~ Max's last words, as he flies into the distance.
Max is the secondary antagonist of the 1997 Warner Bros. animated film Cats Don't Dance. He is the butler and the legal guardian of Darla Dimple. He also appears as Danny's main arch-nemesis.
He was voiced by the film's director Mark Dindal, who also voiced Yzma's cat form in The Emperor's New Groove (another film directed by Mark Dindal).
Biography
Max is a colossal manservant who provides the muscle that Darla lacks and is a force to be reckoned with, capable of inhuman strength: in fact for a large part of the film, Max was seen as almost invincible (due to a combination of his strength and his extremely gigantic size) - his arrival caused people to flee in terror and it was clear from his first appearance that he was the tool by which the bratty Darla maintained her power as she performed. After Danny accidentally offends Darla during her song, she summons Max to punish Danny as a warning for crossing Darla's path. He goes to Darla's House, and he lights the fireworks from rockets during Big and Loud sequence.
As well as providing Darla Dimple with an impressive enforcer, Max also served as her manservant - performing any task she asked of him, he was surprisingly gentle towards Darla and was very fond of her: this loyalty could arguably be a redeeming feature to the otherwise thuggish and aggressive character, but in the end, he was still basically an oppressive bully. Darla did not really appreciate Max at all and often treated him badly (though Darla treated everyone badly unless doing so would endanger her status as a celebrity).
Max was defeated near the end of the film when he was tricked into climbing a giant balloon (shaped like Darla) during the opening of a stage show while trying to kill Danny - when Danny sends Max away at the end of the film by popping the balloon on a spike to send it and him flying into the distance, much to his intense horror. After Darla is exposed of her true colors and sent through a trapdoor as a cruel punishment, she calls out for Max, but he can only cry out "Oui, Miss Dimple!", as he is still flying over the city of Paris in France on the popped balloon.
Personality
Max is truly rude, dishonest, argumentative and obsequious. He is portrayed as a wicked, arrogant, oppressive, rambunctious and persuasive manservant. He is very protective and charismatic towards Darla, and is very fond of her. He is completely serendipitous and cooperative for keeping Darla Dimple safe and happy. Max is also very responsible for enforcing her will. Despite his vindictive and acrimonious nature, he is shown to be very quiet, patient and thoughtful, being a capable piano player. He is also shown to be an extremely formidable and destructive enemy when he likes to torment or crush people. In the climax, his emotionless facade gradually breaks down into pure sadism.
Appearance
Max is colossal in size. He is extremely strong, heavy and muscular. He is completely bald and has fair skin and brown eyes. He wears a black tuxedo, a white shirt, a black bow tie, white gloves with Mickey Mouse's three slots on hand, and black shoes. He also has a red rose on his tuxedo.
In name and appearance, Max is a reference to the late Erich von Stroheim's sinister character Max von Mayerling from the 1950 noir film Sunset Boulevard by Paramount Pictures. Thus, some fans believe that Max could actually be Darla Dimple's father rather than his butler, in a similar way Max von Mayerling turns out to be Norma Desmond's husband.
In the film, when Max says "Ms. Dimple", it sort of comes out as "Ms. Debull" due to his accent and his deep and slow voice.
Whenever he speaks a word, he never even separates his teeth.
Max was voiced by Mark Dindal, who also served as the director of the film. His voice was originally used as scratch dialogue, but after the film began to run out of money, another actor could never be hired.
His real age is unknown, but the actor providing his voice was around 37 years old at the time.
Although he is the secondary antagonist, Max turned out to be more dangerous than Darla.
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