Search - Pride/Cats and Dogs on DVD

Family fun with good effects

Mr. B. G. Fowler | 01/05/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This family movie will offer great fun for all, or at least all dog lovers. Here dogs are the undisputed good guys, whilst cats are all evil. Cats are underway to ensure that scientist Jeff Goldblum will never finish his serum to make all humans allergy-free to dogs. They plan to reverse the effects to make everyone allergic to dogs.Perhaps the most frustrating thing about 'Cats And Dogs' is that it's obviously biased, especially for a movie that scoffs at people for actually having a favourite animal! That said, the special effects are fantastic and it's jam-packed with great characters and one-liners. For instance, a dog labelling himself 'Toto Annihilation' will have you rolling in your seats. Plus there's the fact that cat lovers can console themselves in the fact that the felines are undoubtedly the best characters, from the dictatorship of Mr Tinkles to the Samurai fighting cats and the Russian spy cat. The dogs, for their part, are mostly pretty wet, except for a marvellous Susan Sarandon as a stray mutt. Although it's surprising that many of the celebrity voices are highly unrecognisable. Indeed, you hardly notice Alec Baldwin or Toby Maguire.Unfortunately though, for all it's style and obvious wit, it still has such a lame plot that you'll be gagging from some real action. It's the characters that engage rather than the big action sets. The idea is good too, but it's still more flashy effects than story or character progression. Thankfully though, the ladles of sickly sentiment are not as bad as in many kids' movies."