Cats Do not Dance

Nostalgic movie from my childhood
Always nice to come back to a childhood classic of mine. Amazon has pretty much always been my go-to for renting movies that aren’t available for stream and the price is usually pretty decent as well.

Don’t pass up this classic
Must have for family movie nights

WARNER ARCHIVE – A tremendous showpiece of character animation, now in Widescreen
Be aware that this review is for the Warner Archive release of Cats Don’t Dance, not the much older DVD release. The biggest difference now is that the original widescreen aspect ratio has been restored, whereas the previous DVD was cropped to fullscreen. Make sure that the Warner Archive logo is at the top of the DVD case for this purchase.Cats Don’t Dance, directed by Mark Dindal (also known for having directed Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove), was quite a box office dud. It gained a small, but fair following when released on home video. Over time, animation fans and nostalgia junkies began taking renewed interest in this movie. Being a big animation fan myself, it’s easy to see why.The character animation quality is phenomenal; wonderfully squashy and stretchy, with great dance animation perfectly in time with the beat (choreographed by Gene Kelly, in his final film contribution), and a great display of facial expressions, especially by the main antagonists of the film. The movie runs at a brisk pace, even rushed at certain parts, but it makes for a great piece to pass some time, thanks to some great comic quips, fun songs and, again, captivating animation. Sadly, the movie lacks in character development, and those rushed moments, especially at the very end, don’t do the movie any favors. And while I enjoy the songs, a small couple of them feel a bit half-baked.Taken with the actual semi-rushed production, and it becomes clear why the movie became a cult classic instead of an instant classic.Having the full aspect ratio restored brings back the intended view of the movie, without having parts of the animation cut off from the sides. Previously, only the laserdisc (which is rare and very expensive) and the German and Spanish DVDs (which run at 25fps due to the PAL standard) had the widescreen transfer. This means that the best part of the movie is even better now.Of course, there’s a bit of an elephant in the room, and that’s the fact that this is a DVD release, and not a blu-ray release, in this day and age. It’s like what happened to Strange Magic. Aside from the occasional film blemish in the print transfer, it felt to me that the colors were a bit muted in certain scenes, but I could have been wrong. Warner Bros didn’t really do much to improve the video quality aside from not cutting the sides off. It would have been most appreciated if a print cleaning were conducted to improve the colors and random, but infrequent, damage, as well as a 1080p blu-ray transfer.Not to mention the lack of extras aside from the theatrical trailer. Not much love was put into this release, and that’s why I took a star off my rating. You can find animation breakdowns with interviews with the actual animators on Youtube, for pete’s sake. I mean, Lauren Faust, creator of the popular My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, was an animator on this, and they could have brought her back and used to her credibility to help sell copies of Cats Don’t Dance, if they let her do a commentary or something.Oh well, maybe someday, Cats Don’t Dance will get a HD release that has some decent behind the scenes material. And while I’m dreaming, hurry up and release the rest of Teen Titans on blu-ray, Warner!

The best this film’s ever looked
This is how remastering an animated film should be. Where unlike Disney’s animated movies, including in the Renaissance era, Warner Bros. willingly remastered this film from a 4K scan of the original 35mm film negatives. Something you hardly see Disney ever do. So, I applaud Warner Bros. for this stellar remaster. Though the only downside is the lack of a featurette. But at least, to make up for that, they added Looney Tunes cartoons as Bonus Features. So that’s good. Overall, I find this this the best remastered treatment an underrated film, like Cats Don’t Dance, has ever gotten. Especially since Warner Bros’ remaster of The Iron Giant.

Questo è un piccolo grande film d’animazione, caratterizzato da una storia originale, dei personaggi unici, un design fresco e intermezzi in stile “musical” che ne fanno una perla rara!A quanto pare, purtroppo non è mai stato tradotto in lingua italiana ma è ugualmente godibile nelle lingue: inglese, francese e spagnolo, contenute in questa edizione dvd!Consigliato a tutti gli amanti del cinema “animato”, del musical e di chi ha semplicemente voglia di passare un’ora o poco più in stile “hakuna matata”!

Came in perfect condition and way before the deadline. The movie is amazing!