A Meowy Christmas

Now i can overlook a lot of things, suffered through some truly horrible movies with absolutely no semblance of a plot. But oh goodness!!!

I was drawn to A Meowy Christmas by the cute kitty on the cover and to be fair the cat and mouse were the best part of the movie. But the lead actor is soooo bad, he has absolutely no acting skills whatsoever. I've recovered from surgeries that were less painful than trying to suffer through his acting. He has to be the son or spouse of the director or an investor because he would never be hired based on acting abilities.

So, avoid A Meowy Christmas at all costs.

2 stars out of ten and the 2 stars are for the cat and mouse.

Steve Rudzinski is a micro-budget filmmaker that excels in taking what little is given him and finding creative ways to stretch it to the breaking point. He is also a writer/director that is never limited by genre. While he has done many horror films, he's also dabbled in family adventure films, action, and now the talking- animal-holiday genre.

Meowy Christmas is clearly spoofing many things seen in the talking animal genre, but definitely takes a unique approach to it. The set- up for the plot is funny with Mr. Whiskers watching online conspiracy videos and being egged on by Chuck the Rat. Wally is very much in the Ernest P. Worrell vein of protagonists, where he might be dumb as a rock but he has a lot of heart and is legitimately trying his best.

The film is funny and very appropriate for the whole family. It has a quick run time that is under an hour, so it isn't wasting time with lots of filler. Last point I wanted to make was Blake O'Donnell who was the shining star of this film as Larry. He was hilarious with perfect timing and stellar physical humor. Keep an eye out for him!

Owning a cat that is an exact copy of Mr Whiskers, it makes this movie really enjoyable. I love the effort put into the film and given the extremely low budget. This is truly a good movie, if any big movie could fit the same amount of comedy into every $1,000 like Meowy Christmas did, we'd be seeing some truly memorable movies. I like the pop culture references but especially Steve's acting. I'd love to see what he would do with a sizable budget and better cinematography. I make sure I watch it every year, and I don't mind paying for it every time. They deserve the money. If you're going to watch this, Don't forget the Baileys or your preferred liquor of choice. Makes for a much better watching experience.

I've been following Steve ever since I picked up a film of his at Cinema Wasteland and I have always been impressed with how he seems to hate the idea of only making one kind of genre as an artist. His last family film was a few years ago and now after several horror movies he's back with a loving homage to as many Christmas films as possible.

One of Steve's signatures seems to be that he takes everything that makes up the genre he's tackling, puts it into a blender, and purees the heck out of it. Expectations are either sent upside down or delivered in entirely different ways.

And this film is no different while still being child appropriate. For the kids we have the cut animals, cat puns, visual gags, and slapstick. For the adults we have a parody of Info Wars, inversions of tropes of the genre, and as many references to other Christmas films as can fit into a single hour.

The animals are adorable. The voice acting is surprisingly top notch, especially from Amie Wrenn as Whiskers herself. The acting is hit or miss, the burglars are really great but many of the other cast are only okay (nobody is bad). Funny enough the stand out to me is Rudzinski himself as the lead detective, who feels like the lovable idiot you could place in almost any children's film and it would feel right.

This is obviously a cheaply made film, but aside from the few locations it doesn't feel like it. Shots look solid, editing feels smooth enough, the music is at times hilarious, and above all the script is hilarious. I've seen quite a few of these talking animal movies and Meowy Christmas might be my favorite.

Definitely worth a viewing no matter what age you are. I was very pleasantly surprised by this one!