Film / Cats & Dogs

aka: Cats And Dogs The Revenge Of Kitty Galore

The quintessential Cats Are Mean movie, this 2001 action-comedy was directed by Lawrence Guterman and stars Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins, and an All-Star Cast of animal voices.

The movie opens like a fairly standard comedy. A dog named Buddy chases a cat throughout a small suburb, causing havoc as they go. Things get weird when a truck pulls up in front of Buddy and he is captured by the many cats driving it. As soon as this happens, a call goes out to dogs around the world, letting them all know that their agent has been "cat-napped." So opens Cats & Dogs.

As it turns out, cats and dogs are a lot smarter and better organized than we humans think. Many of the world's dogs are actually members of an international secret organization dedicated to protecting their humans from the evil cats. Buddy was on a particularly vital case, protecting the Brody family, while Charles (Goldblum), the father of the household, finishes his formula to eliminate dog allergies. Obviously, the cats don't want that to happen, and so the Brody family needs constant protection, in the form of a dog agent disguised as the family pet.

The dogs plan to have a trained agent puppy take over Buddy's job, but a slip-up in the replacement of the dogs at the puppy farm causes a young civilian beagle, named Lou (Tobey Maguire), to become the Brodys' pet. It's now Lou's job to protect the family from the diabolical machinations of the evil, horrible, unspeakable feline mastermind known as... Mr. Tinkles (Sean Hayes).

A sequel to the movie was released July of 2010: Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. It increases the James Bond/Spy Film references and spoofs. It also retcons away the innate evilness of felines seen in the first film, establishing that there are heroic cats, they just tend to keep to themselves. Until now...

In September 2020, a third Cats & Dogs movie, titled Paws Unite! was released Direct to Video (outside of the UK and Australia, where it got a theatrical release). It follows new characters Gwen and Roger, and their formation of a squad of amateur spies to foil Pablo, a villainous cockatoo. It reduced the spy references and was noticeably Lighter and Softer than the previous films.

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These films provide examples of:

In General

• Always Chaotic Evil: Cats in the first film, though this is dropped in the sequel.
• Always Lawful Good: Dogs. Mentioned as not being the case in the sequel, though no non-good dog actually shows up.
• Animal Espionage: In this case, the cats as villainous spies and the dogs as heroic secret agents.
• Animal Jingoism: Dogs versus cats. Very self-explanatory.
• Animals Lack Attributes: Lou is played by a couple of different beagles. Any scene in which he rolls on his back (particularly if someone is scratching his belly) will be played by a female, who naturally has less in that department. Despite this, Butch's comment on his immaturity is "He's still got his you-know-whats, for cryin' out loud!"
• Animals See in Monochrome: One joke revolves around dogs being unable to stop a bomb because they can't differentiate between the wire colours.
• Animal Superheroes: Superspies, at the very least.
• Animal Talk: Subverted. For the first half of the movie it seems like the animals can talk to each other but not to humans, but it turns out animals can talk to humans and just choose not to.
• Big Bad: Mr. Tinkles in the first film. While he still appears in the second film, Kitty Galore takes over the role of Big Bad. In the third film, the role goes to Pablo, a cockatoo who resents cats and dogs for being more popular than other pets.
• Big Red Button:
  • You don't just press the big button! It's actually a transport to headquarters.
  • A big red button appears on the satellite in the sequel. The heroes attempt to press it in an attempt to shut off the machine, but it turns out to be the button that activates the machine.
  Kitty Galore: "Thank you!"
• Black-and-White Morality:
  • Dogs are good, and cats are evil.
  • Subverted in the second film, where it's revealed there's a secret cat organization that protects humans as well as catkind.
• Break Them by Talking: Mr. Tinkles reminds Butch that he's still just a field agent, figures out that Diggs was kicked out of the K-9 unit, and implies that Catherine has daddy issues. Seamus he just threatened to eat.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Mr. Tinkles' henchman Calico in the first film.
  • Also, the unfortunate mouse Kitty Galore keeps as a pet, whom she names Scrumptious. She treats the rodent as her own personal plaything, throwing him up in the air repeatedly, squeezing him, and, at one point, pounding on his head thinking that he is a computer mouse.
• Color Blind Confusion: The dogs know which wire they have to pull to disarm the bomb, they just can't tell which one it is since none of them can see in color.
• Cat/Dog Dichotomy: Literally.
• Cats Are Mean: Since ancient Egypt where they were worshiped as gods.
  • The second film essentially works on subverting this trope by revealing that, although some cats are mean, plenty are heroic and care about humans just as much as the dogs.
• Cat Stereotype: There's a Russian Blue cat who not only has a Russian accent but also acts like a spy movie villain.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Parodied with both Mr. Tinkles and Kitty Galore.
• Dog Stereotype: The Chinese delegate to the World Dog Council is a Shar Pei. The German delegate is a German Shepherd.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Mr. Tinkles. Very often.
  • And Kitty Galore. Also very often (but used effectively to show her madness).
• Fluffy the Terrible: Who do you think? Oh, okay, it's Mr. Tinkles...
• Good Animals, Evil Animals:
  • The dogs are the heroes. The cats are the villains. Simple, no?
  • Somewhat averted in the sequel, but the main villain still happens to be a cat.
• Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: The core premise of the franchise is that cats are evil wanting to enslave humanity, whereas dogs are heroic, protecting humans from the cats. The first film plays this completely straight; the sequel introduces some heroic cats.
• Intellectual Animal:
  Lou: And the people just forgot?
  Peek: Well you have to remember, they're a very primitive species.
• Large Ham: Mr. Tinkles and Kitty Galore.
• Magic Countdown: The one-minute timer on the bomb took much longer than one minute (about two and a half minutes) to reach 0:01.
• Pun:
  • The second movie's villain, Kitty Galore. Think about it for a minute.
    • Also before the title change, her real name used to be Ivana Clawyu.
  • The first movie has a news report from Wolf Blitzer of Canine National News. He's a wolf.
• Right-Hand Cat:
  • Mr. Tinkles. For bonus points, he's the Big Bad and the cat.
  • Switched around with Kitty Galore, who has a right hand mouse named Scrumptious (albeit an unwilling one).
• Sapient Pet: The cats and dogs talking in this franchise isn't just something only the viewer can see like most franchises of the "talking animal" genre. They actually are able to talk, requiring them to uphold the Masquerade.
• Shout-Out:
  • The scene where the team meets Tinkles in prison in the second movie is The Silence of the Lambs parody with Tinkles as Hannibal.
  • The Russian cat spy utters the phrase From Russia with Love as he plants a... um... "present" designed to get Lou thrown out of the house.
  • There is also Kitty Galore. She even has a minion who's a cat version of Jaws.
  • Kitty's Freudian Excuse narrated by Catherine: she used to be a MEOWS agent named Ivana Clawyu who went rogue after an accident with dogs who caused her to fall in a vat of hair removal cream, causing her to get her furless appearance.
  • In the sequel, Catherine's (the cat secret agent) designation is Agent 47.
  • In said sequel, the police captain's name is Flemming, a reference to the writer of the James Bond novels Ian Fleming.
  • In the first film, when a cat minion snatches one of the mice and gulps him down whole, another mouse shouts "He ate Jerry!"
• Spy Gadgets: A number of them in both films. Dog houses are secret bases. Toilets and squirrels are communicators. Collars are actually a multi-purpose Utility Belt. Bombs are disguised as Doggy treats. The list goes on and on.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • "This is your boss, Mr. Mason. Not an evil talking cat trying to take over the world."
  • The sequel has a pair of Scottish tabbies, Angus and Duncan, trying to kill Seamus. Angus gets rid of the humans by hacking into the radio and saying, "This is your captain, Angus Mc... uh... Not-a-cat, speaking!"
• Take Over the World:
  • Mr. Tinkles's ultimate goal.
  • Also the goal of Kitty Galore.
• Technicolor Science:
  • The shelves upon shelves of vials and beakers in Charles's basement laboratory.
  • The inside structure of the secret organizations of the cats and dogs in the sequel.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Mr. Tinkles.

Cats & Dogs

• Absent-Minded Professor: Charles, to the point where he loses track of time during his work and forgets to come to his son's soccer tryouts, despite him promising to be there.
• Accidental Good Outcome: Mr. Tinkles is furious with Calico for buying a cork launcher instead of a gun. In his rage, he accidentally sets the place on fire with the cork launcher.
  Mr. Tinkles: I'm so clever.
• Acme Products: Spoofed. The bomb that looks like a dog biscuit has "Acme" on the side of it before Butch blows it up.
• Artistic License – History: No, cats did not rule over humans in Ancient Egypt, no matter what this film may tell you.
• Badass Boast: Lou gives one after hitting Mr. Tinkles with the flocking machine:
  Lou: Dogs rule!
• Bad Boss: Mr. Tinkles is a straight example. His "owner", Mr. Mason, is implied, as all his workers (save his maid Sophie) are nervously cordial in his presence (conscious or otherwise).
• The Bad Guy Wins: Subverted; Even though Mr. Tinkles is unsuccessful in spreading the massive dog-allergy trigger to the world and make all humans allergic to dogs, he does manage to steal Prof. Brody's dog allergy cure, and the dogs' mission is to keep it away from the cats.
  • And the research was probably lost when the factory exploded.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: After the dog cleaning agents get the mess cleaned up, Caroline comes in.
  Caroline: Oh my god... who left the window open?
• Big Damn Heroes: The dogs arrives at the last second to foil Mr. Tinkles's plans and rescue the Brodys.
• Big "WHAT?!": Butch yells "What?!" when Tinkles tells him and Lou that he intends to use the Professor's research as an allergy trigger and make all humans allergic to dogs.
  • Tinkles when he sees the gun he intends to shoot the Brodys with is just a toy gun.
• Bowdlerise: Butch's line "We tolerate that stupid boojie-boojie baby talk crap" is cut short when aired on Disney. Guess where.
• Broken Masquerade: Tinkles causes Sophie to pass out from shock by revealing he can speak.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Mr. Tinkles.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Subverted. When the ninjas infiltrate the house, one of them attempts this on Lou, who doesn't know they are there. Butch, outside, alerts him. Lou dodges the attack and two of the ninjas knock their own goggles off when they collide with each other.
• Creator Cameo: Well, writer cameo, actually. Co-writer Glenn Ficarra played the crazy evil cat known simply as "The Russian".
• Death Trap: A rare justified case — Mr. Tinkles was planning to shoot the Brodys once he'd tested the new formula on Scott, but his minions had acquired a toy gun instead, and in his anger he set off a chain of Disaster Dominoes that started a fire by accident. Deciding that was a good enough Plan B, he left them to burn.
• Deceptively Cute Critter: Both types of pets are far more intelligent than they let on and have their own secret society with elaborate spy organizations. However, they still consider humans the ultimate authority over the earth and are mostly looking to one-up each other. The plot centers around a cat terrorist by the name of Mr. Tinkles who wants to make it impossible for any human to keep a dog as a pet again.
• Disney Death: Oh, come on, they wouldn't kill off Lou for real!
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: When Lou comes across a bone that's actually a bomb, Butch kicks a small branch onto the bone to show what would've happened if Lou touched it.
• The Door Slams You: This happens to the Russian Blue as he tries to set off the bomb (deactivated by Butch seconds before) when Brody comes out of the lab unexpectedly, pinning him to the wall. He even says "Ouch!" a few seconds later, and when the door closes, he peels off the wall in a funny manner.
• Dramatic Thunder: Usually at the Mason property, and after Mr. Tinkles's Suddenly Shouting moment.
• Drives Like Crazy: Calico, at the wheel of Mason's limo.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Charles after Scott inadvertently causes some of the serum samples to be mixed, thereby creating the cure for dog allergies.
• Forbidden Chekhov's Gun: The big button on the kennel's instrument panel. The first time it appears, Butch has to stop Lou from pressing it, telling him, "You don't just press the big button! Jeez!" Later, after Tinkles reveals he has captured the Brodys, Butch tells Lou they can now use the big button, which activates a rocket sled that sends them to headquarters.
• Furry Reminder: The dog version of the United Nations is such a ruckus that the chairman has to open a can of dog food to get everyone’s attention.
• Glass Smack and Slide: This happens to Mr. Tinkles on the inside of a car.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Scott watching TV at bedtime on the night the ninjas break in.
  • Any time Lou joins Scott in playing with his ball in the yard. At the end, even Charles joins in.
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: At the end of the film, Lou yells "Hey, you!" to Mr. Tinkles before he uses the flocking machine on the latter.
• Hold Your Hipogriffs: “Son of my mom” (a bitch)
• Idiot Ball: With all the resources the dogs have, and a mission to protect humans, attempting to rescue the Brodys wasn't even considered — it came down to a vote to either surrender the research or let them die.
• I've Got an X, and I'm Not Afraid to Use It!: Caroline and Charles have a bat and a mitt (respectively) and they aren't afraid to use it.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Lou.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Butch. He can be quite antisocial and unfriendly, but he is a fair boss to Peek and Sam, and warms up to Lou eventually. It's also revealed he is hurting inside after his owner went off to college and left him with his grandmother.
• Just in Time: Butch pulls out the correct wire to disarm the bomb attached to the lab door with one second left on the timer. Cue a big sigh of relief when the timer freezes.
• Kill It with Fire: Tinkles intends to do this to the Brodys after a series of Disaster Dominoes causes the room they're tied up in to catch fire.
• Lured into a Trap: To capture the Brodys in order to get the dogs to give them the formula, The cats send fake tickets to a soccer game to them, then when the family pulls up in their car, the cats throw in a knock-out gas bomb leaving the family unconscious to take hostage.
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The movie poster has the dogs on the left side and the cats on the right.
• Mission Control: Peek.
• Modern Minstrelsy: Mr. Tinkles has a Latin-American maid... who has several sisters that are also maids. They even look identical.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After Butch refused to help Lou because his owner left him with his grandma before going to college, Lou hands the anti-allergy research over to Mr. Tinkles, allowing him to turn it into a massive allergy trigger.
  Mr. Tinkles: I have seized the formula, and in mere hours I will reverse it, giving me the power to make all humans allergic to dogs.
  Butch: What?
  Mr. Tinkles [to his chauffeur as the limousine swerves]: How am supposed to gloat gleefully when you're driving like a chimpanzee? I mean really? [resumes his speech] Now I will make all of humanity violently allergic to your wretched kind, and with you all hated and despised by those you protect, you will be cast out, leaving me to lead all of cat kind in the glorious revolution to conquer the world! [Mr. Tinkles laughs wickedly]
  Lou: What will we do?
  Butch: "We"? You just handed the world back to the cats and doomed the human race forever. There is nothing left to do.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Russian throws his boomerang and mockingly tells Lou, "Fetch!" Lou jumps up to intercept the boomerang, causing him to slam into the Russian, allowing Butch to get past him and disable the bomb attached to the door of the lab.
• Ninja: Ninja Cats, of course.
• Non-Indicative Name: Calico. Named after calico cats, but he's actually a tabby.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Although they don't know it, the cats can be assured that the research Lou hands over to them is the only copy, and Prof. Brody doesn't know how to recreate it because the breakthrough happened by accident. This probably means that it's lost forever once the factory blows up.
• No, You: The first time the Russian speaks.
  Lou: I'm on to you, kitty, and you're in big trouble.
  Russian: I think not, baby puppy. It is you who is in trouble.
• Offhand Backhand: Lou, during his fight against the ninja cats.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Lou, after the Russian plants a "present" on the carpet and realises he's about to get thrown out of the house.
  • Lou and Butch when the morning star thrown at them by the Russian loses its top and produces even more spikes, which then get fired at them.
  • The Russian when he sees that Lou, having intercepted his boomerang, is about to slam into him.
  • Lou and Butch again when the Russian plans to get off the bomb on the lab door with a detonator after Butch manages to disarm it.
  • Scott twice in the same scene, when he accidentally throws his ball into the lab, and then when it falls and he sees Lou is going to intercept it. Cue a lot of smashing.
  • All three Brodys when a gas canister gets thrown into their car at the stadium.
  • Lou at the pier when Mr. Mason's limo, with the cats in it, pulls up behind him, and again when the cats appear.
  • The Brodys when Tinkles leaves them in the room they're tied up in after Tinkles accidentally causes it to catch fire. Their next scene shows Scott and Charles frantically trying to break their chairs apart before Lou bursts in.
  • Butch when he gets cornered by Tinkles's crane and when he eventually gets caught.
  • Tinkles, when he realises Lou is about to hit him with a jet from the flocking machine.
  • Lou has a brief one when the crane hits him along with the flocking jet.
• Only One Name: Subverted. Prof. Brody's first name is revealed to be Charles when Caroline talks to him on the phone.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After he and Lou manage to defeat the Russian, Butch commends Lou for his quick thinking. Peek and Sam, watching from outside, are both surprised by this.
• Pet Dress-Up: Sophie likes doing this to Mr. Tinkles, much to his chagrin. In the end, Sophie punishes Mr. Tinkles by taking him to live with her and her sisters, all of whom enjoy dressing up the cat in various silly outfits, leading to a Costume-Test Montage, with the final outfit for Mr. Tinkles being a striped prisoner outfit.
• Pieinthe Face: During the opening scene where the Brody family's dog Buddy was chasing a cat, they came across a woman who was baking a pie. The cat jumps on her and knocked her on the floor. The woman caught the pie just in time. When she got up to put the pie in the window, Buddy jumped on her, knocking her on the floor once again. She didn't caught the pie on time and it landed on her face.
• Reverse the Polarity: Mr. Tinkles's master plan is to get Charles's formula and reverse it into a disease capable of spreading dog-allergy to the entire world! Mwahahahahah!
• Say My Name: Butch does this when he's on the way to rescue Lou when the cats capture him at the pier, and again at the end while looking for him when the factory is about to blow up.
  • Scott does it as well, yelling Lou's name after the factory blows up.
• Screaming Woman: Caroline when Tinkles reveals he can talk in front of her and the other Brodys. This happens for a few minutes, with Tinkles covering his ears and yelling for someone to shut her up.
• Shiny New Australia: To the world's mouse population, having convinced them of its status as a bastion of the dairy industry.
• Stock Animal Name: Butch assumes Lou was given one by the Brodys when they first meet...
  Butch: What kind of stupid name did the bipeds saddle you with? "Spot?" "Fifi?" "Rover?"
  Lou: Lou.
  Butch: God forbid... Oh! Lou. Sorry.
• Suddenly Shouting: "At what point did you forget that WE'RE TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD?!" Immediately followed by Dramatic Thunder.
• Super Window Jump: After rescuing the Brodys, Lou jumps through the office window to distract Mr. Tinkles and rescue Butch.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: “Yes, it’s me, your boss. Not an evil cat bent on destroying the world.”
• Surrounded by Idiots: Mr. Tinkles.
• Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: The movie invokes this by having spy dogs in training drink from toilets to hide the fact that they are actually receiving messages from HQ.
• Vader Breath: After the cats render the Brody family unconscious with a sleeping gas bomb, one of the cats pops up from below the ticket booth wearing a gas mask and breathing like Darth Vader before celebrating his accomplishment.
• Vocal Dissonance: The Russian looks cute and is assumed to be female by Caroline, when is revealed to have a deep male voice with a Russian accent.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After the council meeting, Butch calls out Lou for speaking out of turn. Lou gives one back at him for agreeing with the council's decision to allow the Brodys to die so the formula wouldn't be used against dogs, and for not backing him up. Lou believes Butch's taking his anger on his own human family for sending him away (due to his boy leaving for college) on the Brodys.
  Lou: You should've fought for me! For my family!
  Butch: Why? What good would it do?!
  Lou: What about man's best friend? History 101, remember?
  Butch: Okay, well here's lesson number two: we protect them. We work for them. We tolerate that stupid boochy-boochy baby talk crap. And for what?! So that when they go off to college, they can dump you off with some old lady who can't throw a ball without so much as breaking her hip!
  Lou: Is that what happened to you? You're gonna blame my family for what some boy did to you?
  Butch: Look, kid, I'm sorry it played out like this, but it's over. We're shut down.
• Wire Dilemma: The dogs actually know which color wire to pull. The only problem?
  Butch: "We're dogs. We're colorblind!"
• You Can Talk?:
  • Pretty much the whole family's reaction to the villain cat's Big Reveal. Scott thought it was kind of cool at first, though.
  • Earlier on, Sophie fainted from shock after finding out that Mr. Tinkle can talk to her.
• You Have Failed Me: Mr. Tinkles orders the elimination of the Ninjas after they fail to kill Lou. Also, there's this little exchange with Calico as they leave a burning room.
  Mr. Tinkles: I want you to stay here.
  Calico: Why?
  Mr. Tinkles: Because I hate you.

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

• Action Girl: Catherine.
• An Aesop: The second movie uses Fantastic Racism to express an anti-racism/prejudice message, and also has a scene teaching the lesson that the vicious cycle is continued by teaching the next generation to hate.
• Animated Credits Opening: And they're actually pretty badass. It is basically a James Bond opening, with cats & dogs instead of human females.
• Artistic License – Biology: Kitty Galore is said to be a Sphynx Cat, which are naturally hairless due to a genetic mutation... but Kitty used to have fur that was stripped from her due to a hair remover incident. Either Kitty was an outlier of Sphynxes, or the hair remover also managed to change her breed.
• Big Good: Lou in PAWS and Tab Lazenby in MEOWS.
• Blind People Wear Sunglasses: The heroes decide to travel on a whale-watching boat. Aware that the boat only allows guide dogs onboard, they place sunglasses on a sleeping old man to make it look like Diggs is his guide dog.
• Casting Gag: Tab is played by Roger Moore, whose most famous role was the third James Bond.
• Cats Hate Water: Catherine is depicted having a severe phobia of water. Diggs splashes water on Catherine when trying to learn about Kitty Galore's whereabouts.
• Chekhov's Skill: Played straight and spoofed. Butch teaches Diggs the "fetch a stick" move (throw an object to distract someone). When Diggs attempts it, he hits the target in the head by accident. Later, it's played straight with Diggs' rope-swinging skill.
• Children Are Innocent: Catherine's nieces lack any sort of prejudice toward dogs. In fact, they are very happy to meet Diggs, hanging around and playing with him.
  Diggs: I'm a dog. I can't believe they don't hate me.
  Catherine: Well, I guess they haven't learned to yet...
• Cloudcuckoolander: Seamus the pigeon.
• Crazy Cat Lady: The house where Calico hides is owned by one such lady, and her host of... stoner cats (on catnip). She briefly gives Catherine a hug to her great displeasure.
• Cryptic Conversation: A detained Mr. Tinkles does this purposely (because it sounds mysterious) as a way to find Kitty Galore.
  Mr. Tinkles: Look... I can't help you fight other villains, all right? It's a professional courtesy thing! I'd be blackballed! Laughed at! I'd lose my pension! However... I will say this. A cat's eye... reveals... everything!
  Seamus: What? What's that supposed to mean?
  Mr. Tinkles: It's a riddle, Sherlock! I was trying to be mysterio— oh, never mind.
• Cute Kittens: Catherine's adorable nieces.
• Deadpan Snarker: Catherine loves to dish out the snark.
• Demoted to Extra: Mr. Tinkles, the main villain from the first movie, spends most of the time locked up Hannibal Lecter-style in Alcatraz's cat prison before making his escape towards the very end. Lou, the beagle from the first movie, is also demoted into a supporting character by making him leader of the doggy spy agency, putting him on the sidelines. Sam gets the worst of them all, appearing for all of 5 seconds and only getting in about one line before walking away, never to be seen again.
• The Dog Bites Back: Kitty's right hand mouse Scrumptious snaps after so much time as her coddling plaything and releases her from her constraints atop the satellite dish, sending her flying into a cotton candy machine.
• The Dragon: Paws is definitely this for Kitty Galore. He starts off as an Expy of James Bond and at the climax it turns out he's also a kitty version of the Terminator.
• Enemy Mine: Kitty Galore's plot is so evil that cats, dogs, and pigeons team up to take her down.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Kitty Galore was angry when Paws tries to eat Scrumptious. She also is horrified to see her master trying to attempt a magic trick that turned out to be fatal. Not to mention, he was going to do that trick on her.
• Face–Heel Turn: In the backstory, Kitty Galore was once good. Then, she became hairless, at which point she decided to take revenge on the dogs.
• Fallen Hero: Kitty Galore was once a well-known member of MEOWS until she decided to exact revenge on the dogs.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Diggs' inability to trust others and follow orders, as well as his extreme hatred towards cats.
  • As is typical of her species, Catherine has a debilitating fear of water. She is frozen with fear when she tries to save Diggs, who is hanging precariously over the edge of a boat in motion, and nearly breaks down when she and Diggs are threatened with drowning. In the end, she overcomes her phobia just in time to save them both from drowning.
• Freudian Excuse: Kitty Galore was once a member of MEOWS, but one of her missions had her accidentally fall into a vat of hair remover, turning her hairless and making her the butt of jokes of the organization, as well as getting her kicked out by her human owners who were disgusted by her appearance (and on Christmas too). This Humiliation Conga is said to have turned her into one of the most dangerous and evil cats of them all.
• Good Versus Good: Initially, Diggs vs. Catherine.
• High on Catnip: The cats belonging to the cat lady act like stoners when they're around catnip.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: In reference to MEOWS' renegade agent Kitty Galore:
  Tab: This is our spilled milk; we'll lick it up.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Mr. Tinkles' henchman Calico is flanderized in the sequel from simply being clumsy and incompetent to so dumb that when he is cornered by the heroes in a closed room, he releases a trap of piling cat litter before realizing he's not outside. (In fact, considering that he's got a different actor voicing him in this movie, it's a credible possibility he's not even the same Calico, but a new one who's even dumber than the last one.)
  Seamus: And with that, I am officially no longer the dumbest animal in the room!
  • A very minor example, but between Catherine and Kitty while completely aware that Kitty's a ruthless character, Catherine believes that she'll save her from being drowned despite it being so obvious that it's her intention to drown both Diggs and Catherine.
• Interspecies Friendship: Between Diggs and Catherine, complete with an Anguished Declaration of Love-like scene.
• It's Personal: Kitty Galore wants revenge on the dogs for causing her to fall into a vat of hair remover.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Both MEOWS and DOG are going after Kitty Galore (DOG citing that she's a cat threatening dogs, while MEOWS claim that she's their mess — that is, their ex-agent), and are unwilling to let the other take over. Resolved by an unprecedented step in the political history of the organizations: Cats & Dogs working together.
  Lou’s nephew: Whoa, that ain’t right.
• Keet: Seamus the pigeon.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Diggs suffers this majorly. Catherine and Butch make a careful plan to sneak up and catch Calico and his pigeon liaison, but it gets thrown out the window when Diggs just charges right in due to his impatience. His tendency to ignore his orders and do things his way without getting permission had already cost his reputation badly several times by the time he met the agency.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Diggs invokes this after his friendship confession to Catherine.
  Catherine: Never happened.
  Diggs: Thank you.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Butch heavily criticizes Diggs for his constant screw-ups on the mission because of his Leeroy Jenkins mentality.
• Oh, Crap!: Tab when he sees Diggs for the first time.
• Precious Puppies: There's a brief scene of Lou's kids engaging in a bit of innocent mischief in his office.
• Predator Turned Protector: Kitty Galore's relationship with Scrumptious, though it comes with strong overtones of And Call Him "George". She also indicates as she's taking Paws to task for trying to eat Scrumptious that if anyone's going to eat that mouse, it's going to be her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Butch verbally tears into Diggs about his constantly ruining everything because of his Leeroy Jenkins personality and his insistence that doing things his own way works despite how this got him kicked out of the police dogs in the first place. The veteran agent angrily tells Diggs in his face that he'll never be a real agent as he is hopelessly untrainable. Butch then tells him to get lost as he's a danger to the mission and a risk to national security. He regrets it later on though.
• Renegade Cat: Kitty Galore certainly went renegade from the Cats.
• The Reveal: This page may not make a secret of it, but up until Catherine's interrogation (over twenty minutes into the movie), there's nothing to indicate that Revenge of Kitty Galore hasn't kept up the first movie's Always Chaotic Evil stance on cats. Then Catherine's collar malfunctions and Butch recognizes some of the words he's hearing...
• Robotic Reveal: Kitty's henchman Paws turns out to be an automation during the final battle. This is actually a bit weird, since we previously saw him trying to eat a mouse...
• Sequel Hook
  • After defeating Kitty Galore, Diggs is called to HQ and is shown a live video showing that Mr. Tinkles has escaped from prison with Calico. It is also shown that Diggs, Butch, Catherine, and Seamus are still working together. Subverted after the credits, when Mr. Tinkles says where he is not aware that his camera is still on, so that the Dogs should be able to track him down and arrest him again pretty soon.
• Was Too Hard on Him: After Diggs messes up the mission majorly, Butch chews him out on his behavior and kicks him off the team. When he and Seamus search for clues later, he admits that he may have been a little too harsh on Diggs.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Catherine is fearful of water... at first.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Kitty Galore / Ivana Clawyu.

Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite!

• Almost Kiss: Max and Zoe almost make out while stuck in the elevator.
• Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: A dog says “shitty” at one point into the film. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to earn the film a PG rating.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Being assigned to monitors for so long, Gwen is desperate to get into the action. When she finally gets outside, she quickly becomes overwhelmed by the wide, open spaces.
• The Big Guy: Duke the rottweiler serves as this for Roger and Gwen's team.
• Cat Stereotype: Gwen, an orange tabby, is one of the heroes.
• Commonality Connection: Roger and Gwen bond over their love and concern for their owners, Max and Zoe.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The movie starts with brief mentions to times cats and dogs antagonized one another. As a nod to the first movie, Ancient Egypt is brought up.
  • The head of FART brings up the Big Bads of the previous movies as examples of animals he deems capable of doing what this movie's antagonists are doing.
  • The characters make a joke about how they assume it’s not a cat behind the data hacking, a reference to how the villains of the past two films were cats.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Zeek starts as Pablo's tech expert but his true goal is to have his species rule the world.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Pablo the cockatoo has waited 6 years for someone to purchase him, and always tries to amuse the other non-cat-or-dog pets to prove this. By the end of the film, Pablo is purchased by a young boy, who calls him “Super Bird” as he first saw him with a Superman costume on.
• Excalibur in the Stone: As an example of the rivalry between cats and dogs, a cat is shown trying to pull a sword from a stone, unaware that a dog used glue to prevent it from happening.
• Freudian Excuse: Pablo and his followers want to destroy the peace between cats and dogs because no other pet known what's like being loved by humans. Subverted with Zeek the lizard since his true goal is to have reptiles rule the world.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • Furry Animals Rivalry Termination.
  • Pablo's group are known as Pets with Oout of the Ordinary Pedigree.
• Hate Plague: Pablo uses cellular and wifi broadcast towers to transmit a frequency which increases cats and dogs' dislike for each other, causing them to fight. Roger and Gwen's team are protected from this by experimental treats that lower their disdain for each other.
• Heel–Face Turn: Pablo gives up on his revenge upon finally being loved by a human.
• Hollywood Hacking: Pablo uses this to hack into the store’s programming code, mainly to play high frequencies that send people out of the store. He beams the “cat and dog” frequencies using a “free Wi-Fi” scam via satellite.
• Insistent Terminology: Pablo isn't a parrot. he's a cockatoo.
• The Matchmaker: Roger and Gwen try to get their owners to connect with each other by trapping them in an elevator.
• My Greatest Failure: Roger confesses to Gwen that he was once a field agent, before a moment's hesitation got his partner injured.
• Named After Somebody Famous:
  • Roger is named after Tennis legend Roger Federer.
  • Gwen is named after musician Gwen Stefani.
• Painful Adhesive Removal: Calico delivers a message from Mr. Tinkles to the dogs and carries it by having it duct taped to his back. He tells them not to pull too hard on the tape, but they do, which causes him to scream in pain.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Pablo's second-in-command is a monitor lizard named Zeke. Zeke later betrays Pablo to enact his own goal of having reptiles rule the Earth.
• The Reveal: In the end, Old Ed is revealed to be Roger's former partner.
• Running Gag: Whenever someone mentions if fish count as pets, they’ll respond with “Fish don’t count”.
• Shout-Out:
  • Gwen's password to enter headquarters is Garfield. Before she told Roger about the password change, Roger tried dog names like Rin Tin Tin.
  • One of Pablo's costumes is a Superman one.
  • Zeke creates a robotic dog suit for Pablo to travel in, which he dubs the "Iron Dog" suit.
• Sleepyhead: Gwen is prone to falling into "cat naps".
• Stage Mom: Max's mother is constantly pushing him to excel at tennis, to the point where she tells him what to do during his matches (to the coach's annoyance).
• Starving Artist: Ollie is a down on his luck musician who's on verge of losing his home for being unable to pay rent. His daughter Zoe helps him with a new song at the end.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Old Ed. He spent all night on monitor duty, and never realized he was looking at a screen saver.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite forming an organization dedicated to co-operation, there is still some bad blood between cats and dogs. When Pablo makes his plans known, the dogs are quick to believe a cat is behind it.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Roger and Gwen snark at and insult each other, but always have each others' backs.
• Vocal Dissonance: Duke is revealed to have a very high-pitched, squeaky voice.
• What Are Records?: Roger and Gwen see a rotary dial phone and have no clue to what it is. Once their boss tells them it's a phone, Gwen assumes the idea of a buttonless phone is a new and revolutionary idea.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Duke is terrified when Pablo's tarantula minion approaches him.

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