I think the core problem with the casting is that they didn't hire theater actors with strong voices. Cats is a very traditional, old school musical. The dancing and the singing is the whole point. Most of the other stuff would be forgivable if you were watching great dancers and listening to great singers.
Agreed. Part of why this show is so good for kids is that they’re learning traditional theater skills, but also are having fun with it. No one in this movie looks like they’re having fun at all.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria Yea, plus the changes they made to the story, having Macavity be this huge villain and he takes everyone away after their songs.... I am a HUGE fan of CATS and I have a few friends that never got the chance to see the play, and so they see this movie and.... they hate it... and they don't understand why I love CATS so much.. and it's like... That's not CATS... Also Femi Taylor is a goddess and I will hear no dissent. She played Tantomile in the original 1981 London Cast of Cats then from 1983-1987 was Bombalurina, and had the role of Exotica especially made for her in the 1998 film.
Robbie who played mungojerrie is mainly theatre based and naoimh who played runpleteazer were in the national tour of cats but I’m quite upset about how dirty the movie did her 😂😢
I agree 1000000% the wigs and costumes in the play make it so much better and add so much personality, they’re not just wearing fur they’re actually wearing costumes just with more fur than most.
And every cat costume seemed unique. I remember watching a behind the scenes of the old Broadway show/movie and someone said they based their look off their actual cat. And someone else had pictures of a specific cat hanging up to look at when they did the makeup. A lot of the cats in the new movie all look the same to me
I still remember watching this one in theaters: by the time “Memory” happened, three children were crying of sheer, eldritch terror 💀 thank you for suffering through it for us!
Hannah being so mad about the proportions of the cats that she couldn't even Skimbleshanks The Railway Cat, the one song where the rhythm is consistently maintained in this film, is just incredible
@@GrandiaKnightAbsolutely… which was why I was pretty upset when she had been talking so much about this movie having no rhythm (all Tomothy Hooper’s fault, as we all know) and then spending NO time commenting on the magnificence of Skimbleshanks in this version. I 100% agree with all of her criticisms throughout the film, but let’s PLEASE give some credit where it’s due! Stephen McRae absolutely knocked it out of the park, and I simply will NOT hear any arguments against him nor anyone else involved in creating that scene for this film.
I think the biggest problem with Cats is that it was directed by someone who doesn’t know what makes musical theatre *special* . The best stage to screen adaptations are helmed by directors who understand and have that passion for the stage. Stage to screen projects like Tick Tick Boom, West Side Story, and Cabaret were all directed by ‘theatre people’ and they produced movie musicals that were not only faithful to their source material, they were enjoyable and used the medium of film to *elevate* the story’s experience.
The biggest problem is that Tomathy Hooper thinks he can reinvent music and let the actors set the time signature and make the orchestra folllow. The bonus material on Les Mis and Cats is so upsetting!
@@lili.z9950 Watching the bonus material for Les Mis made me feel so bad for the musicians, as a musician myself. I've dealt with a fair number of those types, the ones who just think we're there for background stuff and not important, therefore we can just like... change up every single thing on the fly. It's frustrating! Also the piano jail made me laugh but also feel so bad for the pianist for Les Mis.
Say what you will, but Cats 2019 was some of the most fun I've ever had in the theater. Everyone in the theater was just screaming at the screen the whole time. 10/10
I loved the songs from the musical but absolutely detested the musical itself (we left at intermission if that tells you anything) so I’ve already come into this a bit prejudiced but honestly WHAT DID WE JUST WATCH? 🤣🤣 You said everything I was thinking and I laughed throughout. There are no words.
I did have a fun time seeing this in the theatre, I have to admit. There was a little girl in cat ears front of me who looked so excited to be there, and it made my day.
my god i've found family. This is one of my all time favorite movies because of how viscerally terrible it is. my first time seeing it, I was curled up in the fetal position scream laughing into my hoodie.
Hannah being confused about Memories makes so much sense cause in the musical she is visibly separated by everyone the whole time and her whole thing is 'touch me' she just wants to be accepted as part of the group again and physical touch is the thing that signify it. It's the new cat who does go to her first and then brings everyone back with her. I HATE what they did the Mefistofelis he's the best number of the show and they killed him.
Hannah, PLEASE do the 1998 recording, we need someone to spread the good word of John Partridge and the Munkustance and just EVERYTHING about the actual stage show
Thank you for acknowledging that Cats is truly unhinged in a way that only works in live, on stage, in person musical theater. There is no other way it can be presented to an audience
7:46 Originaly, in the fist cut, she was ''relieving'' herself in the sink. The ''liquid'' vfx was made, but cut after it was judged to crued. 8:41 The reason, for that particuliar shot and other that looked ''unfinished'' is because they are. The director was still asking for tweaks and changes on the looks of the characters a month before the release date. Meaning that artists needed to update and re-render every shot for every updates, resulting in retakes after retakes and waste of precious time. 12:07 Those are my shots, I called those shots ''The Nala F me eyes'' from the Lion King. 17:51 That's also one of my shots. I was a CG artist on Cats. First, I'm sorry, but keep in mind that I was just the paint and paintbrush to Tom Hopper's vision. 18:51 Belive me, that was something that was discust avidly during production, again Tom Hopper had final say. This was the most I could handle, I never fully watched the final cut of the movie... with sound.
I don't blame the CG artists. The blame squarely rests on the head and shoulders of Hooper and the production team. They had such tunnel vision to trying to make CATS so realistic to their vision without asking themselves "Does this actually work on screen? Is it visually appealing?" I wish they would have learned the lesson that the Sonic the Hedgehog movie learned - when the audiences absolutely hated how Sonic looked in the first trailer, they wisely decided to delay the movie and fix it. Except for parodies, no one sets out to make a terrible movie - it's just a series of bad decisions along they way.
It's not your fault this movie was a disaster, but since the movie had so many visual problems it was just too easy for them to scapegoat the CG artists. It sucked to see even some of the cast throw you guys under the bus as though the movie had any chance of being good if you guys were just better at your jobs. You were set up to fail, but even if you weren't, it wouldn't have saved this movie. I just hope you at least got a decent paycheck and that being involved with this film hasn't hurt your career in the industry.
@@L2Sentinel decent pay check… and a free depression has a bonus. Then COVID hit and couldn’t find a job in VFX for 16 months because all filming stopped. Studios kept the staff they already had to complete the current projects, but stopped hiring because no new footage came in. But don’t worry, I’ve since found new contracts and got over my depression with some help. I still hold a grudge on James Corden and Rebel Wilson for their 2020 Oscar comments during the VFX award ceremony. Will not watch any projects they are attached too… and will avoid any work tagged with Tom Hooper.
@@MrThierryFournier I'm glad to hear about the new contracts and getting help for depression. Sucks about the cast and I agree they're not really it for me. I'd definitely love to see some other work you're a part of.
I saw this in theaters with my grandma. Besides her and myself, there were only two other people in the theater with us. All I could think when watching this movie was I could be watching Frozen 2 next door.
Technically, there IS a plot to the stage version of cats as well; it’s just all told through ballet. It’s only once verbalized through the music, when grizabella says ‘touch me’ at the climactic point of memory. But there’s this whole throughline of jellicles doing this motion with their hand behind their back, another cat placing their hand in that hand, as a gesture of acceptance and trust, and when grizabella tries she always gets scratched at. Except at the end of memory, where someone finally gives her that touch she so desperately needed to accept her back in, and also then send her to cat heaven. It is technically happening, they just never say any of it out loud. It’s all ballet and specific motions acting as symbols. They definitely did try to bring a plot to the forefront though, and missed the massive aspect of the touch theme, which is like, what the choreography of the show is based on. The little plot the show had THEY DIDNT USE CORRECTLY
Cats is one of my fave musicals. This required an absurd amount of tequila to sit through in the theatre. 😅 re: Beautiful Ghosts: of course they had to add a new song for Oscar bait
the song is good tho. i thought the film wasn't too bad. obvs not a great one or representation of the show. the cgi was an odd choice and so was some of the casting and production (specifically vocal production) but i decided to just watch it as a comedy with some enjoyable points. it's not something i would go back to but i didn't hate it. i also think taylor's cameo was actually really cute. im so glad her cameos in stuff are done well so she doesn't stick out like a sore thumb for being a celebrity/singer. this was kinda right up her alley since she started in theatre. i hope she'll do a better film or even debut on broadway one day.
I cannot believe that I avoided watching this movie for such a long time and now had to kind of see it because I HAD TO see Hannah‘s reaction. I am, however, incredibly thankful that I didn‘t have to watch the whole thing. 😂 Thanks, Hannah! Oh and btw: Ian McKellen‘s kitty meowing and when he was drinking - that was probably the weirdest thing I have EVER seen!
The word Jellicle actually has a really wholesome meaning to it! For context, Cats is based on a collection of poems written by TS Elliot. I forget if it was his granddaughter or his niece, but a young girl in his family was learning to speak and couldn't exactly do it on the first try. When Elliot tried to get her to say "Dear little cat" and "poor little dog", her child voice was misheard as "Jellicle cat" and "Pollicle dog". Elliot was enamored with the words, and used them in his poems.
I haven't watched this movie, but just the clips I saw in this video were painful 😬 I truly appreciate you torturing yourself and reacting to this for us, but girl, please don't ever feel obligated to put yourself thru something like this again. Lol! Your time is worth so much more ❤️ Thank you for all your great content. Can't wait to see future videos!
Every movie you react to I can always tell what was going on but for this one I was so confused discusted and horrified the only thing that got me through this was you and your reactions
Ts Eliot who wrote the poems that the original musical was based on, didn't want the stories to be turned in to an animated Disney movie and I think turned down an offer to do so. But can't believe he would have been happy with this either if he saw it
the thing with the cockroaches I think is also from one of her music videos- the going between the legs not sure if it was intentional but it seemed that way
@Blast From The Past - The Good Old Days she sounds fine. The movie just looks bad. And tbh Taylor's vocals aren't exactly stunning in the movie either.
@@otterzrkuhl it was all live singing and Taylor sung the song well it’s not supposed to be a ballad or anything. She couldn’t have sang the song any better it’s a fun number
Watching people experience this for the first time is one of my favorite things ever. This was bananas to see in a theater with my friend. This movie, everyone is WAY too excited… for the audience’s own good, but it’s hilarious. The proportions or the Idris Elba’s song scene are the two funniest things to me.
I CANNOT believe u put yourself through this, it truly is a traumatic experience…I had the misfortune of seeing it in theaters, and I would not which this movie upon my worst enemy💀
Fun fact: Judi Dench was the original Grizabella (and another random cat as well) in the West End when the show was first created but she couldn’t continue (I think due to an accident or something) and Elaine Paige was then cast for the role. Her involvement in this film is because she was unable to take part in the original stage show.
I’ve been waiting for this and I wasn’t disappointed. I also think you should definitely react to Ride the Cyclone. The song styles are so different from each other and watching it is like going on an acid trip. Noel’s Lament, Space age Bachelor Man, and The Ballad of Jane Doe are all delightful to watch. I also know you would be so confused about what’s going on, and that just amuses me a lot.
I love love love the actual musical. The costumes, dancing and great voices are marvellous en create a whole different world. You just roll with it. I cancelled the movie after I saw the trailer. This is the most i've seen of it. And I almost wish I didn't hahaha
The actual musical is wonderful. It’s cats doing cat things and being cats, long before the days of internet cat memes. I always love all this wonder about this magic cat disappearing and shit, while we cat-people know that that cat was probably sleeping under a bush or something, and a bunch of dumb cats can’t figure it out. 😂 Literally all it is. Cats being cats, and cats rarely make sense.
I still don't understand why this movie wasn't 100% animated if they knew they were going to CGI the cats, it would have drastically reduced the nightmare fuel
Fun fact Judi Dench was supposed to be the original Grizabella and Jennydots in the original west-end production but had to drop out due to injury leading the way for Elaine Page to play Grizabella. Also, you reminded me how awful the move was and it's a shame because the live staging is done wonderfully.
i was a fan of you anyway hannah but when you mentioned sideways it made my heart so happy!! i've followed sideways forever and i love him, i'm so glad you found him too :)
Hannah I’ve been going through it the past few days tbh, and this video made me laugh SO hard that I genuinely feel better now. Thank you for enduring the the torture that is Cats (2019), I was laughing along with you and it was really cathartic 😂
I watch Sideways’ video about CATS every time I need cheering up. The section about Skimbleshanks is particularly brilliant. 😅 Fun fact about School of Rock: when it played in the West End it ran at the Gillian Lynne. When Summer sings Memory, the line is changed to “I NEVER want to hear that song in this theatre EVER AGAIN” 🤣
Hannahhhh I’m not yet done with this video but THANK YOU for taking one for the team so I can watch this through you lol. I do not want to see this movie but I’ve heard it’s soooo bad I just have to know. As always, you’re a queen 💛
The ironic thing regarding your comment about Dame Judi Dench is that she was the actress originally cast as Grizabella/Jennyanydots and was only replaced by Elaine Paige when she snapped her Achilles’ tendon just before the previews. Pretty sure she’s also preformed in at least one Sondheim production as she sang “Send in the Clowns” as part of the Sondheim medley (? I guess that’s what you could call it?) for Hey! Mr Producer back in 1998 which honoured the legendary West End producer Cameron Mackintosh. Still have the VHS of that concert on a shelf that I got for either birthday or Christmas that year. Editing to add that I only know the story of EP taking over in Cats (because I was a kid at the time) as she presents a Radio show here in the UK on BBC Radio that is dedicated to music from Musicals and the movies and she’s discussed it at least a couple of times over the years.
She's actually done at least two stage musicals: she was Sally Bowles in the original London production of Cabaret, and she was also Desiree in the '90s London revival of A Little Night Music. Granted, both roles call for more personality than voice!
@@gregorywiederecht I guess her performing in *Cabaret* explains Trevor Nunn’s insistence on her casting -and she was big name soooo And *A Little Night Music* makes sense for her too. It’s so weird remembering that back as a kid I got a lot of my information about what was on the West End from Comic Relief Night or Children in Need performances and the National Tours from the annual catalogue mail out from the theatres. Thank God for the INTERNET!!
Victoria didn’t have any solos in the original show. She’s an innocent voiceless kitten who is learning as she watches. The other cats stand out since the get songs that help you learn who is who, despite being a sea of browns and oranges and blacks and creams. The cat without a solo was white so she’d stand out without a song. When she gets curious and goes toward Grizabella and is pulled back by the others, she only stands out from the crowd by being solid white. (There was mild controversy over Victoria being a white cat in the movie. Misty Copeland trying to make it a race issue, saying next time maybe Victoria will be a brow n cat, missed the purpose of Victoria being a white cat.) So no, Victoria had no songs. Some productions will have her singing with the ensemble, some will only have her dance with the ensemble and remain silent. It’s a physically demanding role though, the one requiring the highest degree of technical dance precision.
The only other time the spotlight is on Victoria in the audienceless stage recording is when she has a solo dance in the instrumental part of the Jellicle Ball song.
And the older cats were essentially teaching the kittens, so they learned that you shouldn't touch Grizabella, and ignore her completely. But Victoria shows empathy and cares about Grizabella. 😊 She gets a second chance.
Her dance is meant to represent her growing up (specifically going into heat for the first time), so she has the autonomy of a women but the innocence of a child. It's why she's always with the kittens, but is seen getting her thigh stroked in Jellicle Ball. She's like the cool older sister who cares about her younger siblings.
I'm only halfway through your reaction, and I'm so sorry, yet proud of your perseverance. I was......... not sober when I saw this, and I had a great time I would never like to relive.
Also I think one of the points people don't talk about, stage vs movie, is that the stage is just like WAHHH NONSENSE EVERYWHERE, razzle dazzle etc., but the nature of a (Tom Hopper) movie is that the camera tells you where to look, so you're not dazzled. You don't have options, you just have to look at the monstrous 'cutting edge' CGI constantly. Even in dance scenes.
😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣 This is comedy gold! Thank you for kicking off my Friday with this. Yeah, it's nightmarish! Cats is weird as it is, but you can't beat John Partridge as Rum Tum Tugger! 😻 You should do a comparison with that recording and this horrifying thing! Either way, loved it! Hahah thank you for your service, Hannah. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten!
this is my favorite video of yours oml😂 I cried laughing the whole time!! I love showing this horrid movie to unsuspecting friends and family and they have very similar reactions🫠🙃
this movie is so confusing to me because the comedy seems to be targeted to kids but then there’s the “milk” scene, naked idris elba, and every cat is sure to spread their legs at least once.
What made this even more wild for me personally is I went directly from seeing The Rise of Skywalker first showing to the Cats first showing. YES as in I saw this IN THEATERS & the contrast between the two made this hot mess even more jarring & yet I had an oddly good time with it.
I saw both movies in theatres in the same week, and I honestly preferred Cats. Cats at least swung for the fences. Rise of Skywalker was a homogenised, utterly forgettable mediocrity.
I would love to see Hannah to react to Taylor’s version of Beautiful Ghosts. Also along the Cats theme and she may have already done this, but Nicole Scherzinger has a recording of her singing Memory and it’s ✨ stunning ✨
I've got no bread, no hoes, no prospects, no future, i live on the streets and eat out of bins, i used to be somebody now i aint shit😢 Victoria: "womp womp"
Love your reactions! Your complaints were the exact same as mine when I was forced to watch it in theaters with my bestie. Proportions were awful. At least when I saw it on broadway the costumes were easier on the eyes than the CGI. I’d love to see your reaction to the movie A Week Away. It’s currently my 8 year old cousins favorite movie/musical.
this musical is sooo weird but its honestly so much better as a stage productionthe dancing in it is my favorite part. idk who thought this was a good idea to make it into a movie.
I love you... 'Who needs a beat? Who needs a tempo?" That song Victoria sings - Beautiful Ghosts - was written specifically for this movie. This entire video was hilarious & brilliant. I do feel like the actual stage play had some kind of plot. This one was just weird.
Imo, it's consistency. The plot was bare bones, but it was enough to establish a flow. Then when Memory happens, it feels powerful because it breaks the mold of the show so far. The movie already had a climax before Memory, so it didn't get to have its jumping the shark moment.
The CGI artists were given only a few months (I think four? when most animated features take a couple years?) after filming wrapped to do everything, because the director didn't know about computer graphics and thought it was just like editing in post. He refused to look at pre-renders/roughs/mockups where they go through all the blocking and animations; he insisted everything he looked at be in full-texture, full-atmospherics, movie-quality resolution which takes much more TIME to render, and then when he didn't like it he couldn't understand why they could 't "just" redo it only with one thing different in no time. Also while the actors were in (occasionally green) suits, there were no joints or key points marked on them, and with the main actors there were no dots on their faces because it might impede their acting. So the CGI artists had to guess where their joints were for rhe animation. Which is par for the course: in both Les Mis and Cats, the actors usually aren't singing with music or even a click track for a beat, to encourage them to improvise, and then the poor soundtrack composer/conductor and otchestra have to try to score and FOLLOW what they see on screen as it speeds up and slows down, which is why the instruments are usually not quite in synch with the voices. And then the CGI artists who had pulled all nighters for four months to get it even CLOSE to finished working overtime and skipping winter holidays got blamed for it bombing and mocked/blamed by Rebel Wilson and whosit Gordon at the Emmys. Nice.
Oh, the thoughts I have thunk about this movie. I'm working on a terribly long powerpoint presentation on it because not only is it just Badly Made (as Sideways points out in his video, which I second for everyone to watch because it's incredible), it's a complete character assassination of pretty much Every Single Character. They made Bombalurina into Macavity's girlfriend/partner in crime, when in the original, Bombalurina and Demeter (who is unnamed and rarely used in this movie) *hate* Macavity. They also basically completely got rid of Jellylorum, which???? Why??? Victoria is a principle DANCER in the show, but not a principle character, and there's zero reason why they couldn't have just had Jemima/Syllabub in that role, since she's basically the main character of the musical. Victoria is also meant to be with Plato, they have a whole scene about it. Rum Tum Tugger does nothing of note. He's supposed to be the one singing Mister Mistofeelees's song, and they just completely did away with the relationship between those two, which is a massive part of the musical, and they made Mistofeelees-a competent younger cat-into an inept bumbling idiot. And Gus. Poor, poor Gus. Macavity is a dumbass and completely nonthreatening, one of the things that made him a threat in the original is that he was doing all of that to terrorize them, not to go to the Heavyside Layer. He was an agent of chaos. But what they did to Jennyanydots and Bustopher Jones is by far the worst. In the musical, they're both respected pillars of the Jellicle cats; Jennyanydots is an older, extremely smart cat who runs the cockroaches and mice like a well-tuned machine, and Bustopher Jones is seen as a high class member of society. He's fat because he's wealthy and successful. But nooooo, they're Fat, and Fat people have to be Funny, because Fat people can't be respected or revered or admired. Nope. Fat = Funny Haha Joke character. I'll give them *some* praise: a few of the vocal performances are good. Jason Derulo did great, Jennifer Hudson was good but suffered from bad directing, Taylor Swift did pretty well, too. I wish she had had the opportunity to sing Macavity the Mystery Cat as it's meant to be sung. But the negative so entirely overwhelms the positive that the positive almost isn't worth mentioning. They destroyed the characters, they ruined the plot (and there is a plot, and a way to make it more linear that they did not do), and worst of all, they ruined the songs. And considering the show is very much focused on songs and dancing....just a travesty. Edit: oh, no, the actual worst thing was adding "Beautiful Ghosts". That very literally fills me with unyielding rage every time I think about it. That alone absolutely guts the characterization of Victoria-Who-Is-Really-Jemima, and renders Grizabella's story useless and moot. It's an insult to the story.
@@ccshorts8613^^^^ i second this to the highest degree! i know nothing about 'cats' beyond this adaptation, and it would be so interesting to hear your perspective on it!!
I’m actually going to stick up for the movie for one scene: The Jellicle Ball. If you’ve ever seen the music video Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson, half way at the height of the dancing and energy, a window shatters, and the room goes silent. It’s dark, Everyone starts groaning, Michael is stomping the ground with his foot as everyone falls to the floor. It’s strange to watch, yes, but it’s creating a clear mood; which only acts as a launchpad for when the energy eventually comes back full force. The scene in Cats is the same thing. It’s slow, it’s strange, it’s eerie, almost creepy, a bit ominous, but then when THAT MUSIC HITS (it’s the music that hits at the start of the end credits too) I felt a BURST of life in the theater. I was like HELL YES. It happens just in time for this one cat to land a FLIP on the beat, before breaking off into this epic ariel display; it was that movie musical spectacle high… for like ten seconds and then it slows down for some reason and then yes the movie sucks again, BUT THOSE TEN SECONDS, make the movie worth something (along with Skimbleshanks and Jason Derulo)
The original musical is clearly a product of the 80s. It is A.L.W interpretation of a collection of Poems by TS Eliot’s called Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). If that helps you wrap your head about the oddity of the Musical Cats so be it. Why they made a movie is mind blowing to me.
Id argue that having a group of cats performing the stories of their lives, reminiscing and sharing stories to then see who gets picked to reincarnate and get a second chance in life IS a plot. Kight not be a very complex one, but its tge.
I think the core problem with the casting is that they didn't hire theater actors with strong voices. Cats is a very traditional, old school musical. The dancing and the singing is the whole point. Most of the other stuff would be forgivable if you were watching great dancers and listening to great singers.
Agreed. Part of why this show is so good for kids is that they’re learning traditional theater skills, but also are having fun with it. No one in this movie looks like they’re having fun at all.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria Yea, plus the changes they made to the story, having Macavity be this huge villain and he takes everyone away after their songs.... I am a HUGE fan of CATS and I have a few friends that never got the chance to see the play, and so they see this movie and.... they hate it... and they don't understand why I love CATS so much.. and it's like... That's not CATS...
Also Femi Taylor is a goddess and I will hear no dissent. She played Tantomile in the original 1981 London Cast of Cats then from 1983-1987 was Bombalurina, and had the role of Exotica especially made for her in the 1998 film.
The best performances in the film were by the stage actors, even in the more minor roles
Robbie who played mungojerrie is mainly theatre based and naoimh who played runpleteazer were in the national tour of cats but I’m quite upset about how dirty the movie did her 😂😢
Yea, it’s crazy to me that Jason Derulo is the most experienced in classical singing (for the celebrity casting) and yet they WASTED him.
"Sorry all your family died, but at least you had a family" is such a perfect way to describe that song.
Yes 🙌 lmao
“Excuse me miss, this is a Wendy’s.”
"Yeah, you DID have it good, and completely blew it. Sucks to be you!"
I agree 1000000% the wigs and costumes in the play make it so much better and add so much personality, they’re not just wearing fur they’re actually wearing costumes just with more fur than most.
There are also the cat make up, that helped me a lot
@@beatrizcosta8137 Exactly!
And every cat costume seemed unique. I remember watching a behind the scenes of the old Broadway show/movie and someone said they based their look off their actual cat. And someone else had pictures of a specific cat hanging up to look at when they did the makeup. A lot of the cats in the new movie all look the same to me
@@lilred5515 Exactly!!!
I agree a hundred times over. The CGI "costumes" in this are horrid.
I still remember watching this one in theaters: by the time “Memory” happened, three children were crying of sheer, eldritch terror 💀 thank you for suffering through it for us!
😂😂 omg I would be laughing
Cats keeps on giving
It's so weird I can't even hate it
@david Powell that sounds infinitely more enjoyable than this movie.
The first time I saw this movie I was very, very high, and I don't know if that made it better or worse.
The literal lyrics : "McCavity's a GINGER cat"
McCavity : completely dark brown with 0 attempts to add even the slightest reddish tint to the "fur"
Hannah being so mad about the proportions of the cats that she couldn't even Skimbleshanks The Railway Cat, the one song where the rhythm is consistently maintained in this film, is just incredible
I wish Tom Hopper understood music lol
Tomothy will never understand
Skimbleshanks is the best song in the film. Not a high bar but it's still great
@@GrandiaKnight I agree, everything else can go die for all I care, Skimbleshanks is the best
@@GrandiaKnightAbsolutely… which was why I was pretty upset when she had been talking so much about this movie having no rhythm (all Tomothy Hooper’s fault, as we all know) and then spending NO time commenting on the magnificence of Skimbleshanks in this version. I 100% agree with all of her criticisms throughout the film, but let’s PLEASE give some credit where it’s due! Stephen McRae absolutely knocked it out of the park, and I simply will NOT hear any arguments against him nor anyone else involved in creating that scene for this film.
Why are you doing this to yourself, Hannah? Are u ok? Should we be worried?
Lol😂
You win the comment section for this video.
@hannah you said to text you on the above user.
😂😂😂😂
I think the biggest problem with Cats is that it was directed by someone who doesn’t know what makes musical theatre *special* .
The best stage to screen adaptations are helmed by directors who understand and have that passion for the stage. Stage to screen projects like Tick Tick Boom, West Side Story, and Cabaret were all directed by ‘theatre people’ and they produced movie musicals that were not only faithful to their source material, they were enjoyable and used the medium of film to *elevate* the story’s experience.
The biggest problem is that Tomathy Hooper thinks he can reinvent music and let the actors set the time signature and make the orchestra folllow. The bonus material on Les Mis and Cats is so upsetting!
Suddenly i imagine if rob marshall directing this movie.. Maybe perhaps he has a way better vision..
@@lili.z9950 Watching the bonus material for Les Mis made me feel so bad for the musicians, as a musician myself. I've dealt with a fair number of those types, the ones who just think we're there for background stuff and not important, therefore we can just like... change up every single thing on the fly. It's frustrating! Also the piano jail made me laugh but also feel so bad for the pianist for Les Mis.
I loved Ian McKellen’s meowing it was hilarious and he may be the only one in the entire film having fun.
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He committed to going full cat and it was AMAZING
Say what you will, but Cats 2019 was some of the most fun I've ever had in the theater. Everyone in the theater was just screaming at the screen the whole time. 10/10
I loved the songs from the musical but absolutely detested the musical itself (we left at intermission if that tells you anything) so I’ve already come into this a bit prejudiced but honestly WHAT DID WE JUST WATCH? 🤣🤣 You said everything I was thinking and I laughed throughout. There are no words.
I did have a fun time seeing this in the theatre, I have to admit. There was a little girl in cat ears front of me who looked so excited to be there, and it made my day.
Lmao I watched it at home with my little sister and… she… she keeped repeating the whole soundtrack for 2 weeks…. I started to cry by day 4
@@lurose9672 that made me laugh. 🤣
my god i've found family. This is one of my all time favorite movies because of how viscerally terrible it is. my first time seeing it, I was curled up in the fetal position scream laughing into my hoodie.
Hannah being confused about Memories makes so much sense cause in the musical she is visibly separated by everyone the whole time and her whole thing is 'touch me' she just wants to be accepted as part of the group again and physical touch is the thing that signify it. It's the new cat who does go to her first and then brings everyone back with her.
I HATE what they did the Mefistofelis he's the best number of the show and they killed him.
They took a big, bombastic, show-stopping number…and kept stopping it.
Yea, they completely trashed the entire meaning of the song and the entire story of CATS!
Aggggggrreewd
look at how they massacred my boy
Hannah, PLEASE do the 1998 recording, we need someone to spread the good word of John Partridge and the Munkustance and just EVERYTHING about the actual stage show
YESSSSS Please!
OMG YES
I’m behind this 100%
Please!
Yes yes yes please and thank you 🙏
Thank you for acknowledging that Cats is truly unhinged in a way that only works in live, on stage, in person musical theater. There is no other way it can be presented to an audience
Maybe it could have worked if Cats was a fully animated movie.
7:46 Originaly, in the fist cut, she was ''relieving'' herself in the sink. The ''liquid'' vfx was made, but cut after it was judged to crued.
8:41 The reason, for that particuliar shot and other that looked ''unfinished'' is because they are. The director was still asking for tweaks and changes on the looks of the characters a month before the release date. Meaning that artists needed to update and re-render every shot for every updates, resulting in retakes after retakes and waste of precious time.
12:07 Those are my shots, I called those shots ''The Nala F me eyes'' from the Lion King.
17:51 That's also one of my shots. I was a CG artist on Cats. First, I'm sorry, but keep in mind that I was just the paint and paintbrush to Tom Hopper's vision.
18:51 Belive me, that was something that was discust avidly during production, again Tom Hopper had final say.
This was the most I could handle, I never fully watched the final cut of the movie... with sound.
I don't blame the CG artists. The blame squarely rests on the head and shoulders of Hooper and the production team. They had such tunnel vision to trying to make CATS so realistic to their vision without asking themselves "Does this actually work on screen? Is it visually appealing?" I wish they would have learned the lesson that the Sonic the Hedgehog movie learned - when the audiences absolutely hated how Sonic looked in the first trailer, they wisely decided to delay the movie and fix it.
Except for parodies, no one sets out to make a terrible movie - it's just a series of bad decisions along they way.
It's not your fault this movie was a disaster, but since the movie had so many visual problems it was just too easy for them to scapegoat the CG artists. It sucked to see even some of the cast throw you guys under the bus as though the movie had any chance of being good if you guys were just better at your jobs. You were set up to fail, but even if you weren't, it wouldn't have saved this movie. I just hope you at least got a decent paycheck and that being involved with this film hasn't hurt your career in the industry.
@@L2Sentinel decent pay check… and a free depression has a bonus. Then COVID hit and couldn’t find a job in VFX for 16 months because all filming stopped. Studios kept the staff they already had to complete the current projects, but stopped hiring because no new footage came in.
But don’t worry, I’ve since found new contracts and got over my depression with some help.
I still hold a grudge on James Corden and Rebel Wilson for their 2020 Oscar comments during the VFX award ceremony. Will not watch any projects they are attached too… and will avoid any work tagged with Tom Hooper.
Thank you for your service. 😅
@@MrThierryFournier I'm glad to hear about the new contracts and getting help for depression. Sucks about the cast and I agree they're not really it for me. I'd definitely love to see some other work you're a part of.
hannah getting progressively more agitated about the proportions of the cats is killing me
I saw this in theaters with my grandma. Besides her and myself, there were only two other people in the theater with us. All I could think when watching this movie was I could be watching Frozen 2 next door.
I mean both are awful but in different ways.
At that point I'd walk out of the movie theatre 😂 I'd rather sit outside for the duration of the movie then pay money for that 💀
Thank you for giving credit to Sideways! His musical analysis is so on point!
And yea, the proportions in this make me crazy, too.
Hannah, looking in the bright side for every movie musical.
“At least the ensemble sounds good!”
This is the most I’ve ever seen Hannah not live for something and that makes *me* live. Love the brutal honesty SO much
when Victoria sang beautiful ghosts and hannah said “I don’t think this song is in the original” I CACKLED-
Technically, there IS a plot to the stage version of cats as well; it’s just all told through ballet. It’s only once verbalized through the music, when grizabella says ‘touch me’ at the climactic point of memory. But there’s this whole throughline of jellicles doing this motion with their hand behind their back, another cat placing their hand in that hand, as a gesture of acceptance and trust, and when grizabella tries she always gets scratched at. Except at the end of memory, where someone finally gives her that touch she so desperately needed to accept her back in, and also then send her to cat heaven. It is technically happening, they just never say any of it out loud. It’s all ballet and specific motions acting as symbols. They definitely did try to bring a plot to the forefront though, and missed the massive aspect of the touch theme, which is like, what the choreography of the show is based on. The little plot the show had THEY DIDNT USE CORRECTLY
Cats is one of my fave musicals. This required an absurd amount of tequila to sit through in the theatre. 😅 re: Beautiful Ghosts: of course they had to add a new song for Oscar bait
And they had Taylor Swift collaborate with *Baron* Lloyd Webber for it 😂
the song is good tho. i thought the film wasn't too bad. obvs not a great one or representation of the show. the cgi was an odd choice and so was some of the casting and production (specifically vocal production) but i decided to just watch it as a comedy with some enjoyable points. it's not something i would go back to but i didn't hate it. i also think taylor's cameo was actually really cute. im so glad her cameos in stuff are done well so she doesn't stick out like a sore thumb for being a celebrity/singer. this was kinda right up her alley since she started in theatre. i hope she'll do a better film or even debut on broadway one day.
@@HulaHula667He actually said that was the only part of the whole process he enjoyed 😅
Yup I second this!
honestly beautiful ghosts is the best thing that came out of this movie, but taylors version, not the one in the movie
I cannot believe that I avoided watching this movie for such a long time and now had to kind of see it because I HAD TO see Hannah‘s reaction. I am, however, incredibly thankful that I didn‘t have to watch the whole thing. 😂 Thanks, Hannah!
Oh and btw: Ian McKellen‘s kitty meowing and when he was drinking - that was probably the weirdest thing I have EVER seen!
Love the appreciation for Sideways❤️I was actually rewatching a video of his before this( the one about the live action Mulan, highly recommend it)
The word Jellicle actually has a really wholesome meaning to it! For context, Cats is based on a collection of poems written by TS Elliot. I forget if it was his granddaughter or his niece, but a young girl in his family was learning to speak and couldn't exactly do it on the first try. When Elliot tried to get her to say "Dear little cat" and "poor little dog", her child voice was misheard as "Jellicle cat" and "Pollicle dog". Elliot was enamored with the words, and used them in his poems.
I haven't watched this movie, but just the clips I saw in this video were painful 😬 I truly appreciate you torturing yourself and reacting to this for us, but girl, please don't ever feel obligated to put yourself thru something like this again. Lol! Your time is worth so much more ❤️ Thank you for all your great content. Can't wait to see future videos!
Every movie you react to I can always tell what was going on but for this one I was so confused discusted and horrified the only thing that got me through this was you and your reactions
Yes! I feel the same.
i felt like i was held hostage when watching this movie in theaters tbh WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE
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i firmly believe that if they had made CATS into an ANIMATED movie musical it would have been 1000% better
That’s what I thought. If you do this like a Disney animated movie, it won’t scare people.
Without question! I'm eternally bummed and frustrated that they didn't do that.
Ts Eliot who wrote the poems that the original musical was based on, didn't want the stories to be turned in to an animated Disney movie and I think turned down an offer to do so. But can't believe he would have been happy with this either if he saw it
@@Nathaliejcr yeah but we’re talking about the musical not the original story
@@linaelhabashy4608 the songs are the poems
How they released this in theaters is one of the world's greatest mysteries.
When you find out they were considering making an animated movie for Cats and instead made this monstrosity it hurts all the more 😢
I would pay warrior cats animators to make a Cats adaptation compared to this
Hannah: the ensemble is good 👍
Me: trying to hold back my tears because I’m so ✨terrified✨💀
Me too
Loved your version so much. “They are cats and we are cats” 💯 😂
Taylor Swift wrote beautiful ghosts and her version in the credits is the best thing in the entire film 😂
the thing with the cockroaches I think is also from one of her music videos- the going between the legs not sure if it was intentional but it seemed that way
I mean Jennifer Hundson is right there though
@@otterzrkuhl sounding terrible.
not her best work this. an embarrassment to them all
@Blast From The Past - The Good Old Days she sounds fine. The movie just looks bad. And tbh Taylor's vocals aren't exactly stunning in the movie either.
@@otterzrkuhl it was all live singing and Taylor sung the song well it’s not supposed to be a ballad or anything. She couldn’t have sang the song any better it’s a fun number
Watching people experience this for the first time is one of my favorite things ever. This was bananas to see in a theater with my friend. This movie, everyone is WAY too excited… for the audience’s own good, but it’s hilarious. The proportions or the Idris Elba’s song scene are the two funniest things to me.
I CANNOT believe u put yourself through this, it truly is a traumatic experience…I had the misfortune of seeing it in theaters, and I would not which this movie upon my worst enemy💀
Fun fact: Judi Dench was the original Grizabella (and another random cat as well) in the West End when the show was first created but she couldn’t continue (I think due to an accident or something) and Elaine Paige was then cast for the role. Her involvement in this film is because she was unable to take part in the original stage show.
Yes! The proportions are bonkers.
The Sideways analysis video is so spot on. The videos on Les Mis and Beauty and the Beast are great too.
Congratulations Hannah, your video is probably the most of the cats movie I will ever subject myself to watch
I'm hiding the comments tbh
I’ve been waiting for this and I wasn’t disappointed. I also think you should definitely react to Ride the Cyclone. The song styles are so different from each other and watching it is like going on an acid trip. Noel’s Lament, Space age Bachelor Man, and The Ballad of Jane Doe are all delightful to watch. I also know you would be so confused about what’s going on, and that just amuses me a lot.
The ballad of jane doe would floor her!
a 25min video that feels like 2h, I'm doing it for you Hannah
Watching you watch this is the closest I will ever come to watching it. Thank you for suffering through it so that I never have to.
I love love love the actual musical. The costumes, dancing and great voices are marvellous en create a whole different world. You just roll with it. I cancelled the movie after I saw the trailer. This is the most i've seen of it. And I almost wish I didn't hahaha
The actual musical is wonderful. It’s cats doing cat things and being cats, long before the days of internet cat memes. I always love all this wonder about this magic cat disappearing and shit, while we cat-people know that that cat was probably sleeping under a bush or something, and a bunch of dumb cats can’t figure it out. 😂 Literally all it is. Cats being cats, and cats rarely make sense.
Yeah, the actual musical is one of my favourites. It gets so much hate, people don’t realise how beautiful it actually is!!
I still don't understand why this movie wasn't 100% animated if they knew they were going to CGI the cats, it would have drastically reduced the nightmare fuel
I was pawd by Rum Tum Tugger in 1983 at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was my first Broadway musical. Yes, I am an old fart!!
Saw this in theaters with my friend. There's a moment where a cat face flashes on the moon like right at the start. I screamed so loud.
Sideways has SUCH a good explanation of this movie and how it could be sooo much better
Fun fact Judi Dench was supposed to be the original Grizabella and Jennydots in the original west-end production but had to drop out due to injury leading the way for Elaine Page to play Grizabella. Also, you reminded me how awful the move was and it's a shame because the live staging is done wonderfully.
you should watch In The Heights!! I love the music and overall I think its an adaption that was done really well
I'm so split on that movie because I think each scene was phenomenal, but the way they adapted the story and pacing, just all the flow, was a disaster
YES
We need a full West Side Story 2021 reaction!
Good idea, i'd like to hear a voice teacher's thoughts on Tony's voice.
i was a fan of you anyway hannah but when you mentioned sideways it made my heart so happy!! i've followed sideways forever and i love him, i'm so glad you found him too :)
Hannah I’ve been going through it the past few days tbh, and this video made me laugh SO hard that I genuinely feel better now. Thank you for enduring the the torture that is Cats (2019), I was laughing along with you and it was really cathartic 😂
I watch Sideways’ video about CATS every time I need cheering up. The section about Skimbleshanks is particularly brilliant. 😅
Fun fact about School of Rock: when it played in the West End it ran at the Gillian Lynne. When Summer sings Memory, the line is changed to “I NEVER want to hear that song in this theatre EVER AGAIN” 🤣
i just know taylor loved every second she was dressed up as a cat
Hannahhhh I’m not yet done with this video but THANK YOU for taking one for the team so I can watch this through you lol. I do not want to see this movie but I’ve heard it’s soooo bad I just have to know. As always, you’re a queen 💛
The ironic thing regarding your comment about Dame Judi Dench is that she was the actress originally cast as Grizabella/Jennyanydots and was only replaced by Elaine Paige when she snapped her Achilles’ tendon just before the previews.
Pretty sure she’s also preformed in at least one Sondheim production as she sang “Send in the Clowns” as part of the Sondheim medley (? I guess that’s what you could call it?) for Hey! Mr Producer back in 1998 which honoured the legendary West End producer Cameron Mackintosh. Still have the VHS of that concert on a shelf that I got for either birthday or Christmas that year.
Editing to add that I only know the story of EP taking over in Cats (because I was a kid at the time) as she presents a Radio show here in the UK on BBC Radio that is dedicated to music from Musicals and the movies and she’s discussed it at least a couple of times over the years.
She's actually done at least two stage musicals: she was Sally Bowles in the original London production of Cabaret, and she was also Desiree in the '90s London revival of A Little Night Music. Granted, both roles call for more personality than voice!
@@gregorywiederecht I guess her performing in *Cabaret* explains Trevor Nunn’s insistence on her casting -and she was big name soooo
And *A Little Night Music* makes sense for her too.
It’s so weird remembering that back as a kid I got a lot of my information about what was on the West End from Comic Relief Night or Children in Need performances and the National Tours from the annual catalogue mail out from the theatres. Thank God for the INTERNET!!
I love Sideways, I’m so glad you’re bringing in his analysis!
That was beautiful ghosts that taylor swift wrote for the movie. The full version of the song is one of my faves
Sideways' was a great breakdown of every second of every song. He did perfect.
Victoria didn’t have any solos in the original show. She’s an innocent voiceless kitten who is learning as she watches. The other cats stand out since the get songs that help you learn who is who, despite being a sea of browns and oranges and blacks and creams. The cat without a solo was white so she’d stand out without a song. When she gets curious and goes toward Grizabella and is pulled back by the others, she only stands out from the crowd by being solid white.
(There was mild controversy over Victoria being a white cat in the movie. Misty Copeland trying to make it a race issue, saying next time maybe Victoria will be a brow n cat, missed the purpose of Victoria being a white cat.)
So no, Victoria had no songs. Some productions will have her singing with the ensemble, some will only have her dance with the ensemble and remain silent. It’s a physically demanding role though, the one requiring the highest degree of technical dance precision.
The only other time the spotlight is on Victoria in the audienceless stage recording is when she has a solo dance in the instrumental part of the Jellicle Ball song.
And the older cats were essentially teaching the kittens, so they learned that you shouldn't touch Grizabella, and ignore her completely. But Victoria shows empathy and cares about Grizabella. 😊 She gets a second chance.
Her dance is meant to represent her growing up (specifically going into heat for the first time), so she has the autonomy of a women but the innocence of a child. It's why she's always with the kittens, but is seen getting her thigh stroked in Jellicle Ball. She's like the cool older sister who cares about her younger siblings.
The fact that you had to watch this at least twice (filming & and during) is crazy. I’m not sure how you were able to make it through. 😂
I'm only halfway through your reaction, and I'm so sorry, yet proud of your perseverance. I was......... not sober when I saw this, and I had a great time I would never like to relive.
Also I think one of the points people don't talk about, stage vs movie, is that the stage is just like WAHHH NONSENSE EVERYWHERE, razzle dazzle etc., but the nature of a (Tom Hopper) movie is that the camera tells you where to look, so you're not dazzled. You don't have options, you just have to look at the monstrous 'cutting edge' CGI constantly. Even in dance scenes.
Imagine watching this drunk with friends. FUN! Haha
Sir Ian is the only one who knew what type of movie he was in.
😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣 This is comedy gold! Thank you for kicking off my Friday with this. Yeah, it's nightmarish! Cats is weird as it is, but you can't beat John Partridge as Rum Tum Tugger! 😻 You should do a comparison with that recording and this horrifying thing! Either way, loved it! Hahah thank you for your service, Hannah. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten!
This is the only form in which I will allow myself to consume this movie. Thank you for suffering in my place, Hannah
this is my favorite video of yours oml😂 I cried laughing the whole time!!
I love showing this horrid movie to unsuspecting friends and family and they have very similar reactions🫠🙃
Please do The Greatest Showman 💕 it’s actually a really good musical!
One of my favorites!!!
Yes please. I really want to see reactions for The Greatest Showman and Moulin Rouge
I was cracking up bc she said what we all felt 😂😂😂
Had no intention in watching this movie but I stayed for Hannah’s reaction to everything 😂
this movie is so confusing to me because the comedy seems to be targeted to kids but then there’s the “milk” scene, naked idris elba, and every cat is sure to spread their legs at least once.
What made this even more wild for me personally is I went directly from seeing The Rise of Skywalker first showing to the Cats first showing. YES as in I saw this IN THEATERS & the contrast between the two made this hot mess even more jarring & yet I had an oddly good time with it.
I saw both movies in theatres in the same week, and I honestly preferred Cats. Cats at least swung for the fences. Rise of Skywalker was a homogenised, utterly forgettable mediocrity.
I would love to see Hannah to react to Taylor’s version of Beautiful Ghosts. Also along the Cats theme and she may have already done this, but Nicole Scherzinger has a recording of her singing Memory and it’s ✨ stunning ✨
I saw Nicole as Grizabella in the West End years ago now and she was amazing! I had no expectations for her but my word, she was tremendous!
I've got no bread, no hoes, no prospects, no future, i live on the streets and eat out of bins, i used to be somebody now i aint shit😢
Victoria: "womp womp"
ik im late but this comment made me laugh for 5 minutes 🤣🤣
Cats, the musical, is the strangest thing to ever exist…
Starlight Express… “Hold my beer!”
Hannah you know Sideways!! yes! His videos are AMAZING!
please add link in the description so more people can go and watch it
9:48 her tearing up here is about the same place I paused the movie and cried in anger at the stupid jokes
Love your reactions! Your complaints were the exact same as mine when I was forced to watch it in theaters with my bestie. Proportions were awful. At least when I saw it on broadway the costumes were easier on the eyes than the CGI. I’d love to see your reaction to the movie A Week Away. It’s currently my 8 year old cousins favorite movie/musical.
I DIDNT even think this movie was BAD I just thought it was WEIRD
this musical is sooo weird but its honestly so much better as a stage productionthe dancing in it is my favorite part.
idk who thought this was a good idea to make it into a movie.
21:34 „that‘s an interesting choice“ 😂😂 story of the whole film
I had cats on VHS when I was younger so rewatching Jason derulo and rebel Wilson reenactment of my favorite song is like a nightmarish fever dream.
Ian McKellan definitely took the name Cats to heart
Absolutely love Sideways video on cats. It's my go-to comfort youtube video.
13:22 What is that? My new ringtone is what that is lmfao
I love you... 'Who needs a beat? Who needs a tempo?" That song Victoria sings - Beautiful Ghosts - was written specifically for this movie. This entire video was hilarious & brilliant. I do feel like the actual stage play had some kind of plot. This one was just weird.
Imo, it's consistency. The plot was bare bones, but it was enough to establish a flow. Then when Memory happens, it feels powerful because it breaks the mold of the show so far. The movie already had a climax before Memory, so it didn't get to have its jumping the shark moment.
Lets be fair to Dame Judi Dench... She was 85 when this was filmed!!!!! SHE WAS 85!!!!
Taylor Swift wrote the song Beutiful ghosts and it fits thr main character perfectly
The CGI artists were given only a few months (I think four? when most animated features take a couple years?) after filming wrapped to do everything, because the director didn't know about computer graphics and thought it was just like editing in post. He refused to look at pre-renders/roughs/mockups where they go through all the blocking and animations; he insisted everything he looked at be in full-texture, full-atmospherics, movie-quality resolution which takes much more TIME to render, and then when he didn't like it he couldn't understand why they could 't "just" redo it only with one thing different in no time.
Also while the actors were in (occasionally green) suits, there were no joints or key points marked on them, and with the main actors there were no dots on their faces because it might impede their acting. So the CGI artists had to guess where their joints were for rhe animation. Which is par for the course: in both Les Mis and Cats, the actors usually aren't singing with music or even a click track for a beat, to encourage them to improvise, and then the poor soundtrack composer/conductor and otchestra have to try to score and FOLLOW what they see on screen as it speeds up and slows down, which is why the instruments are usually not quite in synch with the voices.
And then the CGI artists who had pulled all nighters for four months to get it even CLOSE to finished working overtime and skipping winter holidays got blamed for it bombing and mocked/blamed by Rebel Wilson and whosit Gordon at the Emmys. Nice.
Oh, the thoughts I have thunk about this movie.
I'm working on a terribly long powerpoint presentation on it because not only is it just Badly Made (as Sideways points out in his video, which I second for everyone to watch because it's incredible), it's a complete character assassination of pretty much Every Single Character.
They made Bombalurina into Macavity's girlfriend/partner in crime, when in the original, Bombalurina and Demeter (who is unnamed and rarely used in this movie) *hate* Macavity. They also basically completely got rid of Jellylorum, which???? Why???
Victoria is a principle DANCER in the show, but not a principle character, and there's zero reason why they couldn't have just had Jemima/Syllabub in that role, since she's basically the main character of the musical. Victoria is also meant to be with Plato, they have a whole scene about it.
Rum Tum Tugger does nothing of note. He's supposed to be the one singing Mister Mistofeelees's song, and they just completely did away with the relationship between those two, which is a massive part of the musical, and they made Mistofeelees-a competent younger cat-into an inept bumbling idiot.
And Gus. Poor, poor Gus.
Macavity is a dumbass and completely nonthreatening, one of the things that made him a threat in the original is that he was doing all of that to terrorize them, not to go to the Heavyside Layer. He was an agent of chaos.
But what they did to Jennyanydots and Bustopher Jones is by far the worst. In the musical, they're both respected pillars of the Jellicle cats; Jennyanydots is an older, extremely smart cat who runs the cockroaches and mice like a well-tuned machine, and Bustopher Jones is seen as a high class member of society. He's fat because he's wealthy and successful. But nooooo, they're Fat, and Fat people have to be Funny, because Fat people can't be respected or revered or admired. Nope. Fat = Funny Haha Joke character.
I'll give them *some* praise: a few of the vocal performances are good. Jason Derulo did great, Jennifer Hudson was good but suffered from bad directing, Taylor Swift did pretty well, too. I wish she had had the opportunity to sing Macavity the Mystery Cat as it's meant to be sung. But the negative so entirely overwhelms the positive that the positive almost isn't worth mentioning. They destroyed the characters, they ruined the plot (and there is a plot, and a way to make it more linear that they did not do), and worst of all, they ruined the songs. And considering the show is very much focused on songs and dancing....just a travesty.
Edit: oh, no, the actual worst thing was adding "Beautiful Ghosts". That very literally fills me with unyielding rage every time I think about it. That alone absolutely guts the characterization of Victoria-Who-Is-Really-Jemima, and renders Grizabella's story useless and moot. It's an insult to the story.
if you finish the powerpoint share the link! i’m so interested in this!
@@ccshorts8613^^^^ i second this to the highest degree! i know nothing about 'cats' beyond this adaptation, and it would be so interesting to hear your perspective on it!!
I will ot accept any shade on beautiful ghost.least sung by Taylor those vocals! Chefs kiss
I’m actually going to stick up for the movie for one scene: The Jellicle Ball.
If you’ve ever seen the music video Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson, half way at the height of the dancing and energy, a window shatters, and the room goes silent. It’s dark, Everyone starts groaning, Michael is stomping the ground with his foot as everyone falls to the floor. It’s strange to watch, yes, but it’s creating a clear mood; which only acts as a launchpad for when the energy eventually comes back full force.
The scene in Cats is the same thing. It’s slow, it’s strange, it’s eerie, almost creepy, a bit ominous, but then when THAT MUSIC HITS (it’s the music that hits at the start of the end credits too) I felt a BURST of life in the theater. I was like HELL YES. It happens just in time for this one cat to land a FLIP on the beat, before breaking off into this epic ariel display; it was that movie musical spectacle high… for like ten seconds and then it slows down for some reason and then yes the movie sucks again,
BUT THOSE TEN SECONDS, make the movie worth something (along with Skimbleshanks and Jason Derulo)
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The original musical is clearly a product of the 80s. It is A.L.W interpretation of a collection of Poems by TS Eliot’s called Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). If that helps you wrap your head about the oddity of the Musical Cats so be it. Why they made a movie is mind blowing to me.
My husband and I watched this for the first time last week and man, we are WITH YOU
I think the creators of this movie thought it was called “Cast” instead of “Cats” seeing as that’s where their budget went
Can you react to Enchanted and Disenchanted?! Such great movies with even better songs!
"What. Are. The proportions. Of. These. Cats?!" Hahah brilliant.
1:05 I would LOVE a School of Rock reaction/commentary
Id argue that having a group of cats performing the stories of their lives, reminiscing and sharing stories to then see who gets picked to reincarnate and get a second chance in life IS a plot. Kight not be a very complex one, but its tge.
My whole family loves the play, so we watched this in theaters - we were the only people there - and we all absolutely loved it! It is so camp
You forgot to mention that we can see Judi Dench's eye lids, human nose, and HUMAN HAND. IT'S RIDICULOUS
I'll give it to James Corden that he actually played like a reasonably good at his job insurance detective in Ocean's 8