DC COMICS: Superman Family (Cats Don't Dance)

Zoo Crew in the Media

Superman Family in the Media

Cats Don't Dance is a 1997 American animated musical comedy film, distributed by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and notable as the only fully animated feature produced by Turner Feature Animation. This studio was merged during the post-production of Cats Don't Dance into Warner Bros. Animation after the merger of Time Warner with Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. Turner Feature Animation had also produced the animated portions of Turner's The Pagemaster (1994).XXXSet in a world where human beings and anthropomorphic animals live side-by-side, it focuses on a cat named Danny who wants to break into show business in Hollywood. The film stars the voices of Scott Bakula and Jasmine Guy, and was the directorial debut of former Disney animator Mark Dindal, its musical numbers, written by Randy Newman, and for Gene Kelly's contributions as choreographer, after his death in 1996. The film was Kelly's final film project which is dedicated to him. Despite receiving positive reviews from critics, Cats Don't Dance failed at the box office. This was also the last film of Betty Lou Gerson before her retirement and death on January 12, 1999 from a stroke.

PLOT:
Set in 1939, Danny (Scott Bakula), an optimistic feline, dreams of becoming a film star, so he travels from Kokomo, Indiana to Hollywood, California in hopes of starting a career there. He is selected to feature in a film that is currently in production alongside a female cat named Sawyer (Jasmine Guy, sung by Natalie Cole), but is dismayed upon learning how minor his role is and tries to weasel his way into more time in the limelight. However, Danny winds up angering the star of the film, Darla Dimple (Ashley Peldon), a popular, but spoiled child actress, so she assigns her valet, Max, to intimidate Danny into no longer trying to enlarge his part in the film.XXXLater, Danny learns from his fellow animal film extras that human actors are normally given more important roles than animals, a fact that none of them are very happy with but know they must accept. Danny, however, longs for the spotlight and tries to come up with a plan that will encourage humans to provide animal actors with better parts, such as by assembling a massive cluster of animals and trying to put on a musical performance for the humans to see. Later, he is given advice by Darla Dimple (while masking her true villainous personality with a sweet one, as she always does) through song on how to interest and satisfy audiences, and Danny takes this information to heart and groups together the animals for yet another performance in hopes of attracting the attention of the humans. But Darla, fearing that her spotlight is in jeopardy with the animals around, has Max assist her in flooding Mammoth Studios while the director is giving an interview on his latest film and getting the animals blamed and fired. Everybody is depressed by being barred from acting in Mammoth Studios (especially Danny, who was convinced by Darla that she was trying to help the animals), Danny comes up with a plan for attracting the humans' attention yet again.XXXOn the night of the premiere of the Darla Dimple film that was being shot, "Lil' Ark Angel", after the screening, Danny calls the audience's attention and the animals put on a musical performance for everyone that entertains and impresses its viewers. Meanwhile, Darla attempts to sabotage and shut down the show by pulling a big switch, but finds out she inadvertently enhancing it more instead. Finally, Darla, maddened with frustration, shouts at Danny for trying to attract all of the focus away from her, and confesses to flooding Mammoth Studios. Unfortunately, Darla's screaming is inadvertently picked up and amplified by a nearby microphone, unveiling the truth much to the dismay of the audience, Mr. Mammoth, and Flanigan. Embarrassed, Darla tries to regain her fame by hugging Danny (like the fan that she hugged earlier), until Pudge pulls the lever for the trap door, meeting her demise. So, the animals are rewarded with larger parts from then onward, their dreams coming true. The film then ends with a selection of film poster parodies, putting the animals in certain roles, before Darla as a janitor puts "The End" poster on a wall and it falls down on her.

SUPER TURTLE:
Don Knotts (Rick Logan, singing) as T.W., a nervous and superstitious turtle who always relies on the fortunes from fortune cookies. He originally came to Hollywood hoping to be an Errol Flynn-type star.

At the end of the movie, several of the anthropomorphic animals get jobs in the films including T.W. as "Superman". Even though it is only a splash page of a movie poster, this marks the first animated appearance of Super Turtle.