A Meowy Christmas (2017) User Reviews

Another useless vanity project from a child

[RuthlessGoat · 1/10 · 9 December 2017]

I think I've finally reached the bottom of the pile, the very worst Christmas Movie imaginable. This movie is about two animals, Ms. Whiskers and Chuckie, and their owner, an incompetent Detective Wally Griswold. These animals are a cat and a mouse whose mouths do not move and there is only very shrill and annoying talk-over. Plus, the cat voice makes infinite lousy cat puns. I'm going to try to put about as much effort into this review as Stephen Rudzinski put into this horrible film. It will be hard because the bar is very low. The budget was a whopping $1000, and boy howdy does it ever show.

The cat watches conspiracy videos all day and is convinced that Santa has been captured by aliens. At the same time 2 burglars have been hitting houses in the area and stealing valuables, and yes, Christmas Presents! Santa must be saved! Christmas must be saved! It's up to the two voice-overed animals in the inside and a bumbling Detective Wally Griswold on the outside to save the day.

Of course Christmas is saved and the burglars foiled by Chuckie and Ms. Whiskers. Detective Griswold is exonerated. This miserable film tried to pay homage to Inspector Jacques Clouseau in The Pink Panther, Home Alone, and Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (Being a horrible, unwatchable film).

Do not watch this movie unless you are suicidal and do not want to be deterred. Chances are good, however, you won't be able to find it anywhere but free on Amazon Prime or Sockshare. I know that the maker of this disaster made no pretense about this being anything but horrible, but this was about the most unnecessary vanity project ever.

The Cat's Meow this Holidays!

[lovblebill · 10/10 · 7 December 2017]

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!

A Weird, Yet Family Friendly Christmas Movie

[andyunderhill72 · 9/10 · 12 December 2017]

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!

An amazing Christmas movie that's become an annual tradition in my family

[dragcat · 10/10 · 16 December 2023]

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.