DreamWorks SKG
Starring: Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Ernie Sabella
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Ernie and Lars Smuntz (Nathan Lane and Lee Evans) inherit an antiquated string factory and an old house from their father and set about trying to sell the house, only to be thwarted by an extremely intelligent and stubborn mouse.
Kitty Cameo: After trying to trap the mouse themselves the Smuntz brothers end up going to the City Pound. A little girl is being dragged from the office screaming she wants her kitty. Once inside the Smuntz brothers see an adorable little kitten in a cage.
Cat Cattle Call: Ernie doesn’t think the kitten looks enough like a killer. A man then takes the kitten inside as the head man, Maury (Ernie Sabella) comes out. He leads them to the back where there are literally dozens of cats in cages all around.
Bad Kitty: When told about their mouse problem, Maury tells them about a cat he has named Catzilla. He leads the brothers to a wooden box wrapped in chains. Catzilla is only heard growling and fighting while in the box. At one point Maury even has to use a cattle prod on the cat when it gets too crazy. The brothers take the box home and set it down. Catzilla’s legs then pop out of the box as he starts stumbling around.
Catzilla parks his box in front of the mousehole and draws his legs inside to wait. The mouse appears and peeks into the box. Catzilla’s face emerges from the shadows just before he explodes out of the crate.
The chase ensues all around the house with Catzilla destroying everything in his path. Catzilla appears to have been created with a mix of puppetry, CGI and live action using a scruffy Maine Coon cat. Presumably the cat was made to be the meanest, ugliest, vicious cat in the world so our sympathies would stay with the mouse.
Later the mouse sets several mousetraps for the cat and catches Catzilla’s tail in one, the others catching on his paws. Shaking these off, Catzilla chases the mouse upstairs where he is led into the dumbwaiter. The mouse gnaws through the rope, sending a surprised Catzilla crashing to the bottom of the shaft where he is presumably mortally injured. Catzilla is not seen or mentioned again.
Final Mewsings: Cat lovers can root for even the most unsympathetic of cats!
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