THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997             TAG: 9702220052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E11  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Movie Review 
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 
                                            LENGTH:   54 lines

DARN IT, ``THAT DARN CAT'' STILL HAS SEVEN LIVES LEFT

HERE'S A FLASH to tickle your whiskers, feline or otherwise: Elvis is in a new film.

Well, it's not that Elvis (unless you ardently believe in reincarnation). Elvis is the name of the tomcat who plays D.C. (``Darn Cat'') in the Disney remake of the 1965 family favorite ``That Darn Cat.''

In the original film, the role was played by a Siamese. Here the feline star is an old-fashioned alley cat. Elvis, however, doesn't have much to do. Mainly he runs about town, leading frustrated FBI agents on a merry chase.

The original ``That Darn Cat'' is nothing to get teary-eyed with nostalgia about, but we do miss the pert, delightful Hayley Mills.

Instead, in the spirit of the cynical '90s, we have a bitter, smart-mouthed teen-ager played by Christina Ricci, who is done up all in black - seemingly a throwback to her much-funnier role as Wednesday in ``The Addams Family.'' Ricci plays 16-year-old Patti, a girl who hates her small-town existence.

When D.C. comes home to his teen owner from one of his nocturnal roams with a watch around his neck, it's a clue to a kidnapping.

Doug E. Doug seems to be doing a frenzied imitation of Stepin Fetchit's bug-eyed antics as the FBI agent who is accurately described as ``painfully inept.''

Dean Jones, who was in the original cast, and Dyan Cannon are a super-rich couple whose maid is the kidnap victim. Bess Armstrong, who should have become a star after co-starring with Tom Selleck in ``High Road to China,'' is the customary ditzy mom.

Estelle Parsons (Oscar winner for ``Bonnie and Clyde'') is the town's crazy old lady.

Of questionable taste is a running gag in which tires are regularly punctured and automobiles vandalized (possibly suggesting to young audiences that this is a routine thing).

For the most part, the youngest members of the audience, who are the only ones who will cotton to this, will want more of the cat and less talk from the humans. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by WALT DISNEY PICTURES

Christina Ricci stars with Elvis the cat in the remake of the Disney

film ``That Darn Cat.''

Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``That Darn Cat''

Cast: Christina Ricci, Doug E. Doug, Dean Jones, Peter Boyle,

Estelle Parsons, Dyan Cannon, Bess Armstrong, Rebecca Schull, Elvis

Director: Bob Spiers

MPAA rating: PG (some intensity)

Mal's rating: two stars