A sequel to the 2001 family film Cats & Dogs is headed in to production in Vancouver.

Remember Cats and Dogs?

I’ve always thought it was a great little family film and its villain Mr. Tinkles has to be one of the funniest animatronic puppet characters ever created. Recently word has been spreading that a sequel called Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is headed in to production. I was excited to hear that Brad Peyton (see previous post) is helming the sequel. Also good to hear is that Dave Barclay is once again supervising the animatronic characters for the film, although this time they’ll be built by Lee Romaire Studios.

I’m not sure whether the sequel is intended to be a big budget theatrical film or not; evidence suggests that the producers might be cutting some corners (note: this is not the case, see my note below), when you consider they’re hiring a relatively inexperienced (albeit very talented) director and have decided to forgo rehiring the Creature Shop, which created the animatronic characters for the original. However, Brad Peyton is has a really distinct vision (his short film Evelyn the Cutest Evil Dead Girl is fantastic), Dave Barclay is one of the best animatronic puppeteers in the world and Lee Romaire’s studio is able to do really interesting work even with a limited budget (see previous post). Add all those elements together and this low-profile film has the potential to be something special.

Hopefully we’ll hear more about Cats and Dogs 2 as it moves through production.

15/10/08 Update: After posting this, I got an email from someone who is actually working on the film in Vancouver who assures me the budget for this is actually quite a bit bigger than the original and it’s being planned as major release for next year.