Warner Brothers Pictures
A scene from “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.”
Kids say the smartest things. A few minutes into a screening of “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” a child near me turned to his mother and asked, “Why is Kitty Galore called Kitty Galore?”
Exactly what I was wondering. I tried to hear her whispered answer but couldn’t. It was short, so she probably hadn’t bothered telling him that someone thought it was a good idea to name a children’s movie after a crude double-entendre in an old James Bond film, or explaining what “cynical” means.
As recently as this spring the trade papers were still calling the film “Cats and Dogs 2,” the title it carried through eight years and at least three directors. (Brad Peyton ended up doing the honors, in his feature debut.) “Kitty Galore” is the long-awaited, much-inflated sequel to the 2001 hit “Cats & Dogs,” which established the cute premise of these species locked in a secret (to humans) battle for global pet domination.
The original was an innocuously charming comedy with a story built around the fate of a human family. The sequel is something much more common: a bloated spy-and-action-film pastiche, predicated mostly on the Bond movies but throwing in jokey references to “Scarface,” “The Terminator,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Get Smart” and so on.
There’s a story, involving a disgraced police dog recruited for the worldwide canine intelligence agency who finds himself (spoiler alert) cooperating with a slinky feline counterpart to bring down the renegade cat of the title (suavely voiced by Bette Midler). It’s merely a frame on which to hang the endless old-movie gags and shaggy dog jokes. (“He’s been in and out of kennels his whole life.” “Someone’s been playing catch with the ugly stick.”)
The human actors are fewer and more poorly used in the sequel. Chris O’Donnell barely appears as the partner of Diggs, the K-9 cop. The only two-legged performer who figures prominently in the plot (besides a pigeon, voiced by Katt Williams, who provides the requisite squawking-ethnic comic relief) is Jack McBrayer of “30 Rock.” He plays a bumbling carnival magician in a series of scenes opposite a hairless cat, and for perhaps the first time on screen, he’s not funny.
A significantly larger amount of money was spent this time around on animation and puppetry to supplement the live-animal cast. Another chunk of the budget went to the post-production 3-D conversion, done in South Korea (much like elective cosmetic surgery). It doesn’t add much, though the scenes of the animal heroes, rigged with jet packs, flying over San Francisco at night are enjoyably queasy-making.
There are a few other funny notions, like the shot of a roomful of kitties high on catnip and blissing out to “Get Together.” Mostly, though, “Kitty Galore” is a grind, as well as proof that “What up, dog?” isn’t any funnier when a pigeon says it to a dog.
“Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Dogs joke about the things they like to sniff.
ANIMALES 360°
