CATS Film Adaptation Thread — Page 25

Wow - reading the article about the "update" is really not going to add anything but more bad press/wild speculation about the whole film.  A few weeks ago, I forget what entertainment site it was, but they had mentioned the delays and suggested they postpone the December release for a January seeing that it wasn't going to be released in time to be eligible for award screenings/deadlines and instead basically saying "take the time to get it right."

I haven't seen it yet - as much as I'm trying to be supportive and will go - these days before Christmas are insanely busy for me to spend 2-3 hours with a movie.  But I really wonder how much difference/improvement any of this will be.  For the most part, Cats was going to be a hard sell to non-fans anyway whether they did CGI, animation or used the costumes from the original stage production.  If it is a substantial change - then this was incredibly foolish to rush the film out.  If its not, this added "story" just brought more negative press.  

Really sad to see this turning into a debacle.  It's just a part of the theatre arts form that sometimes creatives get too close to their work and let deadlines and other factors to distract them from what their main focus should be.  ALW can relate as he thinks back to the Sunset Blvd World Premiere compared to the LA premiere (but in this case, the costs are about 10 times what a theatre production would cost).

Interestingly though, a UK theatre site I visit has a lot of posts from people who are much more enthusiastic about CATS and completely disagree with the critics.

After seeing the misguided designs for the film I've come to the conclusion that John Napier's original designs were rather brilliant. His designs made it much easier for the audiences to suspend disbelief.

BrodyFosse123 said: "morosco said: "After seeing the misguided designs for the film I've come to the conclusion that John Napier's original designs were rather brilliant. Hisdesignsmade it much easier for the audiences to suspend disbelief."

Indeed. I watched the filmed stage version earlier and WOW! After this CGI mess in the cinematic film adaptation, seeing the actors in painted leotards and fur was now on another level. You truly appreciate the make-up design. What we once trashed now truly is appreciated."

I wish they hadn't cast Sir John Mills as Gus in the 1998 version so they would've been able to film Growltiger's Last Stand, and hadn't cut songs down in the editing room. 

NOTHING WILL SAVE THIS MOVIE!

Globefan said: "I wish they hadn't cast Sir John Mills as Gus in the 1998 version so they would've been able to film Growltiger's Last Stand, and hadn't cut songs down in the editing room."

It also would have been nice if they had captured it with better film. My understanding is they filmed on 16mm stock and that’s not the most ideal format for HD video. Still, if they had performed a high resolution scan of the original 16mm footage and cleaned it up, it probably would have looked a bit better than what we see on the blu-ray release which I suspect is just a 1080 up conversion of the 720 video they did transfer for the DVD release.

Updated On: 12/22/19 at 04:04 PM

If you see Dame Judi Dench's wedding ring on her human finger, it's the "original" version. 

Not sure how you can call fixing something to the level where it should have been all along improving it...

6.5 million, and even that estimate is probably gilding the lily.  It cost well over 100 million (and maybe considerably over that given all the continuing work and overtime) and you can add another fifty or seventy-five to that for advertising and stuff.  

guitarperson said: "I thought it was very enjoyable! Absolutely bonkers, but so is the stage show. A lot of the negative reviewers seemingly just didn't know what they were in for.I think if you can get past the CGI (I could--clearly some can't), it's pretty much the same as the show, which also has numerous flaws and requires a huge suspension of disbelief/willingness to subscribe to a non-existent plot. Could it have been better? Sure--for one they could have cut Bustopher Jones and Jennyanydots, easily the weakest numbers in the piece and Corden/Wilson did them no favors. Why they used the original melody (if you can call it that)for Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser is beyond me.Taylor Swift's new song "Beautiful Ghosts" serves absolutely no purpose and is a huge tonal shift from the rest of the numbers. Jason Derulo was truly uninspired.Overall though?I can't wait to see it again (especially Ian McKellen's Gus)."

 

I'm planning on seeing it later this week, because why not, and I wondered how many of the reviewers were familiar with the stage show, because a lot of the craziness can be attributed to the plot. Obvs there are issues with the CGI, that's apparent from the preview, but I'm not going to miss this mess at the theater.