Mr. Deeds (2002)

Mr. Deeds poster

Columbia Pictures Corporation
Starring: Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder
Directed by: Steven Brill

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

Synopsis: A remake of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler) inherits a company worth billions and travels to New York naively thinking the people there will be as honest as those in his small home town.

Cat Cattle Call (with slight Kitty Carnage Warning): In one scene, Deeds is with reporter Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder), who is pretending to be a small-town girl, when they rush to the scene of a fire. A cat woman (Aloma Wright) is in a high apartment and refuses to jump without her kitties. Deeds climbs up the side of the building and helps her to retrieve the seven cats, tossing them out the window to land (or rather bounce off) the firemen’s net.

Mr. Deeds - Deeds Adam Sandler holding two tabby cats

Mr. Deeds - tabby cat thrown out of window by Deeds Adam Sandler and caught by Babe Winona Ryder animated gif

All seven cats are eventually thrown out the window, each bouncing off the net to be caught be someone or something. There are some continuity errors in these scenes, most notably when a tuxedo cat (obviously a fake) is thrown out the window, bounces off the net and is caught by a dog. When the dog supposedly hands the cat over to a man, the cat is now a tabby. This was likely because they didn’t have a cat actor that matched the fake cat.

Mr. Deeds - fake tuxedo cat thrown out of window by Deeds Adam Sandler and caught by dog animated gif

Another continuity error happens when one of the firemen is seen holding a Russian Blue despite no such cat being thrown from the building.

Mr. Deeds - fireman holding Russian Blue cat

One tabby cat lands in the basket of Nazo the Italian delivery man (Rob Schneider).

Mr. Deeds - two tabby cats thrown out of window by Deeds Adam Sandler and land in cake and bike basket animated gif

Another is chucked out of the window on fire (not a real cat, obviously!) and is caught in a fireman’s bucket where it emerges wet but unhurt.

Mr. Deeds - burning tabby cat thrown out of window by Deeds Adam Sandler and caught by in bucket of water animated gif

These scenes were achieved with a mix of fast editing, fake cats and cats being dropped or thrown from small heights or with harnesses that were custom-made. According to the American Humane Association, fifteen cat actors and “stuffies” were used to achieve the scenes.

Mr. Deeds - tabby cat thrown out of window by Deeds Adam Sandler and caught in manhole animated gif

Mr. Deeds - white cat thrown out of window by Deeds Adam Sandler bounces off afro and caught by Girl Scout animated gif

Kitty Cameo: At the end of the film various characters are seen reading one of Deeds’ greeting cards. Nazo is seen reading a line of the poem to a black cat in his bike basket, although the cat which had landed there previously was a tabby.

Mr. Deeds - Nazo Rob Schneider reciting poem to black cat in bicycle basket