YMMV / Cats Don't Dance

• Adorkable: Danny's optimism, energetic dancing, and singing make him quite adorable. Also, when he becomes a couple with Sawyer after he realizes what she meant about the new item on his list "Get the girl."
• All Animation Is Disney: Like many of Warner Bros.' animated flicks, the movie is often mistaken to be a Disney production due to sharing a similar art style. However, its airing on Warner Bros.' animation channel Cartoon Network should tip you off that this WASN'T made by Disney, though it did air on Disney Channel a few times, which probably didn't help this perception.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Darla's fate at the end. Is she reduced to working as a janitor after her reputation is destroyed? Or is she merely doing court-ordered community service to make up for the damage she caused to the studio, and eventually admitted? Or both?
  • Is Darla really a little girl, or is she an adult little person passing herself off as a child? The French dub gives her a much deeper voice, and she seems to live without parents. Nevertheless, she is voiced by a nine-year-old girl in the original version.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Wooly's peanut tea sounds like something that couldn't possibly exist, let alone taste "splendid", but it's actually a thing in Israel and Ethiopia.
• Award Snub: "I Do Believe" by Will Downing for Best Original Song. That said, in addition to not being the first song cued in the credits at all, it’s also probably due to the movie itself not being popular enough at the time.
• Awesome Art: The animation is very smooth, colorful, and energetic and still holds up well today, and definitely shines its best during the more visual-heavy songs, such as “Big and Loud” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Darla is either the best thing in the movie or so intense that her scenes are unwatchable.
  • Same goes for Danny, who's either an enjoyable optimist or insufferably dull.
• Catharsis Factor: After getting the animals blamed and sacked for flooding Mammoth Pictures just to keep her stardom alive, seeing Darla accidentally expose her crimes after failing to sabotage the animals' big performance and losing her job herself is really gratifying.
• Cult Classic: While a flop upon release, it has found a loyal following and new appreciation in the decades since—to the point that many deem it an underrated gem.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Max is a relatively minor character, but he is easily the most memorable, especially with his introduction scene. His mysterious past and array of superhuman abilities certainly help.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: There are plenty of comparisons someone can draw watching this movie to the plight of minority representation in film as represented by the animals. Considering it's in the Golden Age, of all times, could only strengthen this view since it took decades for non-white actors to reach prominence. The scene near the climax with the bigoted human bus driver conversing with Danny only confirms the subtext, as the bus driver's comments about animals are peppered with lines like "you're one of the good ones" and "some of my best friends are," which is the type of stuff a racist person would say to avoid being perceived as racist.
• Evil Is Cool: For many people, Darla Dimple and Max are the best things about the movie.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The scene where Darla and Max flood the stage of the film in an attempt to kill the animals is almost certainly a reference to the 1928 film adaptation of Noah's Ark, in which the director actually flooded the stage among many untrained extras, which resulted in 3 deaths and dozens of injuries, including one man whose leg was so badly mangled it had to be amputated.
  • Darla's characterization is a nod to an urban legend that circulated about Shirley Temple during the Golden Age — that she was really a bitter old little person who hated children and animals.
• Iron Woobie: Danny. He gets hit with a lot of cynicism, scorn, and the fact that Hollywood is only looking for talented people, not animals. Despite that, he keeps pushing on towards his dream despite the odds against him, and despite the one time he gives up after being manipulated by Darla.
• Jerkass Woobie: Sawyer may come off as cynical and frosty towards Danny, but her backstory reveals that she wanted to be a Hollywood singer who had her dreams broken when they rejected her by saying she isn't human. Her actions toward Danny come off more as her saving him from having his spirits crushed than actually being mean to him. Although, she briefly lost her patience for him when things have gone wrong because of his persistence and naivete.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many fans will argue that Darla and/or Max are the best thing about the film and one of the only reasons to watch. Dismissing Danny and Sawyer as rather basic.
• Les Yay: Tilly swoons for Sawyer after hearing her sing "Tell Me Lies".
• Love to Hate: Darla Dimple and Max. Max is very popular despite being a minor character, and while a Base-Breaking Character, Darla has quite a large fandom.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Videos where bad things happen to Darla Dimple seem to be popular on YouTube.
  • As a result of Steven Universe, people began posting screen caps of Darla and Max (or redrawing them) and saying "Aquamarine and Topaz look great" since the two Gems look so similar to the villainous duo it's unlikely the comparisons weren't intentionally made by the show's designers.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Max crosses it in the climax when he outright attempts to murder Danny so he can't live to carry out his Batman Gambit. Up until that point, any evildoing he performed was at the behest of Darla, but when he hears Danny and Pudge setting up for the performance they were going to do when Darla's film was over, he resolves to stop them of his own free will, which nearly results in Danny getting killed.
  • In-universe example: after giving advice to Danny about how to be great in a movie, Darla Dimple floods the stage during his and the other animals' act, which realistically could have gotten many humans and animals killed, just to ruin the animals' chance to impress the director. After she accidentally reveals it to the audience, everyone is incredibly shocked, and she gets demoted to janitor.
• No Yay: The "seduction" of Danny by Darla. "Get hot, Miss Dimple." Please don't, Miss Dimple.
• Popular with Furries: The film has been Vindicated by Cable, leading to a lot of furries noticing a movie about Funny Animals that originally went under the radar.
• Retroactive Recognition: Lauren Faust's first job in the animation industry was as one of the animators for Sawyer.
• Spiritual Successor: Can be viewed as one to An American Tail. Much like how that film can be viewed as an allegory for the struggles many immigrants faced living in late 19th century New York, Cats Don't Dance can be similarly viewed as an allegory for the struggles of minority actors in 1930s Hollywood.
• Squick: The scene where Darla, a child, appears to be trying to seduce Danny, a cat. An adult cat.
• Strawman Has a Point: While Darla heavily overreacted during the filming of "Little Ark Angel," Danny does go off-script, upstages her show (she's the lead actress for the movie being filmed, and he's a bit part extra), and deliberately tries to steal her spotlight, which would get most extras in real life fired hard, along with probably getting them blacklisted from other roles if they did it on their first day like Danny did. Moreover, he ruins what would have been a very complicated shot in the 1930s, wasting everyone's time and a substantial amount of money.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: Woolie the Mammoth gives Danny - and viewers - a lesson about how peanuts aren't actually nuts at all but members of the legume (bean) family.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The scene where a furious Darla sics Max on Danny after he upstages her in the "Little Boat on the Sea" number is meant to show what a horribly spoiled brat Darla is and how she has no qualms about putting potential rivals back in their place through violent methods. However, quite a lot of viewers noted that while the scale of Darla's reaction isn't justified, her anger was pretty understandable. Danny not only ruins the entire take by singing over his fellow extras, but he also actively pushes Darla out of the spotlight and steals her solo (while Darla herself, though clearly irritated by the upstart extra, at least tries to professionally stay in character and pull the scene through to the end, even if she fails at it). Overall, Danny comes across as less trying to make a name for himself by breaking out of a restrictive role and more like a stage hog extra pushing everyone aside to have his moment when he has absolutely no right to do so. The fact that he effectively ruins a very complicated, expensive, even somewhat dangerous scene doesn't help his case either and further justifies her anger and the director's; he has an easy role with tightly defined timing and then tosses it aside and wastes their time and budget.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Danny is seen by many as this. His generic personality is quite overshadowed by the rest of the cast and their quirky personalities.
• Vindicated by History: Although a box office bomb at the time, its repeated airings on TV and VHS sales have earned it a place in the hearts of many animation fans, with more coming forth to say that it's not as bad as its theatrical run might make you think.

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