Cats Can't Dance

This animated feature opens with smalltown cat Danny leaving his hick buddies behind as he heads out to find fame in Hollywood. At least the animation is often imaginative; bizarrely, though, it seems to favor backgrounds over characters. And the mildly hummable music doesn't have the stamina to persist much farther than the concession stand.

What saves this film from being pure dreck is a wicked streak of satire. Danny finds Hollywood to be a place of limited opportunity, where animals are given no parts other than "animal" roles. Danny's attempts to display talents beyond his ability to go "meow" meet with violent resistance, mainly from a delightfully despicable little Shirley Temple lookalike named Darla Dimple. And Dimple has the full weight of the Hollywood establishment behind her, its dark forces personified by a mammoth, vicious (and scary for the tots) minder named Max.

The efforts of the animals to overcome Hollywood's insidious discrimination are often hilarious, and always tinged with a somber element of truth. Budding Molières will love this, and so will those who like to see hippopotamuses dance. At the Holiday, Lincoln Mall, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.

-- Chris Wright