Walt Disney Productions
Starring: Christina Ricci, Doug E. Doug, Michael McKean, Bess Armstrong
Also Starring: Elvis
Directed by: Bob Spiers
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A remake of the 1965 original Disney film. In this version the maid of a wealthy couple (the husband is played by Dean Jones, who starred in the original version) is kidnapped. She manages to slip her watch onto a cat named D.C. (played by Elvis) who is known for roaming the small Massachussettes neighborhood. When D.C.’s owner, Patti (Christina Ricci) discovers the watch she figures out it belongs to the kidnapped woman she goes to the FBI where the follow-up is assigned to a less than competent agent named Zeke Kelso (Doug E. Doug).
Cinema Cat: Elvis turns in a good performance as D.C. in this film. He had previously appeared in the 1994 Sylvester Stallone film The Specialist.
Elvis was trained by Larry Madrid, who explained in one article that while there were four cats in all working on the film “Elvis did 98 percent of the work. He was one of four cats we rescued from the pound. I stopped by the North Hollywood Animal Shelter on my way to the airport for a film assignment and found him there. I called one of our trainers and said, ‘You have to come and get this cat. It’s a perfect double for our other cats.’ And he ended up being the star of the picture. You can tell just by looking at Elvis. His attitude, his demeanor, the way he carries himself, the looks that he gives you — he acts like a star, and he is a star. And he did a great job.”
It probably isn’t fair to compare the original to the remake but it’s also somewhat unavoidable. The biggest problem with the remake is it really doesn’t focus enough on D.C., which is a mistake. There are a lot of extra characters thrown into the mix who take up a large amount of screen time that should have been used to focus on D.C. and his escapades. A cat show at the end is somewhat anticlimatic, as one expects a lot more cat appearances and while there are a few they are not used to their best advantage.
Final Mewsings: Elvis is about the only thing which makes this remake worthwhile.
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