Cats Don't Dance is a fond childhood memory for me. I loved all the colors and songs and talking animals as a lad, watching it not as an adult makes me realize that that's all it really had going for it.
The characters are extremely bland, 1-dimensional even. There's more than enough tropes on the YMMV to convey that Danny isn't exactly a gripping protagonist. I thought for sure that Sawyer and the others would make up for it, but they don't do much either. I did enjoy Woolie the Mammoth though. One thing I do notice during my watch is that Darla Dimple, the villainous and vain little girl (?) is so cartoonishly evil that you can hardly take her seriously. I think that might've been intentional, as it's a good distraction from the fact that Danny is actually a bit of a selfish glory hound. He shows up in Hollywood, makes a big deal about how great he's going to be and then tries to steal the show by overplaying his part during Darla's song. Which is doubly bad because no one was even impressed by his antics, they all looked really annoyed. I found it a little hard to root for Danny, honestly. And yeah I get that the whole film is a segregation allegory, but you can't hid behind that when a character is being a Jerkass.
Now let's talk about the actually iconic part of this picture: The animation. In a word, it's perfect. Everything is so fluid and smooth, colorful and fun to look at. The sound design ain't bad either. Once I stopped caring so much about the story, I realized that the animation was the real reason to watch. The insane things that happen in the plot and Darla's crazy faces were all done more for the animators than for the script. It's a move where the visuals drive the story and not the other way around.
It's not a very good film, but it still puts a smile on my face to watch it. 7/10.
WesternAnimation Iconic, but not actually good
Cats Don't Dance is a fond childhood memory for me. I loved all the colors and songs and talking animals as a lad, watching it not as an adult makes me realize that that's all it really had going for it.
The characters are extremely bland, 1-dimensional even. There's more than enough tropes on the YMMV to convey that Danny isn't exactly a gripping protagonist. I thought for sure that Sawyer and the others would make up for it, but they don't do much either. I did enjoy Woolie the Mammoth though. One thing I do notice during my watch is that Darla Dimple, the villainous and vain little girl (?) is so cartoonishly evil that you can hardly take her seriously. I think that might've been intentional, as it's a good distraction from the fact that Danny is actually a bit of a selfish glory hound. He shows up in Hollywood, makes a big deal about how great he's going to be and then tries to steal the show by overplaying his part during Darla's song. Which is doubly bad because no one was even impressed by his antics, they all looked really annoyed. I found it a little hard to root for Danny, honestly. And yeah I get that the whole film is a segregation allegory, but you can't hid behind that when a character is being a Jerkass.
Now let's talk about the actually iconic part of this picture: The animation. In a word, it's perfect. Everything is so fluid and smooth, colorful and fun to look at. The sound design ain't bad either. Once I stopped caring so much about the story, I realized that the animation was the real reason to watch. The insane things that happen in the plot and Darla's crazy faces were all done more for the animators than for the script. It's a move where the visuals drive the story and not the other way around.
It's not a very good film, but it still puts a smile on my face to watch it. 7/10.