Why the Music in Cats (2019) is Worse than you Thought

I like how he’s just slowly getting angrier and angrier and by the end he’s in the verge of aneurism.

An essay about the Cats movie from a guy who actually likes Cats. This is different.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Cats, and one that Hooper put in his own version too, is that all of the cats are competing to go to the Heaviside Layer. The Jellicle Ball is not meant to be a competition (confirmed as far as I've seen by several actors from the stage prodcutions, the original choreographer, and ALW himself). The cats are performing and showing off simply because that is what is traditionally done at the ball. They sing and dance together to show affection and validate their belonging to the tribe, which emphasizes Grizabella's lack of belonging, and therein is the plot hook. They're not going "this is why I should be chosen". In most of the cases that doesn't make sense. Most of the songs about aren't even sung BY the cat that the song is about, but instead by another who is affectionately going "isn't this cat awesome? We love them." People are just desperate for there to be more of a plot than there really is. The musical is literally just cats dancing around and singing poems by TS Elliot. Once you stop overthinking it and embrace the absurdity, it's actually really lovely. Anyway the 2019 thing is still a dumpster fire though lmao.

How they should've fixed this, if they INSIST on keeping Victoria as a protagonist, (which is stupid): - Have Victoria's 'I want' song about joining the Jellical Cats - Keep the other cat tjat realises Grisabella want to rejoin, keep Sunrise. - HAVE VICTORIA HEAR SUNRISE AND REALISE GRISABELLA WANTS TO REJOIN. - Memory performance - Victoria touches Grisabella BOOM That. Easy. Jesus christ.

Tom Hooper is just a gimmick director trying to be revolutionary by reinventing the wheel, not realizing it's round for a reason

Cats (the animal) legit touch each other to mark other cats, people, and things, as "safe". That's why they rub the corner of their mouth against your hand; it's a way of saying "this is safe, and now it smells like me, so it's extra safe". Grizabella wanting to be touched literally was just her begging for a friend. And now I'm sad.

I've never heard someone say a more perfect line than "Rum tum tugger is rum tum tuggering the harmonies"

I watched Disney's Wish thinking "Man ...... I wish Sideways was still around to tear this movie a new one."

"toUUCH MEE" "SHE LITERALLY JUST DID????" HELP I CANT I HAVE A COLD AND KEEP CHOKING ON MY LAUGHTER

turning mr mistoffelees into an uwu shy boy is literally the worst crime in the history of theatre

I watch this video twice a year it never gets old

It sucks so much ass that they use fat characters/actors as comedic relief when, in the original, they are HIGHLY respected, especially Bustopher Jones!! All the foods he mentions are really fine expensive foods, he isn't eating out of the trash, he goes by all the rich restaurants where they feed him the leftovers and all the other jellicles want to have that kinda life

are we not talking about how weirdly unproportionate the sizes of the cats are? they're too large inside the train but then have the size of hamsters while on the train tracks.

It’s almost like the people who direct musicals should, like....understand music in some capacity.

Dude dont shy away from the music theory stuff, we really like it. It seems like you're apologizing every time you bring up not just music theory terms but opera terms, but the fact that you get this stuff doesn't come off as smug or boring at all. We love when you share how the music works with us. I personally love when you say this is here's how it's achieved and this is what it's shorthand for, and here's how how and why the affect was changed in this particular usage, and how it changed the moment.

58:45 - "No one has ever counted in a group of ballerinas with 'One, Two, screw it, in your own time'" - priceless line. 🤣

This movie-length video by a YouTuber is more interesting than the actual movie made by a professional studio

"The actors made choices about the tempo" is such a great backhanded way to say "none of them were on beat."

this video is directly responsible for me becoming a cats 1998 stan. sideways i genuinely want to thank you for getting me interested in something i otherwise might not have given a shot

My favorite line "You just don't understand like how cats works bro" I just imagine someone high off their rocker so invested in cats trying to explain it to their friends and it just isn't getting to their friends.