Starring: Squeaky
Directed by: David DeCoteau (as Mary Crawford)
This review contains a very mild Kitty Carnage Warning!
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A talking feline named Duffy (played by cat actor Squeaky and voiced by Eric Roberts) helps two families find each other and the help they need.
Featured Feline: Duffy explains at the beginning of the film that it’s his job to help people. The people he decides to help are two families; a widower named Phil (Johnny Whittaker) and his son Chris (Justin Cone) and their not-so-near neighbors, single mother Susan (Kristine DeBell), her daughter Tina (Janis Peebles) and son Trent (Daniel Dannas) plus his girlfriend Frannie (Alison Sieke). That’s the entire cast. When Duffy suddenly shows up at their respective homes, he is welcomed by all of them.
The plot, what there is of it, involves some really rather non-earth shattering issues with both families. The gimmick is that Duffy can help the families but can only talk to each family member once. So he has to figure out the best time to talk and the best advice to give each one.
Most of the shots of Duffy are by himself, which indicates the cat actor was mostly filmed separately from the other actors. And takes are used over and over in different parts of the film. The one shot with the entire cast together is at the end of the film when Duffy is drinking from a dish of milk or cream and everyone is gathered around on the floor and petting him. Squeaky the cat actor just seems to want to get away from them all.
Extremely Mild Kitty Carnage Warning: Near the end of the film Duffy is hit by a car. We don’t actually see the cat being hit or the aftermath except for Duffy lying on a bed with a very loose bandage draped over his head. He then makes a miraculous recovery.
Of course the most notable badness of the film comes from the ridiculously poor mouth movement animation. It just takes the whole film to the bottom of the barrel bad. Even Disney did not feel the need to make Jake’s mouth move in The Cat From Outer Space.
This extremely low budget film already has a reputation as a notoriously awful film. That being said it does feature a lot of nice shots of the cat (as well as a ridiculous amount of establishing shots, even more than The Room!) and there is a heart and kindness to it that would make it okay for very little ones (like right out of the womb young) if it manages to hold their attention at all.
Also inexplicable is the movie’s poster which shows a kitten on the cover that isn’t in the film and has nothing to do with it (not to mention the fence)! After all of that footage of Duffy they couldn’t find one still to use for the poster?
If you find you can’t sit through the film itself, there is a Rifftrax version on Amazon Prime.
Final Mewsings: Making a talking cat movie? Don’t move the mouth. Just don’t.
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