Why is Cats?
4,644,669
Published 2020-04-03
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Guest voices:
Steve Taylor - youtube.com/user/Kurzgesagt
Hank Green - youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers
Maggie Mae Fish - / @maggiemaefish
Dan Olson - / @foldingideas
Jenny Nicholson - youtube.com/user/JennyENicholson
Abigail Thorn - youtube.com/user/thephilosophytube
Kat Blaque - youtube.com/user/TransDIYer
References:
Hershberg, Marc. “How A Dog Film Killed an Animated Version of 'Cats'.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 27 Jan. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2019/12/20/how-a-dog-film-killed-an-animated-version-of-cats/
Hulk, Film Crit. “Film Crit Hulk Smash: HULK VS. TOM HOOPER AND ART OF CINEMATIC AFFECTATION.” Birth.Movies.Death., 9 Jan. 2013, birthmoviesdeath.com/2013/01/09/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs.-tom-hooper-and-art-of-cinematic-affectation
JACOBS, ALEXANDRA. STILL HERE: the Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch. PICADOR, 2020.
Kale, Sirin. “'I've Seen It 703 Times!': Cats Superfans on the Show's Magical Appeal – and the New Movie.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 July 2019, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/25/ive-seen-it-703-times-cats-superfans-on-the-shows-magical-appeal-and-the-new-movie
Pincus-Roth, Zachary. “Why Exactly Did so Many People like 'Cats' in the First Place?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Dec. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/why-exactly-did-so-many-people-like-cats-in-the-first-place/2019/12/19/3503e3b8-2006-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html
Sims, David. “A Serious Conversation With the Man Who Made 'Cats'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 26 Dec. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/12/tom-hooper-cats/604147/
Snetiker, Marc. “The Conflicted Theater Fan's Guide to 'Cats'.” EW.com, 2019, ew.com/movies/2019/12/20/conflicted-theater-fan-guide-to-cats/
Webber, Andrew Lloyd. Unmasked. Harper Collins UK, 2019.
Wells, Pete. “As Not Seen on TV.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Nov. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html.
Rich, Frank. “THEATER: LLOYD WEBBER'S 'CATS'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Oct. 1982, www.nytimes.com/1982/10/08/theater/theater-lloyd-webber-s-cats.html.
Hutcheon, Linda. Source: Daedalus, Vol. 133, No. 2, On Happiness (Spring, 2004), pp. 108-111
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
All Comments (21)
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“I’m losin’ to a bird!” walked so “Hal, it’s about cats” could run
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I once saw a comment that said “the whole point of Cats the musical is that it has entertaining songs with very good dancing, so when you take a bunch of mediocre dancers at best, you’re not gonna end up with Cats” and i think about that a lot.
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I don't know why everyone is saying Cats was bad. They played it on my flight home and there were only two walkouts.
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Cats was the last movie I saw in theaters before the pandemic, and honestly, I can't think of a better way to say goodbye to society as we knew it.
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I'm sorry, what personally makes me angry is them blaming the vfx studio at the Oscar's. VFX studios are so often underpaid and overworked, forced to pay their animators out of pocket when a movie goes over budget. They are also beholden to whatever the director wants. The entire VFX industry is carrying the film industry on their backs and they're constantly disrespected at each turn. They deserve so much more than that.
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Theater People don't want big Hollywood adaptations, Theater People want hi-def filmed from the stage videos.
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Just one furry... One furry on the design team could have prevented this monstrosity
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I still say Tom Hooper's biggest sin for Cats was erasing the aggressively gay energy from "Magical Mr. Mistoffelees"
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Tim Rice, in 2002: "I'm often asked why Andrew and I broke up. Well, would you want to work with someone who wanted 75 percent of the credit? And 75 percent of the money? And who chased after the leading lady in every show? Neither did Andrew."
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“See how I glitter” “I ate the whole plate” And now “Hal it’s about cats”
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He wanted to make a movie based on a musical about talking, singing, magical cats to be grounded and not very fantastical..... I have several questions...
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“hooper tried to ground this film in reality” and “rebel wilson eats children” are a horrifying combination
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I personally REALLY wish we got Don Bluth's / Stephen Spielberg's animated version of Cats. That concept art was so cool!
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I do feel “grounded” watching CATS. I feel as though I’ve done something wrong and am being punished for it.
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Trading the actors' comfort for the animators' work load and then seeing the actors badmouth the result is just adding insult to injury. I wonder how this would have looked with practical effects.
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I remember when Jennifer Hudson was singing Memory at the end, I just wanted to grip her shoulders and say, "Jen. It's not worth it. God bless you, but this just isn't worth the effort."
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So fun story: my dad (ride or die for Cats) and I (introduced to Cats at age 7 by my dad who is NOT a theatre person but saw it twice before I was even conceived and am also a ride or die for Cats) went to go see this movie in theaters. I had seen the trailers and knew what was up, Dad hadn't. After the movie I turned to my Dad and went 'so... What'd you think?" He looked me dead in the eyes and went 'I don't know what the HELL that was but it wasn't Cats' and honestly? That's my 'Hal, it's about Cats'
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The words "manually rotoscoped fur" makes me feel so unbelievably sorry for those VFX artists who had to spend hours and hours doing that. It sounds like a ludicrous amount of work.
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Why did I never consider, if tom hooper really wanted it to be so realistic, why didn't all the cats have eight nipples?
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Every day, I send out a thanks to the universe that they released a pro shot of Hamilton instead of milking its popularity by adapting it into a movie 😭😭😭
