Directed by: Charlie Bean

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A combination of live-action and computer animation retells the story of a pair of canines from different sides of the track.

Featured Felines: It is no surprise that Disney would change the scene with the cats from the original, which depicted the Siamese cats with stereotypical features and voices. In this version the cats are named Devon (voiced by Nate Wonder) and Rex (voiced by Roman Gianarthur) and they are indeed Devon Rex cats with tabby markings. The only difference between the two is one has gold eyes while the other has green.

The Siamese Cat Song has been replaced by a new number entitled What a Shame. The cats emerge from the basket which Aunt Sarah (Yvette Nicole Brown) inexplicably leaves while going upstairs to sing opera. In the original her leaving the cats can be explained by her anxiousness to see the baby. Jim Dear and Darling take the baby with them in this version, leaving Aunt Sarah to dogsit!

Devon and Rex immediately comment on the poor decor of the house and set to work destroying everything. They scratch open the upholstery, knock a figurine off the mantle and rip up the curtains.

Lady attempts to stop them but the cats knock over furniture right and left as Lady takes chase. Lady’s bed is ripped in half during a tug-of-war, spilling feathers everywhere.

In the end the cats topple an entire curio and Lady is left balancing a vase precariously with her nose. When Aunt Sarah comes downstairs she sees her “poor” cats huddled together on the fireplace in supposed fright. Of course she assumes Lady caused all of the destruction.

While it was pretty much inevitable that Disney was going to omit the original song and characters (although we really don’t understand why they couldn’t have kept it in and simply omitted the offensive caricatures and voices) this is not much of an improvement. Si and Am in the original are villains but only in a mischievous way. In actuality they are just being cats. They are self-involved, looking to explore their new surroundings, go after the small animals and obtain food. They don’t break things intentionally, it is just to get where they want to go and get what they want. For instance, when they tear the curtains it is simply because they want to get down quickly. The curtains just happen to rip. The most malicious thing they contemplate besides eating the goldfish is stealing milk from the baby.

Of course they frame Lady for the destruction they cause, feign being injured and congratulate themselves on doing so, but this is to stay out of trouble more than anything else. The fish and bird are not present in the new version, so the cats’ destruction is purely malicious. Devon and Rex destroy things just to destroy them, which does very little to show cats in a good light and also perpetuates the annoying Hollywood habit of using hairless or near hairless cats as villains or repulsive creatures in films.

Final Mewsings: What about the negative stereotyping of cats?

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