Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

MOVIE REVIEW OF CATS AND DOGS 2: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE (2010) - PG

Cast
Director	Brad Peyton	Runtime: 1hr.22min.(82min.)
Diggs	.....	James Marsden
Butch	.....	Nick Nolte
Catherine	.....	Christina Applegate
Seamus	.....	Katt Williams
Kitty Galore	.....	Bette Midler
Lou	.....	Neil Patrick Harris
Mr. Tinkles	.....	Sean Hayes
Calico	.....	Wallace Shawn
Tab Lazenby	.....	Roger Moore
Peek	.....	Joe Pantoliano
Sam	.....	Michael Clark Duncan
Shane	.....	Chris O'Donnell
Chuck	.....	Jack McBrayer
Freidrich	.....	Fred Armisen
Little Girl	.....	Kiernan Shipka
Crazy Carlito	.....	Paul Rodriguez
Angus MacDougall	.....	Michael Beattie
Duncan MacDougall	.....	Jeff Bennett
Gruff K-9	.....	J.K. Simmons
Snobby K-9	.....	André Sogliuzzo
Used Car Salesman	.....	Mark Burgess
Cat Lady	.....	Betty Phillips
Paws	.....	Phil Lamarr
Coit Tower Guard	.....	Keith Dallas
Cat Gunner	.....	Carlos Alazraqui
Playland Worker	.....	Amitai Marmorstein

PLOT SUMMARY

The opening of this movie is an emulation of a typical 007 movie...The espionage in a foreign country for the first scene that is mysterious as to purpose. It introduces a couple of characters who may or may not be important to the rest of the story. Then a very Bond-ish opening credit sequence with Let's Get This Party Started playing in the background. Very cool!

Moving to San Francisco where we meet the star of this production and his owner. Namely Diggs(James Marsden) and Shane Larson (Chris O'Donnell). A police dog and his master. However, this particular K-9 has some trouble following orders. As such, he has been in and out of kennels more than your average dog. He blows up a car dealership (granted, it's a USED car dealership, but a dealership all the same), and is taken out of commission one last time. This is when the Secret Service of the canine world comes to his rescue. For some reason they believe he is the new recruit that is needed to defeat Kitty Galore (who else but Bette Midler), who is out to destroy humankind. This is the first of many references (aside from the opening sequence) to James Bond. This is a parody of the Bond character Pussy Galore. But wait, there's plenty more...

A transmission is intercepted by D.O.G., canine intelligence, from Kitty Galore telling of her plan to take over the world. Not original, but who cares? It's a talking animal Disney movie. Isn't that enough for a high rating right there? D.O.G. sends Diggs and Special Agent Butch (Nick Nolte), his mentor, on a special mission to find Galore and stop her plan. It is believed that a pigeon named Seamus (Katt...no kidding...Williams) holds the last piece in the puzzle before Galore can release her plan she calls The Call of the Wild. On their journey to get to Seamus first, Diggs and Butch (Nick Nolte) run into a cat named Catherine (Christina Applegate) who turns out to work for M.E.O.W.S., feline intelligence. In a teleconference, the heads of the two agencies, Lou (D.O.G.) and Tab Lazenby (M.E.O.W.S.) decide the only way the world will be safe is if...wait for it...cats and dogs work together! We see two Bond references here. Tab Lazenby is taken from one-time Bond portrayer George Lazenby (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and is voiced by seven-time Bond actor Roger Moore.

Along the way, we learn that Galore was M.E.O.W.S. agent Ivana Clawyu, who fell into a vat of hair remover while on a mission (parodying the first Batman movie) and was put out by her owners, making her resentful toward humans and bent on revenge. She acquired a henchman and a pet albino mouse and turned to abolishing the human race. Two more 007 references are seen here. Her henchman, Paws, is taken from the Bond villain, Jaws, and the mouse, Scrumptious, is taken from the white cat coddled by the seemingly indestructible Bond villain, Blofeld.

The rest of the movie is devoted to this Bond-type scenario until the end climax, which is clearly taken from another Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. Incidentally, my personal favorite.

The epilogue puts the team up for another adventure, which may still be turned into a movie, seeing as how there was a period of nine years (perhaps one for every life) between the two Cats & Dogs movies. This epilogue is a direct emulation of Mission: Impossible (the TV series). The closing credits are covered by the song Why Can't We Be Friends by WAR.

TECH INSPECTION

Not much I can say in the negative for this movie. It got negative reviews from other mainstream critics, but I loved it. There are many gags that could not be expressed here because of the visual element involved. (E.g. a dog coming out of the restroom at D.O.G. HQ with toilet paper stuck to his back paw.) You just have to watch the movie to get the extensive humor. I also like to watch it over and over to see if I can pick up on any other movie references poked in there. So far, other than the ones mentioned already, I have noticed references and parodies to Silence of the Lambs, The Matrix, Goldfinger, and The Fly.

This probably goes without saying, but the CGI in this movie is absolutely amazing. Most of the time (especially with Kitty Galore) it is virtually impossible to tell when they are using computers and when they switch to live animals. As a James Bond fan myself, I must commend this movie on an intriguing plot. Moreso than the average Disney talking animal movie. The great cast of characters, voices and real-life, keeps you happily surprised throughout the whole movie just waiting to shout out Hey, that's the guy (or girl) from such and such....

There's not much more I can say other than this is just a great family movie for kids and adults alike. As with most movies of this type, kids will probably not get a lot of the jokes and parodies, but they love the Disney-ish stuff in there. I have personally seen this movie five times, and not because of my critique needs. Buy the DVD!!!!!

QUOTES
Finally, a short list of quotes I think are worth repeating. You may recognize some, but these are my own picks, not ones that are particularly famous:

• I just came up out of the floor. Let's assume I'm smart enough to know your name.~Butch
• Congratulations Agent Buttercup on the birth of your son, son, daughter, son, daughter, daughter,...~voice over PA system
• Yeah, right. I should've seen a flying cat coming.~Diggs
• Look for something that resembles a bologna with a head~Diggs
• About what I said before about liking cats...~Diggs Never happened.~Catherine Thanks~Diggs
• It's a bird, it's a plane...Nope, had it right the first time.~Seamus
• Not every red button is an off switch~Kitty Galore

Here is my personal rating of this movie. This rating is out of ten meows.
¹⁰/₁₀
(Just one more for good measure!)

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