Cats & Dogs is a 2001 spy-comedy film directed by Lawrence Guterman and written by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. It stars Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins and Alexander Pollock, with the voices of (among others) Tobey Maguire, Alec Baldwin, Sean Hayes, Susan Sarandon, Charlton Heston, Jon Lovitz, Joe Pantoliano and Michael Clarke Duncan. The story centers on the relationships between cats and dogs, depicting the relationship as an intense rivalry in which both sides use organizations and tactics that mirror those used in human espionage. It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 4, 2001. The film received mixed reviews and earned $200.7 million on a $60 million budget.

The Brody family's pet Bloodhound Buddy chases a cat and is captured by other cats in an ambush. Cats and dogs are revealed to be highly intelligent, tech-savvy enemies capable of speech, waging war with covert operatives while concealing their true nature from humans. After an Anatolian Shepherd dog named Butch reports Buddy's capture to his superiors, the best canine agents are dispatched to complete Buddy's mission: to prevent the cats from making all humans allergic to dogs.

At a local barn, a litter of Beagle puppies mock their youngest brother for trying to escape captivity. A Doberman Pinscher agent replaces the litter with a pack of Miniature Pinscher agents, failing to notice the youngest Beagle. Carolyn, the Brodys’ matriarch, arrives to adopt a new dog and selects the Beagle, naming him Lou after her son Scotty sarcastically suggests the name "Loser".

After detonating an explosive trap laid by cats for Lou, Butch – mistaking him for a trained operative – brings him to the dogs’ underground network, and introduces agents Peek, a Chinese Crested Dog, and Sam, an Old English Sheepdog. Realizing Lou is a civilian, Butch raises his concerns to his superiors but is rebuffed. Lou is briefed on the origins of the conflict between cats and dogs, dating back to Ancient Egypt when cats ruled the world. Butch reveals that Buddy has escaped the cats and the spy trade, retiring to a condo in Boca Raton.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tinkles, a white Persian cat, plans to exploit the Brodys’ patriarch Professor Charles’ research on dog allergies to conquer the world. His scheming is interrupted by Sophie, his comatose owner's maid, who enjoys dressing Tinkles in embarrassing costumes. Tinkles orders his sidekick Calico, an Exotic Shorthair, to send Devon Rex ninjas to steal the research. Lou foils the theft and meets a former agent and Butch's ex-girlfriend Ivy, a Saluki who encourages him to bond with Scotty.

Mr. Tinkles contracts a Russian Blue mercenary named Dimitri Kennelkoff, who tricks Lou and places a bomb on Brody's lab door. Kennelkoff battles Lou and Butch, damaging the Brodys’ house until Butch disables the bomb and captures Kennelkoff. During the interrogation, the dogs recover a note by Mr. Tinkles from Kennelkoff's stomach.

After a breakthrough involving Lou playing with Scotty, Charles' machine finally finds the formula to a cure for human allergies to dogs. Having bugged the house, Mr. Tinkles and Calico spring a trap for the Brodys. First, Mr. Tinkles travels to a Christmas tree flocking plant under the guise of the plant's comatose owner, Mr. Mason, and sends the employees home, then lures the Brodys with fake tickets to a soccer exhibition game, capturing the family.

The dogs receive a video from Mr. Tinkles demanding Charles’ research as a ransom for the Brodys, and dogs around the world assemble at a meeting, led by a Mastiff. When the assembly decides not to surrender the formula, Lou confronts Butch. Revealing that he was abandoned by his owner, the unsympathetic Butch leaves Lou behind. Desperate, Lou brings Mr. Tinkles the research and is double-crossed. Butch, realizing what has happened, stages a raid of Mr. Tinkles' factory where mice are being prepared to spread the mass-produced allergy.

While Butch, Ivy, Peek, and Sam fight Tinkles' cat forces, Lou frees the Brodys and Calico, who was betrayed by Tinkles, revealing to the family that he can speak. Lou defeats Tinkles but is struck by an excavator as an explosion destroys the whole factory. Butch rescues the seemingly dead Lou, tearfully admitting that Lou was right to love his adoptive family, and Lou awakens. He decides to return to a normal pet's life with the Brodys until he can serve as a full-grown agent.

Meanwhile, Tinkles is sent to live with Sophie and her three sisters, with even more humiliating outfits as punishment for his actions against the dogs.

he film was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia and Eagle Creek Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia[4] from June 19 to November 17, 2000. Lou's doghouse was filmed on Stage 1, Mr. Mason's office and the interior of the tree flocking factory was filmed on Stage 2, and the international meeting with the dogs was filmed on Stage 3, while the backyard of the Brody house was filmed on the studio backlot,[5] and the front exterior of the Brody house was filmed at 1661 W 45th Avenue in Vancouver.[6]

Cats & Dogs was released with the classic Looney Tunes short "Chow Hound" which was also seen in the movie itself.[citation needed] When released on Independence Day 2001, the film opened at #1, beating out Scary Movie 2 as it grossed $21.7 million over the Friday to Sunday span, averaging $7,140 from 3,040 theaters. It grossed $35.8 million over the Wednesday to Sunday span. It dropped 44% the following weekend, dropping to the #3 spot, grossing $12 million, falling behind Legally Blonde and The Score, and bringing its 12-day gross to $58.9 million. The film grossed $93.4 million in the US and $107.3 million overseas, for a total of $200.7 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.[citation needed]

Cats & Dogs was released on VHS and DVD on October 23, 2001.[7] The alternate ending that shows Sophie instead taking Mr. Tinkles to a pet hospital to be neutered was also included as one of the extras. It was later released on Blu-ray on July 20, 2010;[8] 10 days before the release of its sequel, The Revenge of Kitty Galore.

The soundtrack by composer John Debney was released in 2001. It includes What's New Pussycat? by Tom Jones.

Cats & Dogs has a 54% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes based upon 117 reviews (63 positive, 54 negative) and an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A great concept, but the movie fails to develop the characters and some of the jokes are hit-or-miss."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based upon 26 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10]

The Washington Post's Jane Horwitz called it "[a] surprisingly witty and sophisticated spy movie spoof that will tickle adult pet lovers and still capture kids 6 and older with its boy-and-his-dog love story and pet slapstick."[11] Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, praising the special effects and the CGI.[12] In contrast, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote "Irritating, childish and more frantic than funny, Cats & Dogs does manage some few pleasant moments, but they are not worth waiting for."[citation needed]

Cats & Dogs was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Feature Film (Comedy) and Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor (Alexander Pollock). John Debney won the ASCAP Award for his musical contribution to this film as well as The Princess Diaries and Spy Kids.

Heston received the 2001 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his involvement in three films that year, including his role as The Mastiff.[citation needed]

This is a game that I think has aged really surprisingly well, and more people should play it. Although, this is coming from a guy who cleared the game in five hours when the average is supposedly eight. In a perfect world, this game gets a remake that irons out all the little, but bearable issues. Mainly the camera. If that happened, I think many more people would like this game, because there's a lot to love.

- The setting is pretty cool.
- The voice acting has some charm, and the actors have some serious range.
- Cyan is a character.
- The levels are surprisingly well designed to the point where I believe the devs played their own game. (Shocking how I can't say that about some modern games)
- The art's cute and nostalgic.
- Did I mention Cyan?

Even more than twenty years later, the game's worth playing. My favorite part was when Cyan told Waffle "You'll have to go on without me... Afterall, you're the Tail Concerto."

I decided to take the Little Tail Bronx seriously and go through all the games, meaning that I had to put FUGA on pause to go back to the platformer that started it all: Tail Concerto from 1998. For the most part, this is quite clunky as you would expect of an early 3D platformer, but honestly? This is still a marginally better package than a large chunk of those platformers from that gen. This is quite an impressive first game from CyberConnect2.

You do pilot a dangly-limbed walking mech and are expected to do some light platforming with it. I'm someone who doesn't usually mind tank controls (I love them actually), so I wouldn't have minded a platformer with that scheme in mind. That said, there's two control schemes for this game depending on the location: a middle ground between tank controls and regular controls for open areas, and regular controls with a fixed camera for confined small spaced. The former is quite bizarre to get used to, as I would hold either side button to change direction only to then run off the edge. I can't say I am a fan of that control scheme for walking, and I would have preferred straight-up tank controls. There's also a bit of a learning curve when it comes to the jetpack segments in one of the islands you can visit. I should mention that there is a side jump option by tapping either left or right with the jump button, and it's very useful for some of the boss fights, yet the game never tells you about it as this was confined to the manual back in the day. Said side jump is quite clunky to pull off, and frankly I wish they simply assigned them to the shoulder buttons given that two were assigned to going forward and backwards, which you could already do with the D-pad anyways. The side jumps only register if you're facing forward, as facing in any other direction would instead just give you a regular jump. There is also a hover mechanic which can slightly help you with certain jumps without necessarily trivializing the jumping.

The platforming is generally fairly light for about 80% of the game, but starts to ask a lot more of you near the latter half, and the game is at its worst when there's precise platforming under pressure. It doesn't happen too often, but they can be brief yet frustrating walls. A major part of it comes from being asked to do risky jumps on small ledges, but the camera is pulled far back so that you can't properly gauge the distance. I normally never have depth perception difficulties, but Tail Concerto might be among the very few if not the only example where I had that issue. Sometimes, you would have threats coming at you during those precise platforming sections, or you had to jump between moving platforms where reacting quickly was a significant concern, yet are difficult to properly react to given the slow acceleration and deceleration of the mech, the slow turning speeds, the wide angles of the turning curves, and the prominent inertia when coming to a stop. All of these elements do evoke the feeling of riding a walking tank on legs, but they work counter to the platforming whenever it's brought up and is a bit more demanding with what it asks of the player.

Platforming aside, there's a nice sense of power trip coming from running around with the mech, catching cats in bubbles or just grabbing them directly. Those moves have a nice weight given the feedback from the animation and sound. The grab having a bit of wind up can get annoying during some of the sections when you have to react to stuff coming at you, especially during some of the later boss fights shooting homing missiles at you, though that's moreso a detriment to the design of those bosses rather than the mechanic itself being bad. Speaking of the bosses, they are pretty fun, even if they're usually very simple by asking you to just move out of the way, shoot at them with the bubble blaster and toss back any bombs thrown your way. Perhaps some attacks can be a bit unfair given how difficult it is to turn on a dime and gain enough speed to get out of the way, and they do juggle around a lot of the same ideas albeit recontexualized, aside from maybe one or two.

The anime cutscenes are delightful to watch, and even the in-game cutscenes are quite fun even if the 3D models do look a bit goofy, but I do appreciate the work that went into the portrait models for the dialogue boxes. I do think the graphics look good for the time this game came out in, and the anime aesthetics of the art style blend in nicely with those low-poly graphics. It's the same idea as what was implemented for the Mega Man Legend games even if not to the exact same proficiency. The story is, well, surprisingly very simple. I suppose we're spoiled by games nowadays, but I guess platformers didn't have much story to them back in the 5th gen, something I seem to have forgotten about as someone who mostly goes back to JRPGs and survival horror games for this generation. That said, there is an attempt at something far grander in terms of the narrative compared to this game's contemporaries, and I did enjoy the story for what it was. I'll refrain from commenting on the quality of the voice acting too much, as I mainly played this on an old 10 year old Homebrewed Phat Vita with a faulty speaker, but it seemed adequate enough for the time period this game came out in.

Perhaps the most egregious element of this game is the final level. It suddenly changes the platforming physics on you out of nowhere. All of a sudden, you have four times the jump height where you can't see where you're about to land, you rise and fall at half the speed, and your hover suddenly halts all your momentum. What's worse is that failing a jump sets you back to the beginning of the level, and you have to slowly jump your way back up the moving platformers. Perhaps raising the camera angle would have helped, but then I would have no means of knowing where to go by not being able to look straight ahead, and it was already difficult enough to even try to correct your jumps. I gave it a shot normally for an hour, before giving up and finishing the level with the help of save states. The level itself is very short, and is merely extended by wasting the player's time through trial and error of missing very difficult jumps. The final boss is quite demanding and expects some near-perfect reactions a lot of the time. I managed to overcome some of the harder bosses just fine without the side jump, but this one definitely demanded that I use it despite how clunky they can be. While numerical scores don't matter much to me with the way I like to review games, and are usually a lot more supplementary to my written reviews rather than being the main focus and are reliant on my writing for context, I did lower it for this game by a point because of this final level.

Overall, I thought Tail Concerto was decent and holds up a fair bit better than a lot of platformers from the era. Perhaps not better than the top platformers of the time period, but certainly better than the ones you don't hear as much about compared to your Crashes, your Klonoas and your Spyros. Once again, very impressive of CyberConenct2 to start out this strong in an era when developers were still lost in the sauce trying to figure out how to make a pizza out of this fenangled third dimension. It's certainly not necessary to play if you just want to get to the likely best parts that Little Tail Bronx has to offer, but at only 6 hours long, it's a nice bite-sized adventure that's at least worth checking out. Also Panta is the best.

O brilho desse jogo está em sua inconsciência que dá palco para uma abordagem completamente coração.
Nunca estive em um jogo que flerta tanto com o militarismo e temas como apartheid de forma tão inocente e fofo.
O que, claro, poderia ser um problema para mim. Se ele fosse apenas um ode à guerra pintado de criaturas fofas, eu acabaria me desconectando completamente de sua substancia e personagens, visto que são temas que me repelem.
Então, enquanto caçava gatinhos vândalos com um cão pilotando um semi-tanque de guerra, me sentia na posição de poder pela ordem e controle.Pórem, quando percebia como Waffle se encaminhava para um personagem com dilema moral e buscava se construir pela conexão entre cães e gatos que, aqui vivem separados sendo Cães o controle do império e gatos marginalizados, não pude deixar de ver um paralelo forte.
Mas ainda que esse paralelo existisse, não sei se pelas criaturas fofas ou pelo desenvolvimento de personagem, não senti maldade nenhuma da obra. Parecia apenas replicar o tropo do policial bom contra os bandidos incompreendidos.
Enquanto é verdade que essa tropo se aplica aqui, a obra, na simplicidade, consegue escalar e nos dar um motivo ideal para os vilões e, com muito carisma, construir um desenvolvimento que fez com que essa obra quebrasse completamente uma analogia banal e rompesse a linha tênue entre o militarismo e o anti militarismo para ser algo livre desse diálogo.
Mesmo que seja algo que permeia seus temas, a simplicidade e honestidade de seu desenvolvimento faz com que o militarismo seja uma consequência contextual, mas ainda assim, é tratado com sensibilidade e como algo a ser lidado.
Esse jogo é o "bandido bom NÃO é bandido morto" para alguém que não quer pensar muito nisso, e vejo um valor gigantesco em sua essência.

PS1 games have got to be among some of my favourites to go and visit, there is just such a charm and even philosophy to them that very few eras of games can really match. Tail Concerto in many ways is the shining example of what makes these types of games so engaging for me. It just is allowed to be what it is, and what it is, is a simple, charming, albeit janky little experience.

For games like this, the joy comes in little things, like the really cheesy yet surprisingly good English voice work for the time, the almost aloof animations of the characters, and especially the mech you control, and the genuinely really cool world and aesthetic it brings before you. It is unapologetically 90s anime as well, as well as unapologetically furry, its kind of a must play if you fall into that niche of loving Klonoa in that regard. I really enjoy my experience with this one, its just short and satisfying enough to truly please me.

There is also the elephant in the room that this game is the start to a truly insane trio of games that spans three different decades, systems, and genres. All of which I am hoping to get to this year, and the fact that this of all things is what started it is absolutely buck wild to me. Here's hoping the next couple of games are just as charming as this one!

MASTER MANDOU 6

Fui recomendada pelo Breno Mancini(JOGUEM MONOTONIA, DISPONIVEL NA STEAM) a jogar tail concerto no master mandou, é a minha primeira vez participando!

Vamos lá.
Um pouco tempo antes de iniciar a jogatina, perdi um gatinho, o nome dele era Amarelinho. Confesso que no inicio foi um pouco difícil jogar um jogo onde eu apreendia gatos e ouvia seus miados. Pensei em não jogar no momento, mas esse pensamento foi passando a medida que eu conhecia a atmosfera fofa e a mensagem que o jogo estava tentando passar desde o inicio.

Aos poucos o jogo foi me conquistando e apresentando sua forma de inserir assuntos delicados da forma mais didática possível. Mostrando que as diferenças devem ser respeitadas e que guerra não se aparta com mais guerra e ignorância, e sim com conhecimento e acolhimento.
É triste escrever sobre esse jogo e toda a mensagem que ele transmite sabendo o que o mundo tá passando hoje em dia. Guerras e mais guerras, cada vez um mundo mais separado e distante de uma paz e aceitação.
Um jogo é capaz de nos mostrarmos através de carisma, personagens fofos e um mundo bem construído que toda a guerra e destruição NÃO é a melhor opção, mas continuamos seguidos de anos e anos em um mundo onde paz é raridade.
Falando dele hoje, jogo de 1998, sinto que não vamos chegar na realidade de Tail concerto tão cedo, na qual no fim, vamos encontrar uma paz.

As a story/experience/whatever word you wanna use, it's alright! I played this in preparation for Solatorobo, which from the minor glimpses I've seen at it is probably more my speed, but this is okay. The writing can get a little tacky but it can occasionally get a little heartfelt too. Waffle has the same VA as Luke from the Professor Layton games which is kinda funny. It's certainly nothing special, not even close, but it's fine and would do the job in anything with a more engaging gameplay loop.
But as a game? This is legitimately one of the worst 3rd person platformers/shooters I've ever played lmao. It's like the Tails/Eggman stages from Sonic Adventure 2 but worse, somehow. Basically everything that could go wrong did. Lethargic movement, with no way to go any faster than a speedwalk. No analog movement either, you have to use a D-Pad. No way to adjust the camera except for moving it up and down. Even on easy difficulty (which I switched to about 2/3s through the game out of frustration), basically every enemy is a bullet sponge taking upwards of 20-30 slow hits to go down, and in boss fights getting hit yourself often locks you into getting hit again, and again. Sometimes single attacks will just knock out 80% of your health in one hit.
These numerous gameplay blunders make sense in the 90s, when the number of "good 3d platformers" could probably be counted on one hand, but that doesn't make it any less irritating to play nowadays. Absolutely no clue how someone could make it through this without savescumming through an emulator (ESPECIALLY some of those platforming sections, doing precise movements, with a camera that moves however it wants, with only d-pad movement, is just... horrible).
All in all, I kind of disliked playing this a fair bit? The characters are alright and the story is neat and the music is cool but wow is the gameplay crusty as all hell. I'm still planning on playing Solatorobo since that looked cooler than this anyways, though. Hopefully that isn't as bad!

This is such a charming game. The relaxed atmosphere, characters and voice acting are nothing short of adorable. There's a good mix of signature cheesiness and awkwardness in the voices, but also a fair amount of great performances. The anime cutscenes look great too, and I really enjoyed the music as well.

Unfortunately I can't like this as much as I wish I could due to the controls, the analogue movement feels overly sensitive and the d-pad movement just imprecise, as well as only being able to change the height of the camera with a few set values, with it struggling to keep up with you often. This isn't an issue with how simple most of the levels are, but some really focus on platforming and show off this huge flaw, especially the final one.

I still had a pretty good time with this though and it's only 3-4 hours long (took me 4:36), so it's worth playing if you're interested.

Waffle is the best boy!

Cute, charming, lighthearted, and fun! As a massive PS1 fan I saw the price tag on this game and became very confused and interested in it. After watching a few reviews, seeing its beautiful “castle in the sky” aesthetic and listening to the soundtrack I became invested in hunting down a copy of this game. Sure enough I did and I LOVE it. It’s one of the many under appreciated hidden gems on the console. I’d recommend it to any 3D platforming and adventure game fan. The controls are often criticized but if you have an analog controller you should be fine. That isn’t to say that the game is perfect. The one major gripe I have with the game is it’s camera. It’s difficult to see what you are aiming at when in combat because the camera can be stubborn. Other than that it’s a great game. If you aren't interested in it, please at least check out its soundtrack. It’s great.

Picked this game up because it looked kinda cute, and it is. Unfortunately the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. You just walk around and collect cats between boring bosses and cutscenes. The game controls like ass but it mostly wasn't that big of a deal until the end. The last level and the last few bosses were very obnoxious for me. I wish the levels were more interesting and you got to keep the jetpack that only exists in one area. Game is really short, but I think it would have gotten pretty boring if it went on much longer as it is. I like the tsundere cat-girl.

Insane that I just got done playing Armored Core, which also happens to have an insufferable moving platform section at the very end.