Editing Cats Don't Dance (section)

=== Development ===
The film was launched in 1993 as a vehicle for [[Michael Jackson]], who would produce, star, and be a consultant in the music and choreography. It would have been a hybrid live-action/CGI film,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19930615&id=UpguAAAAIBAJ&pg=1625,8673709&hl=en|title=Michael hard at work on 'Cats Don't Dance'|newspaper=[[Reading Eagle]]|page=A10|date=June 15, 1993|access-date=March 28, 2016|via=[[Google News Archives]]}}</ref> but by 1994, Jackson had ceased to be involved in the film.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jKtJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aQ4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1437%2C3117076|title=Mel Gibson expected to star in outer-space 'Treasure Island'|last1=Beck|first1=Marilyn|last2=Jenel Smith|first2=Stacy|newspaper=[[Bangor Daily News]]|date=November 25, 1994|page=C12|language=en|via=Google News Archives}}</ref> In its earlier stages, the film concerned less [[Anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] stray cats that live among the sets and studio backlots. At one point, [[David Shire]] and [[Richard Maltby Jr.]] composed songs for the film before Randy Newman was hired.<ref name="cdd">{{cite interview|interviewer=Joe Strike|subject=[[Mark Dindal]]|date=November 2000|url=https://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.08/5.08pages/strikedindal|page=[https://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.08/5.08pages/strikedindal4 4]|title=Mark Dindal's Place in the Sun|publisher=[[Animation World Magazine]]|access-date=March 28, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419162007/http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.08/5.08pages/strikedindal|archive-date=April 19, 2016}}</ref>

Turner Animation was run by [[David Kirschner]], and had originated as the feature division of [[Hanna-Barbera]], where Kirschner was CEO.<ref name="AboutProd" /> The Turner Animation writing department added cat characters based on stories about the filming of [[Warner Bros.|Warner Bros. Studios]] productions like ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' (1942), ''[[East of Eden (film)|East of Eden]]'' (1955), and ''[[The Music Man (1962 film)|The Music Man]]'' (1962); [[stagehands]] would feed [[feral cat]]s, which dominated the back lot for decades.<ref name="AboutProd">{{cite book|section=About the Production...|title=Cats Don't Dance Production Notes|url=http://cdd4ever.com/CDDMirror/production.html|date=1997|publisher=Warner Bros.|via=CDD4ever.com}}</ref> Producers [[David Kirschner]] and Paul Gertz then decided to have dance numbers in the vein of classic [[musical films]] like ''[[Singin' in the Rain]]'' (1952). Kershner felt the style would appeal to a wide audience. The 1930s Hollywood backdrop also inspired the premise of anthropomorphic animals being allegories of those who did not look and/or sound mainstream struggling to gain attention in Hollywood in the late 1930s.<ref name = "AboutProd"/>

Kirschner contacted [[Mark Dindal]] to be director of the project a year after the two met and while Dindal was working on ''[[The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer]]'' (1991).<ref name = "AboutProd"/> Around the same time, Brian McEntee joined as art director, [[Randy Newman]] joined as composer, and [[Gene Kelly]] joined as dance consultant.<ref name="AboutProd"/> Dindal, Kirschner, and McEntee noticed the improving animation technology and were excited to see how it would be incorporated with [[traditional animation]] in ''Cats Don't Dance''; McEntee himself worked on [[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)#Animation|the computer-animated ballroom scene]] in ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and the Beast]]'' (1991).<ref name="AboutProd"/> The team watched old musical films for reference before asking Kelly, who instantly joined due to his interest in the story.<ref name="AboutProd"/> One meeting took place at Kelly's house between him and Dindal, and he vividly remembered how the films he starred in were choreographed.<ref name="AboutProd"/>

During production, management at Turner Feature Animation changed repeatedly and each head that came in attempted to take drastic revisions, including updating the setting to the 1950s rock-and-roll era. Dindal said: "It's pretty hard to try and keep what you have finished so far, and then suddenly transition into a different period of time or introduce a different character or have a completely different ending that doesn't seem to fit the beginning you have".<ref name="cdd" />

Dindal's portrayal of Max was initially a [[Studio recording#The process|scratch track]] and was never intended to be heard on the film. Dindal wanted Max to be voiced by a professional actor, but as the film started running out of money, he kept his own vocals in.<ref name="cdd" />