Un gato del FBI

I have an extremely open mind when it comes to Hollywood remaking, revisiting, creating a sequel to, or otherwise building upon an established film. Consider that mind slammed firmly shut!

The original "Darn Cat" featured a precocious feline surrounded by a village of humans (some funny, some scary, some just plain annoying). But the cat always remained at the center of the story, and the cat's actions are what propelled the whole thing forward. But here, the focus is on Patty Randall (Christina Ricci) and her FBI-rookie pal, Zeke Kelso (Doug E. Doug).

Apparently, the producers knew that they had an up-and-coming young starlet in their midst when they created this litter-box, because the focus is moved away from D.C. and onto Ricci's bratty and generally unlikeable Patty Randall. While no producer can be blamed for seeing talent and grabbing it (Two "Addams Family" films and "Casper the Friendly Ghost" had already gotten Ricci significant exposure!), they forgot that the film's title is "That Darn Cat"... not "That Darn Pat".

And it shows. We still have a minor league all-star cast, and we still have the FBI agent, the young girl and her cat as the heroes of the piece, but we cannot even see the villains (who provided so much of the menace in the original) and we see entirely too much of the assortment of freaks, geeks and throwaway nutcases that populate this burg.

I submit a challenge: Watch this one, then go back and watch the original. Then TRY to remember something significant that the cat in the new version did.

See, you're learning!

"That Darn Cat" is a makeover of the Disney film with Haley Mills. This time around, the world is darker, the main character is darker...and the cat is darker.

Christina ("Addams Family," "Sleepy Hollow") Ricci is the main character for our story. She's a psychopathic, Gothic creature with black all around. She moves to a new town, finds a new cat, finds a new mystery, and solves it (I wasn't expecting that). Along the way is Thomas F. Wilson, better known as Biff from "Back to the Future," and Michael McKean--who does a bunch of nothing considering how funny the guy usually is.

"That Darn Cat" fails on a lot of levels. It's watchable, and probably should be seen once on TV, but I wouldn't go out of your way to see it.

Christina Ricci is fine as the title character; but I found that the whole moody, Gothic thing was a bit overdone--whether it was on the script like that or not, it was overbearing. They kept stressing to the audience, "This girl is dark," but I think I got it the first time.

Dean Jones, from the original "That Darn Cat," makes a few cameos in this flick. Whatever happened to him? The last I remember him in a film without being a cameo was "Beethoven"...

Thomas F. Wilson does seem to prove he can act out characters other than Biff, Griff and Buford Tannen, but if I were him I wouldn't quit the day job just yet--a film like this isn't going to get him back in the acting arena.

The film's gags don't exactly work all the time. Sometimes they work a little bit, but on the whole, this film is a pretty big mess that should only be seen on television when nothing good is on.

2/5 stars -

John Ulmer

P.S.--Be on the lookout for cameos galore, including "Cheers" man John Ratzenburger.

In Boston, Massachusetts, maid Lizzie (Rebecca Koon) is abducted by two bumbling kidnappers after they mistake her for the wife of wealthy businessman Mr. Flint (Dean Jones). In nearby Edgefield, Patti Randall (Christina Ricci) is an asocial outcast who dresses in black and only ever hangs out with her cat D. C. who prowls the neighborhood. When D. C. returns wearing a wristwatch that looks similar to the one Lizzie is shown wearing in the newspaper that has "HEll", scratched into it, Patti becomes convinced D. C. knows where Lizzie and the kidnappers are and the watch is actually saying "Help". While Patti's mother Judy (Bess Armstrong) writes this off as a wild flight of fantasy, Patti undeterred takes the watch to the FBI after scratching the "P" into the wrist watch to be taken more seriously. Initially Patti's story is written off by the Bureau as a joke and they assign Zeke Kelso (Doug E. Doug) to interview her as he's considered a joke despite his father's reputation. Eventually Kelso is convinced that Patti's story may be true and he investigates the lead by tailing D. C.

That Darn Cat is a remake of the 1965 film of the name which was itself adapted from the novel Undercover Cat written by The Gordons who also co-wrote the film adaptation. During the 90s Disney had experienced some success remaking some of their films such as The Incredible Journey with Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and most especially 1996's 101 Dalmatians which despite critical reception being mixed became the 6th highest grossing film of that year. Given the success of animal centric remakes it stands to reason that Disney would remake a few other prior successes bringing us to That Darn Cat written now by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski whose filmography is massively inconsistent with the likes of Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, 1408, and Big Eyes, but also duds such as Problem Child 1 and 2, Screwed, and Agent Cody Banks. The movie is directed by Scottish director Bob Spiers who has mainly worked in British TV including Fawlty Towers and Absolutely Fabulous but is more known internationally for helming the critically panned vanity project Spice World at the height of the Spice Girls fame. That Darn Cat takes the original charm of the 1965 film and replaces it with unfiltered annoyance and noise with characters exaggerated to the nth degree and every gag oversold with subtlety of a battering ram.

Unlike the original movie which was established as a howcatchem with Dan and Iggy established as the antagonists early on and both given very threatening performances (especially for a Disney production) this 1997 film reframes itself as a whodunit which in principle isn't a bad move as it gives a different experience from the original, but the movie makes it way too easy to know who the kidnappers are even when they're using the voice synthesizers that don't do a good job masking the distinctive voice of a noted character actor. Unlike the relatively grounded approach taken by the first film where the case was treated very seriously with certain scenes filmed as though they were from an actual police procedural or film-noir, every actor is written and directed to be as over the top, slapstick, and muggy as possible with pretty much no one taking this seriously which is a major point against the comedy because the key thing that made the '65 original funny was the humans were treating all of this with a sense of urgency while deal with an unpredictable cat as their only lead. Christina Ricci does a distilled version of her role from Casper only with her dialogue filled with cynical quips that are unfunny and pretty grating (I don't blame Ricci for this, I blame the writers and directors) and Doug E. Doug is given a very humiliating role as Zeke Kelson who unlike the straight laced agent from the original is now rewritten as a barely competent boob who can't even identify a cherry stem. Most of the supporting cast making up the Edgefield residents are equally grating with the exception of maybe Dean Jones as Flint and Michael McKean as Peter Randall who're the only ones who exhibit any likability in this film. And then there's the cat itself which is nowhere near as impressive as the original cat from the '65 film with the cat never looking all that engaged and when it does re-enact a scene that was done in the '65 film it's noticeably more slipshod with the cat's screentime greatly reduced in comparison to the original film.

That Darn Cat is an awful movie. With its assortment of TV actors chewing scenery, awkward humor, and hackneyed poorly timed slapstick, this remake of That Darn Cat felt less like the era of 60s Disney and more like the dump years of the 70s where Disney was producing dreck like Superdad and Million Dollar Duck. Just watch the original movie and pretend this doesn't exist.

I was 12 years old when I saw the original film (I lived in Italy and the Italian title was "FBI, OPERATION CAT!") That was a fun film and not just for kids. This awful remake it's pathetic even for a 5 year old! What possessed Disney to ruin their reputation and the memory of a lovely film I don't know and I just can't believe it. Even the title song in the original film (both original version and the dubbed Italian version) was extremely nice and creating the mood for the story. On this remake the title song is even worst than the movie itself. It was just nice to see Dean Jones even if for just a cameo appearance, he was a regular on the great old Disney's films. I cannot honestly see anything else positive in this remade movie.

They made this movie modern, but they also made it more realistic! I am soooo sick of this "Reality TV" era. People seem to have forgotten that fantasy and exercising the imagination are the original reasons for and the very fabric of entertainment movies. For example, in the original, Patricia Randall and her older sister, Ingrid, were living alone at their house while their parents were traveling in Europe. The character of Ingrid was not even in this movie. Part of the fun of the original was that Ingrid Randall and Zeke Kelso were starting to fall in love. Their parents never called their daughters or anything. In real life, few parents would actually stay away that long at once, and even if they did, they would keep closer tabs on their girls. In the new version, Patricia Randall is an only child and her parents happen to be out of the house or just unaware of what is happening. Who cares whether or not it would happen in real life? That was the original point to making movies like that Darn Cat; so that people would get to see things happen the way that they WANT them to happen, not the way that they actually do happen. Christina Ricci also degraded the precocious but sweet character that Hayley Mills originated. Of course, the decay and crudity of the modern world had to be embedded into this movie that was assumed to be like the original; safe and fun for all ages! It was nice to see Dean Jones in the movie, but that is just about the only positive thing I can think of about this version. On top of everything else, the original version immortalized D.C. as a SIAMESE cat(No other kind of cat should have been used), and the rocky title song of this movie was JUNK! It was not at all worthy to be compared to the soothing, orchestrated title song in the original, written by Richard and Robert Sherman, the composers of music for many other Disney classics (e.g. The Parent Trap, Mary Poppins),and sung beautifully by Bobby Darin. What is wrong with today's producers? Do they not want their children to enjoy the same harmless but fun entertainment that helped make their own childhoods memorable? It is a good thing that the classics are being re-released on video and DVD because right now, the past seems to be the only place to find true family entertainment.