CATS Film Adaptation Thread — Page 28

Stumbled across this video of Heather Headley singing "Memory".

^ ^ ^ That it was. And only that. After seeing the new Star Wars film today I’ll visit CATS one more time this weekend before heading back to work on Monday.

Updated On: 12/25/19 at 07:22 AM

Just saw the movie after eagerly awaiting it. I don’t understand all the hate. It’s Cats. It was the second show I ever saw back in the early 90s and I didn’t like it at all - there’s no story!! Still didn’t enjoy the revival a few years ago. But some of the songs have always been catchy.

But the movie is fun!!! It’s all over the place, it’s bizarre, it’s wild, it’s gorgeous. There’s still no story but if you know Cats ahead of time then you already know that! I wasn’t bored for a second, the majority of performances were well done. Was super impressed with Francesca’s voice, didn’t care for new melody of Mungojerrie, new song is meh (sounds like it should be in Phantom), liked Robert Fairchild’s performance for sure. Stuff like the cockroaches didn’t bother me, I have no clue what version we saw - we could see hands everywhere and Judi’s ring finger.

If you’re on the fence about seeing it - go see it !!!

My issues with the film are conceptual. The scale of the set is strange and inconsistent. The amount of digital effects in every scene, for me, takes away from the beauty of the dance. The attempts to add in a plot beyond using Victoria as an audience surrogate don't work for me at all. And I find the direction of the actors incredibly inconsistent. Yes, each character has their own story to tell, but they should exist in the same universe. Jennyanydots feels like she's in a completely different film than Macavity, who is in a completely different film than Grizabella, who is in a completely different film than Rumtumtugger, etc..

There are some wonderful moments. I really liked the concept of the Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer sequence. Skimbleshanks: The Railyard Cat had excellent choreography. The aggression towards Grizabella by most of the cats made Memory feel more significant. Francesca Hayward, Robbie Fairchild, and Laurie Davidson felt like a cohesive trio in the moments they shared onscreen.

The overall effect is just so disorienting. It's very clear that different teams of animators and production designers worked on different scenes and musical numbers because the perspective shifts so much scene to scene. How can a cat be both the size of a car tire and the size of a fork and knife? How can the entrance to a theater be so large yet lead to a stage with stairs, backstage area, and furniture scaled perfectly to cats? I could go on. The use of light and color messed with my eyes (I have light sensitivity issues and struggle with strong contrast, to the point that I have to skip out on seeing shows that use op art effects or strobe lighting) and the inconsistent quality of the digital fur from cat to cat in any given scene just left me unnerved.

I'm actually seeing the film again tomorrow with friends. I'm hoping the updated effects fix some of the technical issues that really pushed me out of it (I hear the film's lighting looks considerably different in many scenes, and more of the textures that were missing are present). The visual inconsistencies are what turned me so heavily off the film from the start.

Saw it last evening. Less than 20 people in the theatre. Five minutes before start time, a group of 20-30 year olds walked in. They laughed non-stop, which made it at times, difficult to enjoy. "We're bored. I know... let's go see CATS and laugh at how stupid it is." Despite this, my mother and I had a good time--we thought it was beautiful. :)

Updated On: 12/26/19 at 08:18 AM

James Corden on 'Cats': "I’ve heard it’s terrible”; says he hasn't seen it yet, which means he skipped out after photos for the premiere:

https://www.tmz.com/2019/12/25/james-corden-cats-review-terrible/

For those who saw the film, did anybody catch the Phantom of the Opera reference at the end?



I wonder if there were other ALW references embedded in the film.

For those who saw the film, did anybody catch the Phantom of the Opera reference at the end?

I did not.

---

I did not enjoy how Tom Hooper directed Les Miserables so i am not surprised this has questionable direction as well. Not that the source material of Cats is great in the first place but I don't think Tom understands how to make a musical work on the big screen.

Highland Guy said: "clever2 said: "There is love for this film, and I happily share in it."



Me, too! There was nothing I didn't like about this movie."

I don’t think the premature summer trailer helped its case. It did look a mess and I, admittedly, jumped on the bandwagon, delighting at what a tragedy it was promised to be. I went into my first viewing of it with the same attitude, but the film immediately put me in my place. I was hooked the second the “camera” panned down from the moon and the first notes of the overture began. I don’t know, something happened to me then. Like a voice whispering, “Stop being such an a**hole and go with it.” And I did. And I loved it.

It’s nice to love things. It feels good. Just saying.

No matter what this film was going to be — animation, Pixar, live action — people were going to hate it. It was a decision made and stuck to probably even before Paul promised Ouisa and Flanders cameos in Sidney Poitier’s alleged version in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION. The hatred of CATS is a proud and long legacy.

It’s failing miserably at the box office, which means not enough people are seeing it to even have an opinion. And boy, those critics sure did have a blast coming up with cute little quips as they massacred it. As if it were......planned? There has been so much garbage on the stages of New York in recent years that critics have been very kind to. Shows that didn’t (and don’t) deserve the golden tickets they’ve been given. So, it was very bizarre to read review after clever review, most slaughtering it, and then sitting in that theatre, finding myself adoring it with no guilt whatsoever. Because it’s good. Good is a subjective opinion, yes, but my subjective opinion is that it is good. Spellbinding even.

It’s also revolutionary in regard to special effects and CGI.

Bottom line is most (I said most, not all) of the people who are blissfully hating it would have done so no matter what. I’m blissfully loving it and, as I said, loving things is nice. It feels good.

Carry on.

Updated On: 12/26/19 at 04:51 PM

loving things is nice.



To quote the Witch "Just nice".

I get peoples love musical theatre and want to see more and if this meets your standards OK. For YOU.

BUT it doesn't meet others standards on SO many levels - not a blind irrational hatred but a a deep hurt disappointment over the quality instead of what could have been.

Carry On.

sabrelady said: "loving things is nice.



To quote the Witch "Just nice".

I get peoples love musical theatre and want to see more and if this meets your standards OK. For YOU.

BUT it doesn't meet others standards on SO many levels- not a blind irrational hatred but a a deep hurt disappointment over the qualityinstead of what could have been.

Carry On."

Thanks for the proof!

EDIT: I’ll go you one better. Loving things is WONDERFUL.

Updated On: 12/26/19 at 06:24 PM