Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore

A sequel to a 2001 film nobody willfully remembers and from which it resurrects wholly dispensable characters just to generate content for 3D technology. Like its predecessor, this proudly insipid kid's movie relies on cynical jokes with self-evident punchlines that proudly announce that what you see is exactly what you get with each passing minute of dead air that in real-time feels like five. Talking cats and dogs parody spy- and action-movie clichés mostly ripped off from the Roger Moore cycle of James Bond films, among other generic detritus.

Nothing so exciting happens to the audience during the main feature, alas. Plagued by cheap-looking special effects and a crummy 3-D conversion, Kitty Galore leans heavily on its only real asset, the natural cuteness of its fuzzy stars. It also negates the one truly fun thing about 2001's Cats & Dogs -- the comic mileage it got out of the age-old rivalry between humankind's two favorite house pets -- with a gloppy peace-between-the-species plotline. Cats and dogs working together for the greater good? Woof.

Of course, the animals are voiced by plenty of celebrities--James Marsden, Nick Nolte, Christina Applegate, Neil Patrick Harris, Wallace Shawn and, in one of the more inspired casting choices, Roger Moore, a former Bond who voices a character called Tab Lazenby, himself named after another former Bond actor. One would think the cleverness of the writing might go beyond simply referencing Bond movies outright, but I suppose that would be expecting a bit too much.

It's likely that a great deal of the film's budget went into the special effects, which is baffling considering how poor they are. Giving a dog peanut butter may be a pretty archaic way to make it look like it's talking, but even that would've been better than this. Basically, the animals sit around, completely still, and then their mouths are animated. The result is less amusing or realistic and more weird and creepy. At least with peanut butter, the animals would move around with some sort of personality.

The action is pretty much equally bad, kinetic to the point of confusion at times and banal and boring at others.

Basically, it'll accomplish what parents will probably want it to--it'll entertain (very young) children for a little over an hour. But when movies like Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me are still in theaters, it feels irresponsible to force them to watch stuff like this.