by Mark Murton and Linda Kay
Directed by: Terry Gilliam
This review contains a Severe Kitty Carnage Warning!
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: The Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm (Matt Damon) and Jacob (Heath Ledger), are bogus ghost-hunters who roam from town to town in French-occupied Germany putting on shows that convince the inhabitants they are getting rid of demons. After one such scam, a mysterious man called Cavaldi (Peter Stormare) brings them to the French general Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce), who charges them with finding out who is responsible for the disappearance of young girls in the village of Marbaden. Here they team up with huntress Angelika (Lena Headey) and soon discover that real magic is at work.
Kitty Cameo: After an initial failure, the trio find themselves in Delatombe’s dungeon, the brothers trussed up and Angelika placed in a large vessel with a lethal-looking blade above her. Unconvinced by their vague explanation of what happened, Delacombe orders them killed but Cavaldi assures him he can get them to talk and starts by signaling to a quartet of musicians in the corner of the room to start playing. He then pulls a lever which starts the blade rotating and descending on Angelika. As the musicians play, a ginger tabby kitten emerges from under the dress of one of them and makes its way unsteadily towards Cavladi.
Severe Kitty Carnage Warning! Will warns Delacombe not to trust Cavaldi as “he panics.” “The great Cavaldi never panics,” retorts Cavali, just as the kitten arrives at his feet causing him to scream in fear and boot the kitten towards the blades. The inevitable kitty (or rather stuffed replica kitty) carnage follows.
While the action of the real kitten being kicked looks really awful, it was likely done in two different shots. The first in which the kitten climbs onto the actor’s foot and is simply “tossed” using the foot, likely to someone nearby. The film could have even been sped up a bit to exaggerate the action. The second shot which is pulled back a bit makes use of the fake cat, as is the shot in which the kitten which hits the blades. This still doesn’t take away from the sheer unpleasantness of the gag, however.
On the commentary track, Gilliam reveals that the original idea was to have some pigeons fly into the blades of the “giant magimix” but then thought it was much more interesting to have a little pussycat involved. He went on to praise the kitten actor, saying he did everything asked of him up until the fake cat was chucked into the blades, of course.
Final Mewsings: Kittens should never hang out in torture chambers.
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