THAT DARN CAT
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Disney) Starring: Christina Ricci, Doug E. Doug, George Dzundza, Bess Armstrong, Michael McKean. Screenplay: S. M. Alexander and L. A. Karaszewski. Producer: Robert Simonds. Director: Bob Spiers. MPAA Rating: PG (mild profanity) Running Time: 89 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Just so our points of reference are clear, the original THAT DARN CAT was hardly a classic. The folks at Disney have been using that word as though they have a trademark on it, tossing it at everything it has ever committed to celluloid and becoming their own worst enemies as these "classics" are remade as gaudy nonsense like 101 DALMATIANS. 1965's THAT DARN CAT, however, was simply a cute little caper featuring Disney's two principal live-action studio players of the 1960s, Dean Jones and Hayley Mills, and hardly a sacred treasure. The second life of THAT DARN CAT is very different from the first, but it's hard to say whether it is an improvement. It is a strange sort of family film: clever and amusing in some surprising ways, but disappointing at delivering the goods to keep the kids entertained.
Christina Ricci stars as Patti Randall, a somewhat sullen teenager growing disgusted with her sleepy Massachusetts town of Edgefield. Her best -- in fact, only -- friend is her cat D. C., a frisky feline with a nose for trouble. During one of his midnight wanderings, D. C. comes upon the hideout where a kidnapped woman (Rebecca Koon) is being held. The woman is able to slip her wristwatch over D. C.'s neck with a message scratched on the back, and when Patti discovers the watch she sees a chance for a little adventure. She takes the watch to the F.B.I., where the task of following up is assigned to rookie agent Zeke Kelso (Doug E. Doug). Kelso and his team attempt to follow D. C. to find out where the kidnapped woman might be, but keeping up with that darn cat is easier said than done, particularly in a town not nearly as sleepy as Patti might think.
The script for THAT DARN CAT is attributed to "S. M. Alexander and L. A. Karaszewski," better known to credits-watchers as Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the team behind the oddball bio-pics ED WOOD and THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT. You can certainly see those bloodlines in the eccentric characters who populate the film, and who give Edgefield its edge. A lonely old woman (Estelle Parsons) makes prank phone calls from her room; two rival service station owners (John Ratzenberger and Mark Christopher Lawrence) engage in guerrilla warfare against each other's shops. There are brothers Melvin and Marvin (Thomas F. Wilson and Brian Haley), two over-zealous security guards, and homely butcher Lu (Megan Cavanagh), who delivers her affections to Melvin in the form of tender cuts of meat. Even Dean Jones himself turns up as a flat-broke former millionaire, with Dyan Cannon as his cosmetic surgery-obsessed wife. And we haven't even mentioned Doug E. Doug's twitchy turn as the F.B.I. agent, whose facial tics grow a bit aggravating but is simply hilarious when he goes into full prowl mode in his attempt to "think like a cat."
That's quite a switch from the 1965 version, where the cat had infinitely more personality than any human in the film. I'm also not sure that was a wise decision. The cat in the new THAT DARN CAT actually plays a fairly miniscule role in the proceedings, and while that leaves plenty of goofy goings-on which might entertain adults, kids may be somewhat disappointed by the film. Director Bob Spiers (British television's "Absolutely Fabulous" and "Fawlty Towers") maintains a fairly languid pace for much of THAT DARN CAT's running time, focusing on quirky character vignettes rather than funny feline frolicking. In fact, there's no particular reason for a cat to have anything to do with this plot; it would have been just as easy for Patti to find the watch herself and gradually discover the dark side of Edgefield. Spiers does pull out some strange and original physical comedy, like Agent Kelso's unexplained ability to do a gravity-defying backflip over a fence or his enthusiastic dive into a garbage bin, but most of the humor comes from silly behavior which might leave the little ones restless or unimpressed.
Spiers suddenly seems to become aware of the relative absence of broad, fast-paced slapstick in the final twenty minutes, which consist almost entirely of an extended car chase between Patti and Kelso and the kidnapers. After 70 minutes with scarcely a bit of John Hughes-ian bodily injury humor to be found, THAT DARN CAT turns into "The Dukes of Hazard," with cars flying through the air, glass shattering and gas stations exploding into a fireworks display. Yet even during that chase, Alexander and Karaszewski are able to toss in bizarre asides like the mourner who watches a coffin spring open and exclaims, "That's not him!" THAT DARN CAT makes some unfortunate choices -- particularly turning the search for the kidnapers into a mystery which results in a predictable "Scooby-Doo" style unmasking -- but for a remake of a Disney film from an era which thrived on formula, this DARN CAT is surprisingly unpredictable. If this were not the kind of film where most of the audience _wants_ predictability, that quality alone would be enough to recommend it. It pains me not to recommend THAT DARN CAT, a film which would be a welcome change of pace for any parent who has had to sit through hyperactive kiddie fare like 101 DALMATIANS or SPACE JAM. I only wish it had more energy, more for the children, more of that darn cat. It could have been one of the rare live action Disney films to deserve the term "classic."
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 im-purr-fections: 5.
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