Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

There are just enough effects-driven laughs but a bit too much talky dead space in this not-at-all-anticipated sequel to the tepid, poorly animated 2001 film.

For comedy value there is little to choose between the expensive antics here and the primitive spy charade enacted by apes in the 1970s TV series Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp.

The Revenge of Kitty Galore (in 3D) is loud, colourful and silly enough to tickle the 5- to 10-year-old target group, but only for about half its length.

It's beneath any cat to be sprayed repeatedly with a water bottle, or completely shaved, let alone dubbed by Bette Midler.

Winds its way towards its conclusion with scant imagination, except in a purely technical sense.

Simply a dog.

...a bottom-of-the-barrel example of lowest-common-denominator childrens' filmmaking.

The story is where this movie falls apart from a grown-up's view. It's got an overwritten script that seems like it's been churned out of a weekend screenwriting course.

And, dare I say it, Cats & Dogs: TROKG is a well-made parody film, sinking its canines into spy genre cliches with gleeful abandon, in a way that its predecessor never quite did.