What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that younger and sensitive kids may be
upset by the drugging and abandonment of a mom cat and her
three kittens. For a brief moment the kittens can't find their
mom. In some slapstick chase scenes it looks like animals or
people could be injured, especially when Edgar the butler
wields a pitch fork. Plus played for laughs are shots of Edgar
the butler's underwear and a drunk goose weaving down the
street.
Families can talk about Edgar the butler. He doesn't seem really mean like Cruella De Vil, but he's still not nice to Madame's cats. How come? Why does he go back to the country for his hat and umbrella? Where's Timbuktu?
Common Sense Media Review
Disney's animated story takes an elegant cat named Dutchess
(voiced by
Eva
Gabor) and her three kittens out of their high-brow element
when a cantankerous butler dumps them in the country after he
hears the cats are to inherit his employer's fortune before
him. On their way home the cats encounter O'Malley the Alley
Cat who gets them out of a number of scrapes and introduces the
brood to his jazz-playing "hep cat" friends. And just like
Lady and the Tramp
, Dutchess can't resist the charms of the scrappy
O'Malley.
The 2008 DVD re-release calls this a "Jazzy Classic," and sure enough the highlight is the toe-tapping song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat." There's little plot (cats journey home) and the characters are less memorable than other animated animal capers like Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmations . Phil Harris, who plays Baloo from the original Disney Jungle Book , is fun as O'Malley, but lacks some of the rapscallion antics that would make him stand out.
Kids will love the silly chase scenes with Edgar the butler and the country hounds, Napoleon and Lafayette, especially the one around the windmill. They're choreographed for lots of giggles -- complete with failing-suspenders gags. But once the big jazzy number and madcap running about are over the movie falls flat. In a DVD extra one of the composers reveals a lullaby-like song that was left on the cutting room floor about the owner's love for her cats. That's the kind of sweetness that could have made this movie the cat's pajamas.
More movies for cat fans:
Shrek 2
That Darn Cat
Alice in Wonderland
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
