Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Audio Short Film-Looney Tunes
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	78:58
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Brad Peyton
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	James Marsden Nick Nolte Christina Applegate Katt Williams Bette Midler Neil Patrick Harris
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Christopher Lennertz

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

     Back in 2001, a film featuring talking cats and dogs fighting each other for control of the planet hit the cinemas and was a pretty big hit taking over $200 million at the global box office. It was also very popular on DVD which we reviewed when it was released here in 2002. That original film Cats & Dogs has now been followed by a sequel called Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore which did not do anywhere near as well at the Box Office struggling to $112 million globally which considering a production budget of $85 million is not really as much as would have been expected. This is not a big surprise as it is not a great film but is diverting family entertainment on DVD.

     The story (such as it is) involves a rogue cat secret agent Kitty Galore (voiced by Bette Midler) who has a plan to take control of the world by transmitting a sound which will send all the world's dogs mad. Butch (voiced this time by Nick Nolte), a lead field agent for the Dogs, has been paired with a new partner, disgraced police dog, Diggs (James Marsden), and they must try to track Kitty down. Along the way they join up with a cat agent, Catherine (Christina Applegate), and a pigeon called Seamus. Roger Moore voices the leader of the cat’s agency, Tab Lazenby. Other voices are provided by Michael Clarke Duncan, Neil Patrick Harris and Sean Hayes. In terms of human cast, Chris O'Donnell appears as Diggs’ former police partner, Shane, and 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer appears as a magician who happens to officially own Kitty Galore.

     This is not a great film but kids will find it amusing and enjoyable. Both my young sons (6 & 8) enjoyed watching it and laughed regularly at some of the one-liners. It was shown in 3D at the cinema but I can't imagine that would improve the film significantly. There are constant references to James Bond movies including the well done opening credits, Roger Moore's character of course and Kitty's henchman, who is called Paws and has metal teeth (plus a quick Silence of the Lambs reference). It is not going to set the world on fire but it is a fun film for kids. Worth a rental during the holidays.

Video

     The video quality is average especially for a recent big budget movie. The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced widescreen.

     The picture was reasonably sharp although was let down by some significant grain and MPEG artefacts probably due to over compression to fit on one layer. It was particularly noticeable around 37:30. There was also a lack of shadow detail with some sequences being quite murky. The colour was very good with no colour artefacts. There was some noticeable aliasing such as at 12:32 & 23:30.

     There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired. They were clear and easy to read.

     There is no layer change as the disc is a DVD5.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is decent but quite flat and lifeless. This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at a less than optimum 384 Kb/s and an English Dolby Digital Audio Descriptive 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s. The main soundtrack was fairly quiet requiring my amp to be turned up significantly. Watch out because the special feature is very loud and if you don't adjust your volume before playing it you will scare the horses.

     Dialogue was reasonably clear and easy to understand although the subtitles were certainly useful. The score by Christopher Lammertz was present but uninspiring. The surround speakers were used for some atmosphere but probably due to the low bitrate were subdued. The subwoofer was used a little for music support and adding some bass to action scenes.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Nothing much here.

Menu

     The menu was still and included music.

Looney Tunes - Coyote Falls (2:52)

     This Wile E Coyote and Road Runner short played before the movie in the cinemas and I understand it is now a contender for best animated short at the 2011 Oscars. Enjoyable.

    The Region 1 DVD version is essentially the same as ours. The film is also available on Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall