by Linda Kay
Directed by: Chris Baugh
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Basically this movie is Home Alone if Macaulay Culkin were a Chihuahua. The titular pup (voiced by Brian Donovan) is adopted by a nearsighted woman named Ethel (Shirley Jones) who thinks she is adopting a cat for her orphaned grandchild. Ethel is being stalked by the IRS who are convinced she is hoarding a fortune in her home (which she basically is!) as well as two bumbling crooks Stu and Louie (Clint Howard and Judge Reinhold) who are determined to get their hands on her money.
Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): The first time Ping explores the gardens of his new home, he is imagining himself as Rambo exploring a forbidding jungle. He is suddenly assaulted out of the blue by what turns out to be two blue point Siamese cats who belong to the neighbors.
The cats are not named (nor are the cat actors credited) but they are voiced in what is now considered very politically incorrect Asian caricatures by Lucy Lin and Edie Mirman. They basically do nothing but insult Ping repeatedly.
The first time Stu and Louie case the house the cats are watching them from a tree branch and commenting on how the crooks smell like burritos.
After being given a cat toy by Ethel (who still hasn’t caught on that he’s a dog), Ping enters the gardens and is ambushed again by the cats.
Ping offers them the toy and promises to bring them any others he receives but the cats still talk down to him and even play a trick on him.
The most clever part for the cats (who otherwise play no major role in the proceedings) is during the robbery when Stu and Louie pass beneath the tree branch where the cats are sitting. One of them reaches down and snags the knit cap from Stu’s head and drops it on Louie’s head which causes a fight between the pair.
This clever gag is repeated again later in reverse. But this is the last we see of the cats.
The animal actors were supplied by Animal Actors of Hollywood with Janine L. Aines and Doree Sitterly as the trainers.
Final Mewsings: Didn’t we learn anything from Lady and the Tramp?
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