By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * )
As everyone knows, the world is divided into two kinds of people: dog-lovers and cat-lovers. As this movie reveals, cats and dogs have also been at war since time began. In recent years that has escalated into high-tech — ka-ping! ka-chow! — battle.
This skirmish
involves the Brody family, especially Professor Brody (Jeff Goldblum), whose research may eradicate humans' allergies to dogs. The cats think that would be a bad idea. They want to sabotage Brody's research while developing a plan to make all humans allergic to all dogs.
The dogs send a little beagle, Lou (voice: Tobey Maguire), to guard the Brody family. Heading the opposition is a bitchy cat, Mr Tinkles (voice: Sean Hayes), and his assistant, Calico (voice: Jon Lovitz).
As well as real people and actors voicing animals, the movie combines real animals with realistic puppets and computer-generated effects. At some points the filmmakers combine animated faces with real animal bodies, just to complicate matters further.
If Shrek was the best kids' movie of last year (and the Oscars, as well as far more discerning critics like my grandsons, will prove that right), this is the second-best. Highly recommended family viewing.
Rental video, DVD: Today
• DVD features: movie (87 mins); audio commentary with director Lawrence Guterman, producer Chris DeFaria, production designer James Bissell and actor Sean Hayes; HBO documentary; Teaching a New Dog New Tricks documentary; storyboard comparisons; interactive trivia challenge; trailer; cast and crew filmographies.
