New York Cats (1994 animated film)

New York Cats is a 1994 animated feature film directed by Joe Brian and released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on July 8, 1994. The film revolves around a group of alley cats in New York City who plan to use a romance to a wealthy Angorra cat from Europe in order to bring themselves to higher fortune, until an evil business man plans to abduct and kill them to steal the Angorra's inheritance.

The film was rated PG by the MPAA for peril and mild language.

The film was produced by Hyperion Pictures, Film Roman and TMS Entertainment and released by Paramount Pictures.

Release dates

 * July 8 1994 (USA & Canada)
 * July 20 1994 (France)
 * September 16 1994 (UK & Ireland)
 * September 22 1994 (Germany)
 * September 23 1994 (Austria & Switzerland)
 * September 30 1994 (Poland, Czech Republic & Slovakia)
 * October 6 1994 (Brazil)
 * October 7 1994 (Spain & Portugal)
 * October 14 1994 (Mexico)
 * October 19 1994 (Italy)
 * October 21 1994 (Hungary)
 * October 28 1994 (Denmark)
 * November 4 1994 (Sweden)
 * November 11 1994 (Norway)
 * November 17 1994 (Argentina)
 * November 23 1994 (South Korea)
 * December 9 1994 (Finland)
 * December 10 1994 (Japan)
 * December 15 1994 (Russia)
 * December 16 1994 (Australia & New Zealand)
 * December 23 1994 (South Africa)

Titles in different languages
Danish: De NYC baggårdskatte (The NYC alley cats) Finnish: Kissa jengi New Yorkissa (The cat gang in New York) French/Canadian French: Les chats à New York (The cats of New York) German: Eine Geschichte der Katzen in New York (A story of cats in New York) Hungarian: A történet macskák New York (A story of cats in New York) Italian: Una storia di gatti a New York (A story of cats in New York) Japanese: ニューヨークの猫物語 - Nyūyōku no neko monogatari (lit. New York cat story) Korean: 뉴욕의 고양이 - nyuyog-uigoyang-i (The cats of New York) Norwegian: En historie om katter i New York (A story of cats in New York) Polish: Koty w Nowym Jorku (The cats of New York) Portuguese/Brazilian Portuguese: Uma história de gatos em New York (A story of cats in New York) Russian: Нью-Йорк кошки - Nʹyu-York koshki (New York Cats) Spanish: La pandilla de gatos en New York (The gang of cats in New York) Swedish: Katten gänget i New York (The cat gang in New York)

Summary
In a NYC alley, Trashy and his gang of streetwise yet respectable and lovable alley cats, hear about the visit of Madame Bourgeois and her Angorra cat Charlotte and plan to fake a romance with her in order to live with her and her owner. But when Trashy actually does fall in love with Charlotte, his gang finds it harder to get to their objective. When Trashy and his pals are invited to stay with Charlotte, bankrupt businessman Quentin Scamett plans to abduct and murder them in order to get Charlotte's inheritance. It's up to the cats to save the day.

Cast/Characters
Patrick Swayze - Trashy - The leader of the alley cat gang. His get-out-of-the-alley-quick schemes are more of a case of desperation as opposed to crime. Madonna - Charlotte - Madame Bourgeois' wealthy and beautiful Angorra cat. At first, she shuns Trashy, but eventually falls in love with him. Rob Schneider - Loopy - The dim-witted member of Trashy's gang. Tone Lōc - Tuff-Jazz (T.J.) - The smooth-talking, musical cat of the gang. Daryl Hannah - Christine - The no-nonsense mother figure of the gang. Her appearance is based on Pris, Daryl Hannah's character from Blade Runner. Susan Sarandon - Madame Bourgeois - A wealthy but compassionate fashion designer from Paris. Edie McClurg - Darla - Madame Bourgeois' maid Rupert Everett - Quentin Scamett - The main antagonist of the film. He is a businessman who lost his business recently, and attempts to have the protagonists killed in order to steal Charlotte's inheritance.

Production
The film started out as a script written by Joe Brian after finishing the screenplay for Top Cat, which was pitched to Hanna-Barbera but rejected since it was a Disney-esque script. The film's script was eventually pitched to Hyperion and Film Roman (who agreed to work on in-house animation for the film) and the studios accepted the script. Numerous actors were considered for the role of Trashy, including Kevin Bacon, Matthew Broderick, and Tom Cruise, but Brian chose Patrick Swayze based on his performances in The Outsiders and Dirty Dancing.

Madonna agreed to lend her voice to the film in order to try to appeal to families, and Rupert Everett agreed to voice the villain at Brian's request feeling it was a good opportunity for him to play a villainous role.

Budgeted at $13 million, the film was produced entirely in traditional cel animation, as opposed to the digital ink-and-paint method used by Disney in the then-upcoming hit The Lion King, with many scenes subcontracted to TMS Entertainment, Sunrise, Mushi and Studio Deen in Japan, A. Film A/S in Denmark, Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, Hanho Heung-Up in South Korea, Premier Films in the United Kingdom and Phoenix Animation Studios in Canada. Some scenes were done with computer animation in order to speed up the animation process and save money, albeit traced over with cels like many animated films at the time.

The film was originally intended for an Easter 1994 release, but Paramount had spent more time promoting Clear and Present Danger and Blue Chips and felt it easier to change the film to a July 1994 release, although Joe Brian initially nixed the idea since The Lion King was being released in June and would thus overshadow the movie.

Distribution
The film was distributed by Paramount in most countries, but distributed by Universal Studios in some parts of Europe and Asia (except the UK and Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Scandinavia, France and the Benelux region). In Japan, the film was distributed by Shochiku Company and later released on VHS and laserdisc by CIC-Victor.

Reception
The film opened with mixed reviews from mainstream critics. Roger Ebert gave it 2 out of 4 stars and wrote, "In a time where Disney has a monopoly on animated feature films, this film does not necessarily offer a better product for children. The animation is colorful and the background artwork properly illustrates life in New York City, but the story is like a rehash of Disney's The Aristocats and Oliver and Company."

Audience reception was much more positive, with one IMDB review crediting the film for only portraying a corrupt human as a threat to the cats unlike many children's films involving cats, the romance between Trashy and Charlotte for having actual chemistry and also praising the character of Christine.

The film grossed only $25,588,900 in North America out of a $13 million budget, due to competition from The Lion King, Baby's Day Out, The Mask, North, Angels in the Outfield and Paramount's own Forrest Gump. Despite the minimal box office gross, the film managed to sell better on home video, especially in the form of rentals at Blockbuster Video stores across North America. Joe Brian himself stated that the film probably would've done better if the release was better timed, but he was glad that it managed to turn up profits and that some people enjoyed it.

The film was nominated for the 1995 Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie but lost to The Lion King and two Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for the song "Love Knows What's Good" by Madonna and Patrick Swayze, but again it lost to The Lion King for the song Can You Feel the Love Tonight?.

However, it won the Film Advisory Board's Award of Excellence and the Seal of Approval from The Dove Foundation.

In 2011, Doug Walker, known for his online show The Nostalgia Critic, stated that he wasn't going to review the movie because he saw the movie in a theater as a kid and enjoyed it, even liking the songs and romantic elements better than The Lion King, and also gave it credit for the film only using humans as a threat to cats, giving the romantic relationship more chemistry than you often find in fiction and the character Christine for being a good point of humor, but felt it was one of few times that Rupert Everett was good playing a villain, citing his performance as Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget as a terrible example.

Home media
The film was released on VHS by Paramount on November 22, 1994, which contains a trailer for The Brady Bunch Movie and an advertisement for the video game, this edition became one of the top video rentals of the 1994-1995 season.

In 2000, the film was released on a 4:3 DVD with only the theatrical trailer and English, French and Spanish options as extras. In November of 2003, Paramount re-released the film on DVD with widescreen and full-screen options, 5.1 surround sound and more special features.

Music
The film's score was composed by David Newman and the songs were written by Stephen Schwartz. The film contains the following songs sung by the following characters: The film also included the Kiss/Ace Frehley version of New York Groove, played during the final part of the ending and the first half of the end credits. The end credits version of Love Knows What's Good is performed by Wendy Moten and Peabo Bryson.
 * 1) Love It or Lose It - Trashy, Loopy, Tuff-Jazz and Christine
 * 2) Love Knows What's Good - Trashy and Charlotte
 * 3) All I Need - Quentin Scamett
 * 4) Animal Rights Rap - Tuff-Jazz, Trashy, Christine and Charlotte

Merchandise
Because most fast food chains were busy promoting then-popular films, Pizza Hut was available to promote the film in North America, with character-themed collectible cups free with every New York Cats-themed Kids' Pizza Pack.

A storybook adaptation was written by Joe Brian and illustrated by his sister Laura Brian (who worked as a character designer) and published by Scholastic the week after the film's release.

The film also spawned toys manufactured by Hasbro, including plush toys, a Lite-Brite paper set and character-and-scene playsets. Colorforms also released two vinyl adhesive toy sets and a Shrinky Dinks character image set.

A video game was published by Konami and developed by Virgin Games for the Sega Genesis and ported by Realtime Associates to the SNES and Game Boy. The 16-bit game loyally adapts music from the movie and the graphics are also faithful representations of the film's artwork. In some levels, the player can choose between Trashy or Charlotte via select screen, while other levels give you the option to play as T.J. or Christine. Each character has a basic "jump on enemy to kill" ability, but each character has a different attack (via button combination) that is worth a different amount of damage. The game is praised by fans of the movie for these reasons.

The Game Boy game is limited to playing as T.J. or Christine, since the game's plot is to rescue Trashy and Charlotte. The game is also Super Game Boy compatible. Fans of the film praised the gameplay and music, but criticized the choice of playing only as T.J. or Christine, since they were not the sole characters doing the rescue in the film.

The film's soundtrack was released on CD and cassette by MCA Records on July 5, 1994, three days before the film's release.