Starring: Trace, Lilybell, Calvin

Directed by: David Winning

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

Synopsis: A sequel to The Nine Lives of Christmas. After building a veterinary practice and new relationship in Miami, Marilee (Kimberley Sustad) returns home for Christmas and finds herself confronting old feelings when she helps Zachary (Brandon Routh) find homes for some abandoned kittens.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealers): Zachary is still working as a fireman and lives with his ginger tabby cat Ambrose.

Marilee has sadly lost Queenie but has a beautiful new longhair cat named Duchess.

As Zachary is dropping off Ambrose at the fire station to go on a ski trip, he spots a cardboard box filled with nine kittens.

He is taking them to the vet when he bumps into Marilee and her sister Jaclyn (Stephanie Bennett). They volunteer to take the kittens, which thrills Jaclyn’s daughter Sierra (Linden McMillan). Sierra promptly names the kittens after Santa’s reindeer.

Ambrose is indifferent to the kittens but happy to see Marilee again.

Marilee and Zachary find themselves spending time together as they work to find homes for the kitties.

A cat rescuer promises to take the last three but has to back out when she gets a call for kittens that need bottle feeding. Both Zachary and Marilee are secretly not unhappy about having to continue to work together.

Zachary’s boss, Sam (Gregory Harrison) and his wife Harriet (Robyn Bradley) take two of the kittens.

After a misunderstanding it looks as if Zachary and Marilee will never get back together again. Ambrose and Duchess both play their part in trying to get the couple reunited.

We don’t want to spoil the ending, but we will say that the last three kittens find very special forever homes. It’s a sweet sequel that fans of the original are sure to enjoy.

Keeping Track of Kittens

When the kittens are named by Sierra, we get a quick shot of each one. Dasher is a tortie with white paws. Dancer is shown as a dark tortie but is the same kitten that is shown as being Blitzen. After some deducing we see there is a light brown tabby not shown in the montage which is likely Dancer. Prancer is a blue shorthair. Vixen is a cream tabby. Comet is an orange and white tabby. Cupid is a calico tabby. Donner is a silver tabby. Blitzen is definitely the dark tortie. And Rudolph is the scene-stealing tuxedo kitten (played by cat actor Calvin. According to online sources, the other kittens acting in the film had not yet been named.)

Considering the sheer amount of kittens they had to work with, we have to say the continuity people did an admirable job of keeping track of which kitten was which throughout the story.

Behind the Scenes

Besides most of the wonderful human cast, cat actor Trace reprised his role as Ambrose. Lilybell played the part of Duchess. Also returning for this sequel was animal coordinator Connie Rusgen.

Actress Kimberley Sustad explained about working with so many kittens in a Hallmark Happenings Podcast interview:

“If Brandon and I totally fail at this sequel, the kittens are really cute and they make up for, seriously, whatever we might lack. It was mayhem. There were nine of them all the time running amok everywhere and acting with kittens is, you know, they talk a lot and they jump everywhere. They climb up your coat and your sweater and you’re trying to be in a scene but the kittens do take over quite a lot.”

“All the crew members and cameramen and everybody involved in making the film adopted these kittens in the end. So everyone has like a Nine Kittens of Christmas cat and it was so sweet. We fell in love with them when we were working with them every day. One of them loved to be in my jacket really tight so I’d zip him inside my jacket. And then he’d be so calm and sometimes [he’d] fall asleep in the scene, it was so warm in my puffy coat. And another one would love to be bounced a little bit. You got to know these little babies and what they loved. If I wasn’t allergic to cats, which is also a crazy fact doing so many cat movies, I would totally have taken one of these kittens home. They steal your heart so quick.”

Final Mewsings: The only thing better than Hallmark Christmas movies are Hallmark Christmas movies with cats!

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