Directed by: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

This review contains a Cartoonish Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Based on the popular book series by Bernard Waber. The Primm family moves into a New York apartment only to find they are sharing their new home with a singing crocodile named Lyle (voiced by Shawn Mendes) who was left behind by his performer father Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem).

Featured Feline: The Primm family consists of meek husband Joseph (Scoot McNairy), his wife Katie (Constance Wu) and their son Josh (Winslow Fegley). When they arrive at their new apartment building they are met almost immediately by their snooty and nosy neighbor Mr. Grumps (Brett Gelman) holding his prized pet Persian cat Loretta. Loretta is wearing a sweater.

Josh is immediately drawn to Loretta, proclaiming she is the most beautiful cat he’s ever seen. Mr. Grumps is quick to proclaim Loretta is not a cat but a “silver-shaded Persian with an extremely delicate constitution” and warns the family not to feed her or let her out of the building.

Josh wastes no time in putting out a bowl of milk for Loretta who is still suspicious of the boy as she drinks.

When Josh picks her up she tolerates him, but their attention is soon drawn to the sound of singing coming from the attic.

When they explore the attic, Loretta starts arching her back and snarling. It takes Josh a moment to spot Lyle the crocodile standing nearby.

Cartoonish Kitty Carnage Warning! Loretta bravely leaps at the large reptile but soon regrets her decision when Lyle opens his mouth wide and swallows her whole.

Lyle runs from the building and Josh follows, running through the nighttime New York streets. When Josh is threatened by a mugger, Lyle returns to scare the man off. He then coughs up Loretta, who hisses angrily.

Josh and Lyle quickly become friends and the pair, accompanied by Loretta, start to explore the city at night. Lyle’s favorite activity is dumpster diving for food from local restaurants. Josh isn’t sure at first but Loretta is intrigued.

Dining on a rooftop, Lyle surprises Josh and Loretta when he starts to sing.

Loretta partakes in some shrimp but the next day she coughs it up and then strains in her litter box, much to Mr. Grumps’ dismay.

This doesn’t dissuade Loretta from partaking in the nighttime excursions which eventually include Katie. Mr. Grumps installs security cameras to try to find out who is feeding Loretta the food that is upsetting her system.

Loretta even sleeps with Mr. Grumps, wearing a similar eye mask.

Eventually Mr. Grumps’ meddling action results in Lyle being carted off to the zoo. Even Loretta is not happy with her owners’ actions.

They are both shocked when Lyle ends up singing on a talent show on television.

But Mr. Grumps is determined to keep Lyle from living in the building. Loretta is ashamed when he brings Lyle and the Primm family into court to try to get Lyle shipped back to the zoo.

However Loretta actually saves the day when she helps Valenti locate an old deed which stipulates an exemption which allows exotic animals in the building.

Mr. Grumps is surprised when Loretta celebrates with Lyle and the Primms.

As the family heads out on vacation, Loretta accompanies them, dancing to the song Crocodile Rock.

Unfortunately Joseph hits the gas and Loretta ends up pinned to the back window as the film ends.

Some cartoons based on the original illustrations from the books, a few including Loretta, appear during the end credits.

Behind the Scenes

While Loretta expressions are clearly CGI, a real cat was used in the part, which expanded from her original role. As co-director Josh Gordon explained to Screen Rant in an interview, “Loretta [in the original book] is the mean girl of the story. We didn’t quite think she was going to be such a big character, but once we started cutting the film . . . We had a real cat actually playing her, and she was so funny. She has this great arc in the movie. She goes from enemy to best friend, and we just love that. So we actually started to build her a lot in post and made her much bigger in the computer-generated space. She turned into one of the top characters in the movie; it was really amazing.”

In another Screen Rant interview with actor Brett Gelman who played Mr. Grumps, he explained about working with the cat actors. “Mostly, it was with actual cats who looked exactly like Loretta. Really beautiful, very loving cats, so I had a blast. I loved hanging out with them and making sure that they were all right. You get an animal on set, and instantly become incredibly protective of them. That was an easy thing to play because I’m an animal lover. So, it was cool.”

The cat actors were not credited on screen but the animal trainers for the film were Cody Smith and Morgan A. Bateman. There is only one shot in the film that appears to be only cat with no computer enhancements, but you can see one of the cat actors sans computerization on a promo poster for the film.

Final Mewsings: Cats actors know how to get more screen time.

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