved in the film. In its earlier stages, the film concerned less anthropomorphic stray cats that live among the sets and studio backlots. At one point, David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr. composed songs for the film before Randy Newman was hired.

Casting

At that point the core team of filmmakers was assembled and it was time to begin casting the roles. As is the tradition in animation, the voice actors are videotaped as they record the voices of their characters; this enables the animators to use specific body language from each of the actors to lend dimension to their characterizations.
Scott Bakula, best known to audiences as the star of the television series Quantum Leap, was cast as Danny. Explains Paul Gertz, "People will be very surprised when they hear Danny and realize that it's Scott's voice doing all that singing. Scott had a successful career starring on Broadway before he began working in television and film. He's a very experienced singer and dancer, and he was a natural choice for Danny."
Sawyer, Danny's verbal sparring partner and, eventually, his love interest, is voiced by Jasmine Guy, who became known for her role as Whitley Gilbert on the series A Different World. Sawyer's singing voice is provided by Natalie Cole. "There was something special about working with Natalie, who's a wonderful talent on her own, and whose father, Nat, was a part of Hollywood's fabulous past," says David Kirschner. "Somehow I think it shows up in her interpretation of the music; there is a classic charm and romance to it." According to Lauren Faust, Nancy Giles was the original speaking voice and hers was much deeper, similar to Cole and many scenes were animated to her performance, but was replaced with Guy when the film was 90% complete.
Other character voices were provided by George Kennedy, Hal Holbrook, René Auberjonois, John Rhys-Davies, Kathy Najimy, Betty Lou Gerson and Don Knotts. "Many of these actors have worked in animation before, and many others have done radio drama, which has trained them in using every expressive nuance in their voices," says Kirschner. "We wanted each character to be an individual – to sound as if they looked, moved and acted a certain way."
Darla Dimple was voiced by nine-year-old Ashley Peldon, who has herself been acting since her toddler days and is most recently seen in the live-action drama The Crucible. The character Darla Dimple was a name parody of then child star Shirley Temple.
The voice casting of Pudge came by chance, recalled Mark Dindal; "A group of animators was eating lunch together in an outdoor cafe one day and a little boy came over to ask us for directions. Someone answered him and he walked away. At that same moment, another animator blurted, `That's Pudge exactly!,' and we all realized it was true... So we rushed after him and asked if he'd ever acted – which he hadn't – and if he'd like to – which he would – and the rest is moviemaking history. Little Matthew Herried became a terrific voice for Pudge."
During production, management at Turner Feature Animation changed repeatedly and each head that came in attempted to take drastic revisions, including updating the setting to the 1950s rock-and-roll era. "It's pretty hard to try and keep what you have finished so far, and then suddenly transition into a different period of time or introduce a different character or have a completely different ending that doesn't seem to fit the beginning you have," said director Mark Dindal.
Dindal's portrayal of Max was initially a scratch track and was never intended to be heard on the film. Dindal wanted Max to be voiced by a professional actor, but as the film started running out of money, he kept his own vocals in.

Animation

During the animation on Cats Don't Dance, Randy Newman was creating songs that gently poked fun at the idealism of 1930s cinema while capturing the melodic, danceable sound that has made so many of those songs into classics.
Muses Mark Dindal, "One of the things that stuck in my mind after we spoke with people who'd been part of Hollywood's Golden Age was the number of times they described an effect or stunt that they had never done before. They said, `We just did it, and if it worked, we left it.'
"We're more analytical about film today – we have more history to look back on, and the cost of making movies is so high that it leaves less room for experimentation. But we're still trying to push the boundaries of the possible, and some of that pioneering, risk-taking outlook is still what makes today's movies great.
"I like to think that we've kind of tipped our hats to the best of both worlds with Cats Don't Dance – it's an homage to the past, but created with the talents of the present and the technology of the future. And the message – giving everyone a chance to be his or her best by pursuing what they truly love – is timeless."

Release

, which was a sister company to Turner Feature Animation at the time, expressed an interest in distributing the film. But when Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner in 1996, the film ended up in the hands of Warner Bros. Pullet Surprise, a newly produced Looney Tunes short film featuring Foghorn Leghorn, preceded the film the original theatrical release, and "The Big Sister", a Dexter's Laboratory What a Cartoon! short, followed the film in its original home video release.

Critical reception

Cats Don't Dance received a 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site consensus reads, "Cats Don't Dance, but they should easily entertain all-ages audiences thanks to some colorful animation, sharp humor, and a catchy soundtrack." It was the first non-Disney animated film to have won the Best Animated Feature award, and Randy Newman won the Best Individual Achievement: Music in a Feature/Home Video Production at the 1997 Annie Awards.

Box office

Cats Don't Dance 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. The film's total domestic theatrical gross was $3,566,637 against its $32 million production budget. Director Mark Dindal and producer David Kirschner were both frustrated with Warner Bros. over the lack of advertising and the failed marketing campaign.

Accolades

Despite mostly positive reception, the Stinkers filed the film under the Founders Award in 1997, citing it as "loud, unfunny, and completely over the heads of its intended audience."
YearAwardCategoryRecipientsResult
1997Saturn AwardBest Home Video ReleaseCats Don't Dancerowspan="3"
1997Annie AwardBest Animated FeatureCats Don't Dance-
1997Annie AwardMusic in a Feature ProductionRandy Newman -
1997Annie AwardMusic in a Feature ProductionSteve Goldstein rowspan="13"
1997Annie AwardDirecting in a Feature ProductionMark Dindal-
1997Annie AwardProducing in a Feature ProductionDavid Kirschner
Paul Gertz		-
1997Annie AwardEffects AnimationJohn Allan Armstrong-
1997Annie AwardEffects AnimationBob Simmons-
1997Annie AwardCharacter Animation in a Feature ProductionFrans Vischer -
1997Awards Circuit Community AwardsBest Animated FeatureCats Don't Dance-
1997Blockbuster Entertainment AwardsFavorite Animated Family MovieCats Don't Dance-
1998Golden Reel AwardsBest Sound Editing - Animated FeatureCats Don't Dance-
1998Golden Reel AwardsBest Sound Editing - Music AnimationCats Don't Dance-
2013Golden Reel AwardsBest Sound Editing - Animated Feature Film, Domestic and ForeignRichard Partlow-
1998OFTA Film AwardBest Animated PictureBill Bloom
Paul Gertz
David Kirschner		-
1998Young Artist AwardBest Performance in a Voiceover - TV or Film - Young ActressAshley Peldon-

Home media

Cats Don't Dance got its first home video release on VHS and LaserDisc on August 19, 1997 by Warner Home Video.
The film saw its first DVD releases on August 19, 1997 and September 3, 2002, as a 4:3 pan-and-scan DVD with bonus features. A re-release of the same DVD, but bundled with Quest for Camelot, was released on May 2, 2006. Internationally, in July 2008, Cats Don't Dance was released on DVD in widescreen in Germany, Spain, and the Benelux countries. A widescreen DVD was released for the first time in North America on November 1, 2016 via the Warner Archive Collection. The original widescreen presentation is also available digitally for rental or purchase through Google Play and also through Amazon Video.