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Cats & Dogs
Widescreen version
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Starring:
Voice Talents: |
Jeff
Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins, Alexander Pollock
Tobey Maguire, Alec
Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Jon Lovitz, Charlton Heston, Sean Hayes, and
Michael Clarke Duncan
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| Director: |
Lawrence
Guterman |
| MPAA rating: |
PG |
| Genre: |
Animation
Action - Comedy - Family |
| Studio: |
Village
Roadshow Pictures & NVP Entertainment
(Warner Home Entertainment) |
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Movie: A- |
Video: A |
Audio: A |
Extras: A- |
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Summary: Who is man's best friend? "Cats
& Dogs" is clawing its way to prove that cats and dogs are more
than just tail-wagging pets - they have their secret plans to protect
humankind or "toto" domination of their human pet. This
comedy, live-action spy thriller is an epic "tail" of the
cunning, top secret, ultra high-tech war between the dogs and cats right in
our backyard. It's very a entertaining film and a pretty darn good DVD
to share with the whole family.
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The Story
In a nice, quiet suburban neighborhood, an eccentric
Professor Brody (Jeff Goldblum) is working on a cure for dog allergy which
would mean dogs will be the preferred pet. Unbeknownst to the
professor, a feline called Mr. Tinkles (voice talent of Sean Hayes) plans to steal the formula and create a
cat-tastrophe to take "toto" domination of the human race.
New on the scene is the beagle puppy Lou (voice talent of Tobey Maguire) who
is unaware of his personal involvement in a mission im-paws-ible to protect the Brody's
family with the help of mentor and experienced canine secret agent Butch
(voice talent of Alec Baldwin).
My whole family enjoyed this action packed film, which
stars a Russian cat armed with James Bond gadgetry, Ninja cats that are as good as
"The Matrix" agents, and Canine Intelligence Service that is
technologically beyond our own CIA. This live action film is shot with
real dogs and cats along with animatronics stand-ins, puppet stand-ins, and
computer generated visual special effects. The result is well
integrated and looks amazingly real. Cuddle up with your dog or cat
(children are optional) and
enjoy this hilarious, eye-popping, fur-flying spy thriller.
The Extras
"Cats & Dogs" DVD comes with a variety of
fur-raising bonus materials:
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Audio commentary with actor Sean Hayes, producer Chris DeFaria,
art director James D. Bissell and director Lawrence Guterman from both
the dog's and cat's perspectives.
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"HBO First Look" special hosted by Sean Hayes to
introduce us to the movie and the making-of "Cats &
Dogs". It is a funny historical look at cats, dogs, and
humans. There is also clips of actors discussing their roles in the
film along with animal training, animatronics, and puppeteering.
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"Teaching a New Dog New Tricks": an extended discussion
about the dogs and cats training for the movie beyond the last segment
of "HBO First Look" along with animation, animatronics, and
puppeteering.
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Storyboard-to-scene Comparisons of the Ninja cats
dropping in and confronting Lou.
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Game Sequence: click on "Activate" to start
trivia game for either Dogs or Cats.
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Original Movie Gallery: storyboards, photos and
designs for the movie.
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Concept sketches
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Theatrical trailer
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Cast and crew information
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DVD-ROM features
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Director's alternate ending (QuickTime movie)
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Your Pet's Secret Identity: create a secret badge for
your pet within a variety of "Cats & Dogs" identity
scenes. Print it and presto - new agent!
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Wallpaper and screensavers for cat
or dog.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is excellent. The colors are accurate and vibrant, while shadow detail is excellent. The cinematography is
richly colorful and is nicely captured on DVD. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced with effective use of the surround
channels, particularly for the action sequences. The
dialog is clear throughout the movie.
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Also available is a full-frame version of the DVD,
as a separate product. You can buy the full-frame DVD from:
> Amazon.com
> Buy.com
Visit the Cats
& Dogs web site to enjoy hilarious new materials or the Warner
video web site.
Did you find this DVD movie review helpful? Let us
know your thoughts, send an e-mail to us at Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
Send this review to a friend: click
here and an e-mail will automatically be composed for you with the link
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"send" button.
Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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