#listening to 2019 skimbleshanks again

[skimblestrap]

always remember: skimble wont let anything go wrong

[moldygreenblue]

Sometimes I forget that 'Cats (1998)' trailer appeared on Barney's Great Adventure as one of the previews

Having finally watched Cats (2019), it's not as bad as everyone made it out to be when it first came out. Like it is very not a good film, but there's a charm to it that I can't help but like (some parts have more charm than others; Skimbleshank's number is a good example of it). But honestly speaking, I wouldn't watch it again.

Or at least, the not whole movie in its entirely. I feel maybe if I watched it as a bunch of disjointed music videos with a theme being an adaptation of T.S. Eliot poems, I enjoy it a lot more (with edits that omits the interruptions; The Rum Tum Tugger number really could have done without the Rebel Wilson's interruptions).

And having watch Cats (2019), and knowing I have Cats (1998) and being obsess with Cats in my younger years (mainly pre-teen years) and still on occasional listen to the songs of any production I can get access to (chores, excising, trying to drone out stuff by putting in my headphones, etc), I realize that I haven't watched the movie in a few years. And I figure, "Hey! Why not watch the movie you watched so many times when younger that annoyed the hell out of your family?"

And I re-watched it. I honestly forgotten how much I enjoy it! Got to love the obvious edits in parts of songs especially so (I know that some cut parts were release/found, and I hope someone managed to edit them back in in an ultimate fan edition).

Having re-watched it, and maybe it's because Cats (2019) omitted this part out due to the restructuring of having Victoria as the protagonist + audience stand in, something finally occurred to me that never did crossed my mind before.

Why is 'The Man Over There' in the junkyard in first place?

(Note: I know this applies to other/all productions, but since I watched the 1998 movie, it's the one with 100% focus)

This legit had me going down a spiral of over-thinking, and an answer (of a wild mass guessing kind), which will be under the cut for this post got a bit longer than I expected:

So, during the pyramid section of Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats, a boot drops from a nearby house or apartment/flat [near/over the junkyard] to interrupt them. The cats don't stop their singing. Sure, they pause, but they go back to the singing in seconds. And also steal away the boot (they don't want anyone tripping over it).

It's only after they finish the number does Asparagus notices that "there's a man over there". We now have a random human stumbling on a bunch of cats singing and dancing so late at night (how late, very late for Jemima to eventually sing 'Daylight' and let us know it's almost dawn near the end of the musical).

And on a similar note that I swear is related to to the topic at hand, Asparagus is the cat to notice the man first before everyone else. I don't want to say he ratted the man's flabbergasted look of 'wtf is going on what is a jellicle cat'. But I'm 100% certain Asparagus is smirking as the rest of the scene unfolds. That to me, personally feels as if he knew what likely going to happen next (re: the man is now stuck with them for the rest of the night).

So, back to the topic. Why is 'The Man Over There' in the junkyard in first place? Why did the man came to the junkyard of all nights?

Because 'The Man Over There' (who Asparagus knows and/or recognizes), dropped the boot into the junkyard in the first place.

Stay with me. This make sense when you overthink all the details.

The Man Over There lives near/over the junkyard. He has a window over it. It's not the prettiest sight to look at, but he's not cursing its existence. It's not causing trouble.

Until now, on this particular night. On this particular night, a colony of cats are suddenly meowing and screeching together. The cats in their congregation, wakes the Man up. And the Man is not happy. He is grumpy for getting waken before his alarm could do it, and he thinks he can get a bit more shut-eye if he can gets the cats to stop their 'singing'. And what does the Man does? Throw one of his boots.

There is silence for about five seconds, before the 'singing' starts up again. The Man was not expecting that outcome. He thought they would scattered and leave. Now being fully awake and realizing he needs his boot back (it's a good boot, and it wasn't cheap), the Man decides to go to the junkyard to get it back.

In the junkyard, the Man is rightfully freaking the hell out. He is now hearing the cats sing. Like, actually singing that he can understand. He sees them dancing (are they dancing like they appear in the musical or are they dancing like actual cats on hind legs, I don't know). He is rightfully freaking out, and confused as fuck because he truly has no idea what is going on, in terms of his situation AND due to his sudden ability to understand the singing cats.

As the Man is freaking the fuck out, Asparagus sees the human. Very shocking to see a human in the junkyard of all nights! And the human here is one Asparagus knows! Or rather, seen more frequently than he likes. The Man is a familiar face Asparagus has the odd luck of running into in many places in London, though the Man never seems to notice Asparagus.

And Asparagus quickly connects the dots regarding the boot from earlier ('Oh, so it's HIM who dropped the boot? Well, he's going to get a night he will NEVER forget.') and rats the Man out.

And to be honest, the fact that the Man did in fact, stay for the whole ball, is something I feel is fanfic material and shock there isn't a single fanfic from the past to now that explores this.

[jelliclekay]

what's your honest opinion of cats 2019

Alright fine, I'll bite and answer this. But warning anon, if you're thinking I'm going to just completely trash Cats 2019 here, you're mistaken.

Like a lot of us in the fandom, I got into Cats because of the 2019 movie. Not because of the movie itself, but because of Sideways' video essay on it. His praise of the stage musical got me interested in watching Cats 1998 and the rest is history. Obviously his video is negative about the movie from music aspect of the movie, and I do agree with a lot of what he had to say. There are aspects of the movie musically wise that I do not like, but there are also musical performances I like fine and have on my Cats playlist.

I'm not touching the CGI here. The general public has shit on the CGI to the point that there's nothing more I can or even want to say on it.

I don't think Tom Hooper is a good director when it comes to musicals. I think he lacks the understanding of why people enjoy musicals, and he even more did not understand the source material when making Cats 2019.

That said, I don't hate the movie. I've seen it twice and while I don't have a desire to watch it again, it is nowhere near as bad as critics or the general public try and make it out to be.

I love Jason Derulo's version of The Rum Tum Tugger and listen to it all the time (I may be biased here because I'm just a fan of Jason Derulo's music in general but whatever he killed it). Steven McRae's performance as Skimbleshanks was amazing and Skimble doing a tap dance to sound like a train engine start up was fucking brilliant.

While I prefer the more upbeat arrangement for Mungojerrie & Rumpleteazer compared to the slower jazz version, I still thought Naoimh Morgan and Danny Collins did great and the entire sequence with Victoria was fun to watch.

I also have a lot of love for the casting of Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy, I thought casting her was really sweet and a smart decision, her performance aside.

So yeah. I don't think Cats 2019 is great and I do much prefer the stage musical. But the hate it got was so undeserved and I have a lot of compassion for the performers, crew and animators who put so much work into it only to have it dragged through the mud. Plus, there are objectively worse movie musicals in my opinion that don't get nearly the same amount of vitriolic hatred as Cats (Dear Evan Hansen, for example).

Which leads me to my next point here. There are a lot of anons going around in this fandom dissing Cats 2019. I've gotten a few myself about how Cats 2019 is bad and how the stage version is so much better. While you are certainly entitled to this opinion, a reminder that Cats, both the movie and the stage version, is still seen as a joke to the musical theater community. Just being in the Cats fandom and loving the stage version is going to have some people thinking you're weird or cringe because of how low an opinion theater people have on the show. I get Cats 2019 soured a lot of the general public's opinions on Cats, but being like "Oh well the movie is bad I only like the stage version it's so much better" isn't going to change that a lot of people outside the fandom think Cats is cringe/weird/confusing/bad.

I deal with people like this in my real life all the time. I have a co-worker who loves musicals who ranted to me about how bad Cats is. I have friends who try and get me to listen to different musicals because they are "so much better than Cats." I had to see my local theater be filled with hate comments when they announced Cats as one of their shows for the season. It's annoying and frustrating. You aren't better for being in the Cats fandom and hating the movie. Just let people in the fandom have fun and block the 2019 tag if you genuinely hate it that much.

[the-metaphorical-jellicle-cat]

Here are my comments about Act 2. Another post will be up tomorrow for a few more comments as well as a cool souvenir I bought.

Please note that these are what I observed while watching and may not apply to your hcs. Thank you.

I was able to get a pic of Old Deuteronomy on the tire (which will be posted soon)

Instead of having an announcement for everyone to get in their seats after intermission, they slowly got to their positions on the stage. I thought it was an interesting idea to have this as a sort of countdown like an average show.

Moments of happiness almost made me cry- No it really did

Gus the Theater Cat was amazing- It was a nice break between everything and I liked how it brought us back to the show and to what we were watching. There were a lot of moments that made me smile. Like Rumpleteazer and Mungojerrie were sitting together listening to Jellylorum tell the story of Gus. The kittens also listened intently and were absolutely adorable.

Jellylorum being younger makes me think she's Gus's daughter rather than mate which could make sense.

Misto and tugger weren't flirting but it did look like they were smiling like they were remembering something. Maybe from when Gus would tell them stories or something.

I couldn't watch Pekes and Pollicles without thinking that this is where Munkustrap got his storytelling skills. There was a constant back and forth between the two like (while probably not rehearsed) probably helped Gus with his confidence to put on the show and become the Rumpus Cat again.

Skimbleshanks was aaahh (you can tell my excitement was a lot)

Actually seeing the building of the train was surreal and they were all having fun.

Dem and Bomba doing their song was wow!- It was really cool to see this song in motion. It begins as a solo, then a duet, and then a group. As the song gets towards the end, they were joined by the other younger queens (Victoria, Rumpleteazer, Cassandra, and Tantomile). Plus Jellylorum and Jennyanydots came in at the end.

They were amazing to watch and further prove that this song should always be a duet and not a solo (Sorry 2019 but I should probably get onto that analysis....)

When Tugger introduces Misto he had a spotlight (or lantern/flashlight thing) on him but all I could see was the massive shadow it caused behind him. It made him look so much bigger. The others were like 'nope. Tugger is pulling another one on us'. But when he got serious, they came back to listen to him. And it made me smile that they do trust him. It just took an event like this for them to follow through.

The literal chemistry between Tugger and Misto during magical mister Mistoffelees is lovely and I want that bottled up, please.

The crowd went wild when he did the turns and the lights and making Cass light up

All of it!

Memory was a tear-jerker- And by this I mean my mom actually cried. When I asked why she said her dad would listen to the music with her all the time.

A lot of people laughed at the Ad-dressing of the Cats which made me laugh. But when you think about it, it is kinda funny especially if you have cats.

Then you have the bows which made me smile and the clip I posted earlier. It was a lot of fun and I saw a lot of people who love theater, the cast, and kids seeing it for the first time with family.

More is coming

[aceofshitposts]

I saw that you like CATS the musical. What are your thoughts on the movie?

AAAAH AHHAHA oh man oh boy y'all should BUCKLE IN cuz it's a ride

my simple thoughts? it's entertaining if only because it butchered the stage show so badly in an attempt to idk modernize it? Well, modernization is one part of it I think. The other part I'll go into below lol. I don't necessarily hate some of the more modern renditions of the songs (mostly the ensemble sets like Jellicle Song for Jellicle Cats) but then others are just... so poorly done it's insulting.

I've said this at the end of this whole rant too but I'm gonna put it up here in case people don't (justifiably) wanna see me go on and on about it:

The movie wasn't made for fans of the musical. It was made to make money and I believe they choose, at least partially, to do that through making it the weirdest and worst possible adaptation they could so that people would want to go see the train wreck. Which, really, worked! It was all people could talk about for a good while so like... Goal achieved, I guess.

A MUCH MORE COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT cuz i don't wanna. flood your dash with... this

ALRIGHT SO. Most of my friends know I'm actually a huge fan of new adaptations of things. I love remakes (provided the people making it are coming at it with some form of heart and not just... cash grabbing which is more often the case) I love seeing other peoples interpretations of characters, or changing settings. It's one of the reasons I like American comics so much, getting to see different writers takes is fascinating.

I think musical movies can be wonderful ways to introduce people to a stage show that might have been unavailable to them otherwise! Chicago, for example, is one of the BEST musical to movie adaptations in my opinion. It kept the heart of the show, it's funny and the song numbers are done really well.

There are of course other famous examples, such as Grease or Bye Bye Birdie. Hairspray was also a wonderful take. These are simply off the top of my head, there are of course more.

CATS in particular has a history. If you go through my CATS tag you may see a few posts from @catsnonreplica which posts photos from non broadway productions of CATS! It's a fascinating read and I love, love, love looking at the other interpretations of the characters! CATS is a musical full of fun and wonderful characters if you take the time to see past the ridiculousness haha and the Korean and Japanese runs of CATS especially have some of my favourites.

How does this relate to the movie, I hear you say well. As you might has noticed the movie's interpretations of the characters is........ lackluster at best and downright uncanny valley at best.

CATS is, at its core, a ridiculous thing. I will fully admit that! But it's fun, it's entertaining and if you pay a little attention you can actually get the plot. (Honestly I don't understand when people complain it has no plot but that's a whole other rant for another day)

The movie was... obsessed with this idea of like... semi realism? Like obviously, as a fan, I think they should have leaned into the over the top character designs but instead we got...w ell:

Bombalurina:

Demeter left and Bomba right. Demeter was actually cut! From the movie which is. upsetting lmao.

Macavity is one of the worst offenders for me:

Macavity was... I wish I could know what the hell they were thinking there cuz it's even in his song? Ginger cat??? THAT IS NOT... A GINGER CAT...... but I digress. I would show more examples but I think you get the point.

So. We've butchered the characters appearances. Okay that's fine but what about their personalities?

ALSO BUTCHERED.

There's... there's a lot to unpack here. Just for context: the Jellicle Ball happens once a year and the Jellicle leader chooses a single cat to be reborn into a new life. In the stage play all the cats who are nominated for this honour are on the older side (Jenny-Any-Dots, Bustopher Jones, Skimbleshanks, Gus The Theatre Cat, and eventually Grizzabella) AND are always nominated by another cat. Not themself, unlike the movie where they all seem to nominate themselves.

Jenny-Any-Dots went from a doting grandmother figure who's celebrated for her selfless volunteering and tireless work into a conceited, vain younger cat who is obsessed with fame.

It's an incredibly strange dichotomy. I don't doubt some of it isn't the result of the uh people playing the characters honestly. I do think some of them did the best they could! I don't really blame Jason Derulo, for example, for Tugger. And honestly, Tugger was probably closest to his stage version (while being a trouble maker, he's shown to show Deuteronomy an immense amount of respect)

Speaking of Tugger! This will bring us to one of the biggest grievances with the movie and that is how they handled Mr Mistoffelees.

So... Ugh. So. We have Victoria as the pov character, which imo is like whatever in the grand scheme of things, and then we have Misto who they have decided will be get live interest cuz... Of course. Misto is shown throughout the musical to be awkward, unsure of himself and well. Really, kinda incompetent. Which is Wild cuz in the stage show he might be aloof but he's fairly confident in his powers.

So, Old Deuts gets kidnapped. In the stage show Tugger is the one to bring Misto forward! It's really quite sweet, imo, and I'm showing myself as a Tuggoffelees shipper here, but again Tugger is previously shown to be pretty conceited but then here he is boosting and hyping up Misto to bring Deuteronomy back. My friends and I have lovingly dubbed this the boyfriend hype song.

SOMEHOW. The movie manages to make this, easily, the MOST BORING number in the whole thing. Which, again, WILD. Misto awkwardly stumbles through his whole song, which again is... Boasting of his supreme magical powers which movie Misto clearly. Does not have or believe to have. The song, to me, feels super awkward and unnecessarily drawn out in the movie which sucks cuz it's one of my favourites in the show.

The declawing (heh) of Mr Mistoffelees actually reminds me strongly of how they changed Gaston in the live action Beauty and the Beast movie. He's gone from a beloved figure in the animated movie to someone so disliked in the town that Le Fou has to pay people off to say nice things about him. It's just. Wild character choices were made!!

Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat is probably my favourite in movie non ensemble number. It feels the most... Genuine? Compared to the other nomination songs.

Other problems include but are not limited to:

The inconsistent size scale of the CATS which throws me off constantly.

The weirdly overt sexual overtones added to MANY of the songs (Jenny and Bustopher being the worst)

This is just a personal gripe and opinion but I don't like that they used the UK version of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. The American version is both better known and tbh way more fun. Teazer's giggle? Adds ten years to my life every time.

Victoria's added solo song, Beautiful Ghosts, while I like the song as a song it doesn't fit the style of message of the musical. In the movie she's singing directly to Grizzabella who's being an outcast for years that she should be grateful she even has memories of being part of the tribe?? What?? But I know they had to add an original song to be able to be nominated for awards in like the Grammys n shit (which is why all musical movies will have an original song, fun fact!!) kinda funny they went to the effort though considering........... I don't think anyone could have genuinely believed CATS 2019 was gonna win anything but golden rhaspberries.

Movie Mr Mistoffelees has made repeated appearances as my sleep paralysis demon

The various cut characters, shout outs to Jemima, Demeter and Jellylorum especially

Bombalurina being a henchman to Macavity rubs me the wrong way

God I've written... So much. You probably get it by now haha. Like I said at the beginning, I try to go into any adaptation with an open mind but... Let's be honest, this movie wasn't marketed to people who are fans of the musical.

It was marketed, and made, to make money. And they choose to do that through, I think, intentionally making the worst possible version ever. Bad press is still press and the more outrageous people said the movie was the more people wanted to go see exactly what kind of train wreck it was.

Which is a disservice to the stage show, honestly, and all the people who've worked on it over the years.

But what can we do, right?

And besides all that, I do... Still own the movie version and I do still rewatch it on occasion. It is entertaining even if it's in a train wreck kind of way. I usually end up watching the 1998 version, then 2019 and then various tour runs that are on YouTube. (I highly recommend the 2016 tour, it's very good)

So in conclusion. It's fun (?) to watch. I enjoy picking things apart and doing analysis (if you couldn't tell!) so like... I don't hate it?

It did what it set out to do, I guess, and I can't fault it for that but. It's not a fair metre with which to judge the stage show imo. But I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, haha.

Jazz hands. I'm more than happy to elaborate or just chat about CATS if anyone wants! I grew up listening to the Broadway CD since I was a toddler so it's been! A very long standing obsession haha. Probably the only other thing on par with CATS is my obsession with Jurassic Park which I've also been a fan of since I was 3 (but that's a whole story in and of itself)

[jellicle-jemmy]

Here is part 2 of my CATS (2019) thoughts that I wrote when I watched the movie for the first time 2 years ago!

Beautiful Ghosts

Francesca you’re doing wonderful sweetie

You’re obviously not a trained singer, but for the purpose of your character’s plot point and reason to be singing it fits so perfectly

Though the arc of beloning with the jellicles came too fast and too soon in the film

She should’ve sung verse 1, chorus, verse 2 and maybe another chorus now and then the bridge later in the film

Moments of Happiness

Judi Dench no

Bring in Syllabub

That is all

Dialogue Interlude

Okay I didn’t mind this bit

However Victoria had already had the arc that she belongs with the Jellicles so her apprehension didn’t make sense

Gus The Theatre Cat

Does ALW suddenly have something against duets?

God Bless Ian McKellen but this number was really quite bleh

I did notice Skimbles putting his tap shoes on side stage

Would’ve been cuter if Misto did the duet with him

Magic Misto boy was cute at the end tho

WHY SO MUCH YOWLING THO??!!

That “I could do it again” comment was a nice nod though

I’m still not entirely sure how Macavity makes Gus disappear but alright then

Skimbleshanks

This is another number that I really enjoyed

Munkymoo again ur doing so good

Also ur little duet with your daughter syllabub - I saw that and I loved it

Tap dancing skimbles is not something i thought i’d like, but I did really like it

It was a really fun number

How they got to the traintracks, idk but ya know what who cares

Thinking about it now, the transition from the tracks to carriage, I’m just imagining like several minutes of awkward silence as they all shuffle onto a carriage and then “5, 6, 7, 8-″ and the number continues

Plato and Socrates being the guard asking about the tea was adorable

It took everything in me to not shout “WEAK OR STRONG”

Also not totally hating on Skimbles redesign

Deadass though, 2019!Skimbles X 2019! Jenny wouldn’t work

But yeah this is a fun number

OKAY NOW SKIMBLES IS A FAIRY FLYER OKAY THEN

He Jay Jay Jetplaned right up there huh

All the other kidnapping, Macavity put actual effort, but Skimbles just went fwoop fwoop fwoop up into the sky

Macavity The Mystery Cat

Okay

Okay then

Here we go

Taylor Swift

This number would actually be good if the CGI didn’t look appalling and Taylor Swift wasn’t singing like that

It’s so breathy and weak wtf

Are you trying to be sexy? That ain’t sexy hun. That ain’t it cheif

Low key want a bedazzled thing that says catnip ngl

This choreography is really.... somethin’

Honestly, the best thing about this number was the cinema’s horrified gasps when nakey nakey macavity showed up

Listen listen, mac’s appearance wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t look like he had oil on him, rather than fur!! longer fur please i beg of you

shortest short hair in the history of the world

ALSO DRUGGING OF THE CATS

WTF

The catnip looks like fireflies from hell

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer being Bomba’s assistants? Gold. Love it

Why didn’t you do more with Griddlebone? Why didn’t you do more with Griddlebone?!

I never needed to see Taylor Swift and Oiled Up Idris Elba as cats dancing, let alone up a staircase straight from a 1940′s Broadway Musical

Kidnapping Interlude

Dooch (Old Doot Dench) really just said “access denied”

“I judge a cat on his soul” “he has soul!” “i’ve got plenty of soul”

The way that Lonz (???) and Munk all but flying over to M&R - fuckig superb you funky protectors

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer you wonderful chaotic dumbasses what did you think was going to happen

All of the contestants tied up? Yeah okay. Skimbles looks like he’s suffocating and everyone else is just fine with it I guess?

“Walk the plank”

Magical Mr Mistofelees

In case y’all haven’t heard, Laurie Davidson aka Mr Mistofelees is babey

Who is biting on Misto’s hat?

Also Syllabub you are so into this and I love it!

I’m about to say something controversial please don’t come for me - I think it worked that Munk and Misto were singing Mr Mistofelees

Who needs a hype man when you’ve got the Jellicle Tribe?

Cass’ face is a mood and a half and I high key want a gif of it

Victoria’s faith in him is beautiful

Oh no I’m shipping them

oh no

that wasn’t part of the plan

Syllabub you are literally the most fascinated out of the whole group and I adore you so damn much

The summoning attempts went on maybe a little bit too long and there wasn’t as much theatrics about as I had hoped

The happiness on the Jellicles faces is wholesome as heck though - especially Munk and also Tugger

And then misto flew and honestly I am so proud of him

He is my son! Look at my son go!

Also the ending bit with Vic and Misto dancing together in the middle for some reason gave me flashbacks to the end of the Greatest Showman

But very cute

Memory (Reprise)

Let’s first of all address the elephant in the room: I am still furious that they gave Syllabub/Jemima’s roles to Victoria and that definitely showed while I was watching it BUT-

I don’t think it would’ve worked in the film if Syllabub sang those bits

Syllabub works in the show, not the movie

Ummmm why is Victoria touching Griz before the “touch me” line???

Everyone’s - especially Munk’s - distaste for Griz as Vic leads her in was just really good and I liked it

The reprise is better than the original

The way that Cassandra’s expressions and actions change, especially during this number really makes it seem like she is the daughter of Griz and deadass I’m here for it

Still mad about Syllabub’s not getting to sing her but but it’s fiiiiiiine i guessss

Also there is a shot of Syllabub and Demeter together somewhere during this scene and I 1) don’t care that they don’t look anything alike and 2) don’t know who I have to sell my soul to but I will find it and treasure it

MUNK CRYING HURT MY SOUL AND HEART OF HEARTS

THAT’S NOT OKAY

NOT AT ALL

MY HEART IS ACHING

Macavity Battle

What the heck is this? It’s epic music that our pal Munkystripes uses to fight Mr Macaroni but it’s... a comedy?

“Don’t mess with the crazy cat lady” Rebel why

Also why did jenny unzip herself again i didn’t like it the first time, why is it even worse in the second but

oop Macavity’s not there

Ahh the use of the Firefrorefiddle line to scare Growltiger off, I genuinely adore

Journey to the Heaviside Layer

Ughh those harmonies always get me going

Again I am all eyes on Sillabub

I wondered how they were going to do the ascension into the heaviside layer

Not like that

Not like that

Chandelier and hot air balloon............oooookay then

All the cats on the lion being happy to see their kidnapped pals was genuinely sweet

Also Syllabub got to stand with all like the other named cats, and not with the ensemble which makes my heart happy

Macavity wtf

The Addressing of Cats

God, I really do ship Mistoria in this film huh? Was the plotline rushed? Yes. Does my hopeless romantic heart care? Nope!

Dooch really just went 😐 huh

I hate it

No

Nope.

The adressing of cats should be a final part of the ceremony not a fucking fourth wall break jesus christ

Okay, but Munk’s reaction when Dooch started talking about food

hhhhh Babey

Though if Dooch could stop staring into my soul, that’d be appreciated

“I believe you are a Jellicle Cat - a dear little cat”

I liked that line for two reasons. 1) It is a nod to the origin to the phrase “Jellicle cat”. 2) It makes me think that that is the only true qualifications to be a Jellicle, making Victoria undoubtedly a Jellicle because have you seen her??

Was that final shot of the balloon necessary?

[simptasia]

this is why the second half of cats 2019 fucks so much harder than the first half 

in the first half ur brain is still adjusting to the appearance and movements of these feline/primate hybrids. look, i love the designs in this movie, i find them cute and depending on the cat, attractive. but i acknowledge that on some level the brain does find something Wrong about this. thats just nature. so theres the adjustment period

contrary to popular opinion, cats 2019′s plot is not confusing and it is explained. they explain the premise in song and they say it with words. it’s not difficult to miss, munku and misto literally say the premise clearly. however. this is after a very frenetic opening song and then a graveyard dance that can be considered creepy. the exposition naturally cannot fit in any sooner than this, but the effects of these first couple songs can be Jarring. this contributes to the adjustment period aspect of this movie

in my experience, it takes 45 or so minutes for cats 2019 to properly Kick In, as it were. basically don’t give up too soon. also you kinda have to. let cats 2019 happen. if you fight it, ur kick in time will become later or not at all. the opening song throws you the fuck into the movie but it’s a fucking bop so let that wash over you (all this to say, theres a reason why this movie is better the second time and thats cuz like, you’ll Get It then)

first half contains jennyanydots’ song which is 1/3rd great (robbie fairchild’s singing/performance), 1/3rd cringe inducing (to say that rebel wilson isn’t suited for this is me being polite), and 1/3rd Oh Fuck No (the cockroaches, mice children and skin removal. not great choices), again in my opinion, get thru this song and it’s smooth sailing. it’s only a couple minutes, you can do this, the rest of the movie is actually really good

first half also contains bustopher jones’ song, which is. not bad but mediocre i feel. at worst, it’s somewhat nauseating. but yeah overall the song is lackluster. this isn’t entirely a problem with the movie, i’ve listened to and watched the original version of the song and it’s just a dull song

it’s okay cuz once it’s over, mungo and rumple’s song starts and around here the movie becomes extra fuckable. theres ups and downs sure, but by now you have legit gotten thru the worst of it

the second half, by this point you’re presumably used to what they look like and maybe you’ve even adjusted to the horrible editing in this movie (love this movie but whoever edited it should be shot) and here comes robbie once again Being The Best with the song “old deuteronomy”

but im not here to go point by point, because to me the biggest reason the second half fucks so severely compared to the first half is: skimbleshanks, macavity, mr. mistoffelees, memory. these four songs happen all in a row. i call this part of the movie the “continuous parade of joy” because at this point i am experiencing a level of euphoria that i wish i could transmit to other people because i think it could cure depression and end war. these four songs in a row Fuck Me So Hard it blissfully carries me all the way to the end credits

oh and the added bonus that during the last song, watch munku and misto in the back. robbie and laurie are going insane back there and it’s a thing of beauty, theatre brand background acting at it’s finest

anyways i love cats 2019

[calocera]

SPOILERS FOR CATS 2019, here’s my hot takes and opinions

be warned, THIS IS LOOOONG

First off my overall opinion, i LITERALLY cannot say whether it was good or bad, like lots of critics say it just...is beyond that. It’s VERY fun and that’s all I can bring myself to say, I have LOTS of problems with it but I can’t even say that they make the movie bad. It is definitely worth watching

OPINIONS ON CHARACTERS:

Victoria: she’s good! I appreciate that they kinda left her personality blank other than her innocence since that’s pretty much how she always was, still not super thrilled with her as a main character but franchesca did the best she could

Munkustrap: I loved him! he was more of a main character than I would have expected, but they STILL cut all the charm from his lines... why do I love him then? Robbie fairchild did AMAZING background acting, whenever he was in frame he was always doing something SUPER munkustrap-y and making cute dad faces. he was dealt bad lines but he worked around it best he could. Also his legs were normal so...epic fail

Mistoffelees: 😒😒😒😒😒🤢🤢🤮 disappointed but not at all surprised...he was just a Woobie, a softboy uwu nice guy. I felt like I was seeing fanon 2013 loki in cat form. THEY MADE HIS SONG A SADBOY PITY PARTY SONG...WHY WOULD YOU MAKE THE 11 O’CLOCK NUMBER SLOW AND SAD???? Where is the smug little shit who’s vague and aloof yet confident and joyous? He was murdered by his evil homophobic shadow clone. I’m not even gunna indulge the fact that him and Victoria were a thing, I’ll go over that later. He also just constantly looked like the crying cat meme his eyes were so red and watery it was horrifying, yet somehow he wasn’t the worst character , that leads us too.....

tugger: what.the.fuck.did.you.do.to.this.boy. HE GOT THE TREATMENT I EXPECTED FOR MUNKUSTRAP! HE WAS DEMOTED TO BACKGROUND CHARACTER! not only did he not sing mr. mistoffelees, he literally did nothing other than his song, he never interacted with ANY characters besides jenny in 1 scene. I know cats has no set main characters but he’s undoubtedly one of the most important characters and he’s like...the least important named character in the movie. ALSO Jason Derulo was not sexy at all. There was NO hip thrusting NO sexy meowing NO glamrock, he was just an asshole and if I hadn’t already seen the original I would have either completely forgotten about his character or though he was the worst character. I’m so fucking angy I cannot express.

Girzzabella: ngl I expected better. Her acting was great but with the horrible effects I couldnt get invested but I’ll touch on the effects later. Her singing was good, but I expected it to carry the movie and it wasn’t at all the best song in the movie, I’d say she’s about as good as I expected she’d be but the movie itself was more enjoyable than I expected so she was less significant

Old d: she was fine, she LOOKED the part definitely, she didn’t have as large a presence as ken page but I wouldnt expect that of her. Her singing wasn’t the greatest though, her voice is fine by it’s just NOT suited to old d’s songs. I would have preferred she play a female gus bc her voice is very sweet and frail, not at all built for belting like her songs required.

Macavity: he’s just...eh. He’s basically a comic relief villain which sucks. He does practically nothing besides kidnap people, say a cheesy line, and act like a caricature of a 90s cartoon villain (and not one of the fun ones) like theres a scene where he poofs away and when he does it he goes, MACAvityyyyyyy and fades away its so unintentionally funny but it just makes him so lame as a villain. not to mention he doesnt even die at the end or get any satisfying conclusion he just gets stuck on top of a statue and his powers suddenly stop working (for some reason??)

Bombalurina: fuck that, I am simultaneously glad she only was in the macavity number bc fuck off Taylor Swift but also disappointed bc she deserved so much better.

Bustopher: 😟 never in my darkest nightmares did I think I’d see bustopher Jones deepthroat multiple crayfish but here we are. Somehow THIS was the most sexual song, I cannot begin to name the fetishes checked off by this performance bc itd hit word limit. Let me just say that I said multiple times out loud, “damn bustopher kinda a freak with it 😏😏” like I CANNOT stress how weirdly sexual it gets. And ofc its all otherwise just haha funney fat guy eat food and burp and fall down. He also breaks the fourth wall a few times which like, fuck you

Jenny: exactly what was shown in the trailer. Unfunny fat jokes and slapstick humor. Also they focused WAY too many shots on her cat pussy and I wish I was making that up. Also of note is that the cgi on the rats and cockroaches are drastically worse than the rest of the movie, like not just bad designs the effects are BAD. also they translated they whole gumbie cat fur-shedding as her wearing fake skin over her outfit which would be fine but UHH the fake fur is skin tight??? so it literally looks like shes ripping off her skin and she does it multiple times its fucking terrifying

Mungojerrie and rumpelteazer: meh, they are fine as characters, not quite as energetic as I would have liked but they didn’t massively fuck anything up? The song was horrible, they went against the beat for...some reason? Like it’s a song with a very distinct rhythm and they split up the lyrics so weirdly. I liked that they followed through with the lore of them working for macavity

Skimbleshanks: YES YESSSSSSSSSS HOLY FUCKING SHIT 💗💕💖💞💜😳😳😳😳😳😳😳💜💛🧡💚💖❤️💗 i absolutely CANNOT express how good skimbleshanks made me feel. He looks like a leather daddy with his chains and suspenders and hat and stache, I hate that I’m saying this but uh...mr skimbleshanks sir😳 we were actually screaming it was so fucking good. Watching this movie was worth it just for skimble. Unironically. I’m listening to the song as we speak. It was kinda weird that they moved the tap dancing to this song but that’s more of a detractor from Jennie’s and a plus side to skimbles since it’s good tap

Gus: good! Ian did a good job of course, no one doubted that he would.

Growltiger and griddlebone: not racist but still absolutely horrifying. One of the worst parts of the movie, I actually got squeamish looking at griddlebone a few times that’s how bad she looks

Everyone else: not that good. I couldn’t tell who was who, all their personalities were annoying, I’m on imdb as we speak trying to figure out who even was supposed to be who. Demeter is completely butchered and jemima just isn’t there, doesn’t sing her part, it all sucked man.

Tech talk:

CGI: okay so here’s the thing, the effects are good. GREAT even, the issue is how fucking horrible the designs are. The lack of cat nose, mouth, and hairy cheeks makes them all look disgusting. Also the feet. Holy fuck why do they have feet. THERES A FUCKING SCENE WHERE TUGGER GRABS VICTORIAS FOOT AND SNIFFS IT. IT LASTS LIKE 5 SECONDS. Old Deuteronomy, Gus, and Cassandra (bc she was already bald) are the only characters I’d say look anywhere close to decent, grizabella looks okay in profile but head on it’s all horrible again. its really such a shame bc the sets are gorgeous! i really hope this movie gets some form of recognition for its sets.

the editing and directing was DOGSHITTTTTTT there are SO many scenes where characters just teleport or parts where people are singing and no ones mouths are moving its really distracting

Other things:

it’s OBVIOUS that the critics calling this movie horny have never seen the original. I’d definitely say the movie is LESS HORNY than the play. It IS however waaaaaaay more uncomfortable with its hornieness, so I’d say in that regard YES, the horny stuff is much more gratuitous and off putting despite there being an overall smaller amount than the play. ie everything bustopher jones does

They changed a BUNCH of lyrics for some reason?? Like they cut verses which I understand but there are like a handful of lyrics in almost every song they just...change. like...okay? All changing lyrics is gunna do is make people who knew the songs frustrated when they can’t sing along

the dancing was incredible! shame the cg just fucking invalidates all of it bc your mind doesnt register it as real people doing real moves

OKAY THE FUCKING CATNIP SCENE so when taylor swift showers everyone in catnip they all just fucking start moaning and go FULL HORNY its TOO MUCH like misto full on does an o face like eyes rolled back mouth open  and munkustrap is like ass up panting i still havent processed it im fucking terrified to encounter it again. they cut the orgy? yet added THIS??? k

WHY did they take 2 of the most iconic characters who FREQUENTLY interact and just

a. Never even have them make eye contact

b. Make 1 a background character

c. Completely change the personality of the other one

On the topic of Victoria/misto: I am just still at a loss as to why they thought it’d be a good idea? They completely removed Plato and for what? This? Pathetic. It’s worth noting the weirdly munkustrap has WAYYY more chemistry with both Victoria AND mistoffelees then they did with each other (there’s a part where it looks like misto and munk are about to kiss for some reason?? munk ALSO gets all touchy feely with skimbleshanks???) anyways munkustrap king moments

tldr; its worth watching, the best parts were the sets, the dancing, skimbleshanks, and munkustrp fucking CARRIES the weight of the world with his face acting. the worst things were a big fat tie between bustopher, tugger,misto,jenny,growltiger and griddlebone, and the godawful design choices

[partyinthemysterymachine]

as a classic cats fan what did you think of the 2019 movie?

FOREWARD: i have full respect to those who enjoyed CATS 2019 and show their support and engage in that part of the fandom. rock on. very truly, honestly, sincerely, i hope you have a blast and create and share and have the best of times. welcome to the fandom, it’s great to have you here; thank you for joining us and i really, really do mean that from the bottom of my heart and soul. it really makes me happy that CATS has become something good for you like it is, and has been, for so many of us. i’m ecstatic to see the fandom expanding and i’m so very serious about that.

unfortunately this is the time to jump ship if you don’t want to hear any more complaints about it. thank you and ilu all and once again, welcome to the fold, i love that you’re joining us and y’all being here honey butters my toast xoxo

there was a 2019 movie?

runs hands down face

from the very first sneeze of an idea of doing a CATS movie went around being speculated in what.. 2012?? i have been against it because i knew it wouldn’t be done right. what i really wanted, really hoped for, what the fandom very honestly deserves and STILL does to this day and beyond is another honest, no dances cut, full on professionally shot video of the stage production again.

i’m still putting my hand to the cold glass and pulling my thin shawl around my shoulders as i gaze past the rain blurring the dreary world outside and sighing a tremendous, weary sigh because Hamilton is getting a full professionally-shot stage movie...... and CATS likely won’t ever.. and how cruel that is.

(not hatin on Hamilton, btw; im just old and bitter LOL i have zero hard feelings towards Hamilton and honestly good for them for getting that done, they deserve it)

so...... listen. i appreciate the thought and commitment to making a CATS movie. i think the biggest thing that busted my balls about it was the use and execution of the CGI cat people. ofc this is a big thing in a lot of opinions. but i’ve always been sitting here like....... 

there are... decades of fanart. decades of productions and photos and costume design. but the fan. art. did anyone go in and look at it? artists have been drawing these characters a wide variety of ways, but when it boils down to the anthropomorphic take on it, i thought it was pretty damn clear how good it could look. i feel like they should have been diggin in the CATS art trenches all this time, all these years, and really taken all these artistic interpretations very seriously to heart. 

it felt like a slap in the face when they overhauled nearly everyone’s design/look to the point where i don’t even know who i’m looking at. and listen, i’m here for redesigns, don’t get me wrong. i dug Jason Derulo’s Tugger design. i dug Idris Elba’s Macavity base idea because he was made a shorthair and clearly all source material says otherwise? and where’s the ginger, mate?? 

(NOTE: in the b’way revival the new Macavity costume is easily 99% black in contrast to the original design in which the costume was 95% red and orange. stark difference. “Macavity’s a ginger cat” contradicts the revival costume a bit since, again, it’s largely black. so in its defense, the costume’s red/orange accents are well placed and the black pays more tribute to the “very tall and thin” aspect he’s supposed to have. (the old costume was wild and hairy, it kinda puffed him out a bit, esp with the much fuller and taller wig.) the revival wig is more on par with main wigs, and it has that coppery color, the makeup is simplistic (as it needs to be added on to Plato) and the color use FOR base Plato brings out the red and etc etc etc. i like the revival costume; it didn’t go overboard on the reds and oranges, it was sleek and powerful, and oh my god you’ve got fingergless gloves with fucking fringe there is a MANE wiht FRINGE who designed that bc i gotta kiss em and offer a piece of my heart and soul)

everything felt muddled, disorganized, foreign, and god why did we do Jennyanydots that why please why are the cockroaches people please are you all ok in production? blink twice if you need help

oh yeah and the fat jokes. i think we were supposed to be getting over that but ok

very interesting thing with Macavity kidnapping the potentials. kinda dug that. fuck it up, Skimbleshanks

and speaking of fuckin Skimbleshanks you have no idea how much of my shit i lost when he started the tap number. i was over the MOON. GOOD shit, FUCK yeah, GO OFF and it was brilliant, absolutely beautiful

ALSO when i heard Judi Dench was gonna be in it i was really hopeful she’d finally play Grizabella. what a fucking treat that would’ve been. she was set to debut the role in the West End, then she tore her Achilles, so Elaine Page replaced her and the rest was history. i’ve really wanted to hear/see her Grizabella. :(

(and briefly on the topic of Grizabella i’m kinda not here for the trend of younger actresses in the role just hhhhhhhh kinda takes away and misplaces her whole vibe and story imo)

i just.. i didn’t understand some of the plot changes like how Macavity was up in everyone’s bs tryna force himself up to the Heavyside Layer, it was silly, and yeah i shouldn’t take CATS so seriously even with the longtime fan background but 

gestures helplessly

y’all fr?? 

there were a lot of super questionable decisions across the board and all that has already been gone over by so many people a dozen billion times. on one hand, i’m glad CATS got some exposure. on the other, :( not like this

however, on a very good note (other than skimbleshanks bless him): let me tell you how EXCITED i was that they used the original Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer arrangement. what a fucking pleasant surprise. HELL yeah. i LOVE that arrangement and i’m tickled to pieces that it was chosen.  good shit. good shit.

tbh as Serious and Bruh Calm Down this might all sound, it’s honestly no skin off my teeth. it’s a frustration, sure. i’m so very tired.  i’m disappointed. i didn’t have any specific expectations about it, just a lot of hopes. maybe too many hopes.

being a longtime CATS fan i know as well or even better than other people what a fucking dumpster fire the show is LMAO it’s wild and it’s ridiculous and god it doesn’t make any sense, it has a plot and it has no plot and everything about it is so horny and it’s the greatest fucking thing to ever happen to me

i obviously have a lot of feelings and history with CATS, and 2019 did not “ruin” anything for me, it didn’t “taint” anything about it, despite everything i’ve complained about i don’t consider myself a purist. (ok. except about the revival choreography. some things are more sacred than the vatican.)

i don’t dig 2019 as a whole. i don’t want to completely disregard it. there are bits and pieces i did like and that i can appreciate. i wish it wasn’t done that way. i just wish we had gotten a true blue professionally shot, no dances cut, honest portrayal of the stage production. 

but hey it is what it is. at the bottom of it all i’m just glad there are new people coming in and taking a look around. it’s nice to see a resurgence of the fandom. it feels really good to see more people here and loving it. i missed CATS and the CATS community. it feels so good to be home.

[mishastoesies]

mcu characters as the cats from the movie Cats! (2019)

Victoria the White Cat - peter parker. innocent, doesn’t really know what’s going on, sometimes important people talk to him. mostly an audience self-insert. 

Old Deuteronomy - tony stark. old, wise, very strange and odd. has probably committed crimes before, but very stylish so we forgive him.

Macavity the Mystery Cat - bucky barnes. evil and nasty little man. unclear motivations. wants to die but doesn’t. has a blonde that follows him everywhere

Grizabella the Glamour Cat - bruce banner. shunned by everyone. a thot. comes out on top in the end after dealing with emotional issues. 

Mr. Mistoffelees - james rhodes. honestly he’s actually magic. unbelievably good at handling Old Deuteronomy and was responsible for his rescue. 

Munkustrap - clint barton. doesn’t really have a personality. a centrist. dad-esque but not in the hot way or the caring way, the “if you don’t quiet down, we’re not gonna get chick-fil-a on our way back from soccer practice” way

Jennyanydots the Gumby Cat - mj. i could see her devouring someone if they didn’t listen to her and learn how to tap dance correctly. 

Bustopher Jones - ned. a good egg with good intentions but still gets himself into trouble for no reason other than to help Victoria the White Cat.

Rum Tum Tugger - steve rogers. way horny and way straight. a reminder that this is talking about mcu characters and the Cats! movie, not the musical. 

Asparagus the Theatre Cat - dr. strange. honestly has a very minor role in the movie and a lot of people seem to think that him and Old Deuteronomy have had sex even though that’s a horrible and accursed thing to think about? wack

Bombalurina - natasha romanov. no personality other than being a #GirlBoss who #CommitsWarCrimes. again this is specifically talking about mcu characters, not 616 or ults characters. 

Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat - thor. 10/10 the best character. an idiot but a handsome and eccentric one. definitely bi. 

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer - wanda and pietro maximoff. couple of fucked-up twins running around and doing something stupid every 10 seconds. 

[magical-marvelous-mistoffelees]

Masterpost on amazing moments from the Cats 2019 NA6 Tour

This is a really long post on moments I saw (and remembered to write down) last night, when I saw the national tour of Cats the second time.

!!!I chose these specific moments because they are special to the tour or character choices made by the actors that you don’t get in the 2016 bway boot or the 1998 film!!!

There were also quite a few swings and understudies thrown in, presumably since there is a rough cold/flu going around the area I live in, and the actors may have caught something.

Spoilers below!

The first time I had seen the Cats NA Tour, I saw it in Charlotte as a birthday present while on vacation. Before that moment, I knew basically nothing about Cats, so I didn’t think to take notes like this time. However, I will try to include a few moments I remember from the first time as well.

Also, my favorite characters are Tugger, Misto, Mungo, and Rumple, so my eyes were typically drawn to them. I love all of the characters though, and everyone was amazing, so I tried to watch everyone as much as I could!

Opening/Prologue

Not too much to say about the prologue, since it wasn’t much different than the film or the 2016 version. 

Naming of the Cats

Bill Bailey felt like a younger version of Tugger. After hearing his name called out, he did a little hair flip with his mane

Mungojerrie and Bill Bailey spent the majority of the song messing around and talking to each other rather than speaking to the audience. 

However, when the cats broke away while discussing a cat’s third name, Mungo was in the audience. He was close enough to the mezz (where I was sitting) to hear, and his voice was so expressive! He didn’t just recite the lines as a chant with everyone else, but put his own emotion and charm into it. 

Invitation to the Jellicle Ball (Caitlin Bond, PJ Degaetano, Dan Hoy)

The first time I saw the Cats NA tour, I saw Victoria’s understudy (Erin Chupinsky) (who was amazing!). This time, I saw the original tour actress, who was one of the best dancers I’ve seen on stage. She had so much poise and control over everything she did, and played the character just a little older than she usually was, making her more serene and quiet than young and becoming.

Her makeup did not include much pink, and she had a black nose instead, along with black defining features like the bridge of her nose and her brows.

Mistoffelees is so dramatic??? Like whenever he comes forward to dance or use his magic, his actions are always big and confident. 

Anytime Mistoffelees had to move anywhere, he always included plenty of both ballet/jazz moves, but also some acrobatic tricks. Seriously, whenever he needed to get from point A to point B, there would be some sort of leap or cartwheel or spin.

Mistoffelees also loved to follow around Munkustrap. Whenever Munk moved around to talk to other cats, Misto would be right on his tail, trying to help. He was just so happy to be introducing the ball with Munk and Vic.

Old Gumbie Cat (Dan Hoy, Emily Jeanne Phillips)

Did somebody say Skimble and Jenny? Because these actors definitely delivered. Skimble was always somewhere near Jenny during her song, and helped her move around in her big costume.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer really wanted to help out with this song (and basically every song) but were usually shooed off. This disappointed them, but they still managed to sneak in and help.

Mistoffelees continued to help out Munk in this song, guiding Jenny around and getting the mice ready in their costumes. He would often mess around with her, waving a hand in front of her face when she zoned out, giggling and shrugging. He also would fuss around and fix her fur/groom her.

JENNY WAS SO SPARKLY IN HER COSTUME!!!

Rum Tum Tugger (McGee Maddox)

McGee’s legs are SO LONG, and he always had a hip popped or his feet crossed. He also walked with so much swagger, especially in his hips.

Misto was so into Tugger’s song, constantly grooving, swaying, playing with his tail, or kneading the ground in the background. However, unless Tugger specifically pulled Misto out to dance, he would sit farther off in the background, either on the car trunk or so far downstage and to the side that he was basically in the shadows. 

Tugger went into the crowd after his number. The first time I saw Cats, he went up to someone and completely shredded their playbill/prgram. The second time I saw it, he sat next to an old lady and was playfully flirting with her. He also would run up and down the aisles, while Bombalurina tried to follow him. She would stop next to people (She actually went up to my friend!) out of breath, complaining that she wish he would stop running.

Tugger went up to Misto after his song and Misto teased him, swatting Tugger with his tail. That didn’t last long, because Misto eventually complimented his song and they had a little secret handshake between the two of them.

Grizabella the Glamour Cat (Tricia Tanguy)

We saw Grizabella’s understudy (Tricia Tanguy) and she was just as talented as my queen Keri.

Grizabella was definitely portrayed as older, similar to Elaine Paige’s version. However, she was young enough that everyone in the tribe recognized her.

All of the cats were initially shocked to see her, pulling away, before they leapt forward to either chase her away, sniff in curiosity, or hurt her as a joke.

She was SO desperate for any sort of physical contact, and she all but begged for it. Her face was twisted with sorrow and longing, and she was so happy when anyone reached out (although nobody touched her).

Skimble would pull away any young cat that tried to touch her, and Munk (tried) to keep people from hurting her. Munk also looked at her with such disdain in his eyes.

Demeter and Bombalurina were equally heartbroken when seeing her.

Can we talk about Tricia’s voice?! It’s so powerful, and she often used straight tone, putting vibrato in at the end of long notes. Her mix is super strong, which constantly made you feel like she was crying out for help, as if she still had hope that someone would. 

ALSO HER DYNAMICS. jUST. GOOSEBUMPS.

Bustopher Jones (Timothy Gulan)

Not too much to say, other than Misto kept following him around and he was so pleased to see everyone.

Bustopher also would try and talk to the conductor if he was far enough downstage. I couldn’t see if the conductor actually acknowledged him or not.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer (Tony D’Alelio, Rose Iannaccone)

They were so cute! And their voices reflected on their characters so well! They were slightly nasally but in a childish, playful way. 

There were a ton of new tricks added.

They had the same swag bags as the 2016 revival!

They were the audiences favorite (outside of Grizabella, obviously).

Old Deuteronomy (Dan Hoy, McGee Maddox, Brandon Michael Nase)

Munkustrap got so annoyed when all of the cats were more interested in listening to Tugger than him.

Misto wasn’t really helping Old D get down to the stage, but was just kind of walking proud behind him, gushing over how awesome Old D was with audience members.

OLD D AND TUGGER WERE SO HAPPY TO SEE EACH OTHER! Old D looked so shocked but absolutely THRILLED to see Tugger. He stopped in his tracks and looked at Tugger, reaching his arms out as if to say “It’s you! I can’t believe you came!”, and Tugger returned the gesture as if to say the same thing. It was so nice to see Tugger become soft for a hot sec.

Macavity (Scare 2)

When everyone was running away, you could hear someone, in a shrill, overdramatic, high-pitched British accent go “MACAVITY?! TOOTLE PIP!”. I firmly believe it was Tugger.

Jellicle Ball

Old D and Gus are best friends, and were so happy to sing together.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are little bullies, but in a lovable way. They would constantly push people out of the way to steal the spotlight, then taunt and tease whoever they attacked. Whenever an older cat saw them do this, they would get shooed away.

However, anytime somebody tried to antagonize Mungo and Rumple, and Tugger saw what was happening, Tugger would go protect the crime twins.

Mungojerrie loved to stick his tongue out. Anytime, anywhere. 

Old D and Grizabella kept reaching out to each other but only when the other could not see them.

Old D tried to stop Alonzo, Demeter, and Munk from chasing Griz away, but it didn’t work. 

Speaking of which, both Alonzo and Demeter had to make their way up to the balcony to reach her, but Munk just freaking SCALED the whole set to her up there. No harnesses or ladders or grips.

Grizabella the Glamour Cat/Memory (Tricia Tanguy)

Munkustrap was the last person to run from Griz, and was particularly upset by her presence. He seemed hurt that she would show up, but also ashamed he couldn’t bring himself to reach out. 

Again, Grizabella was so desperate to dance like everyone else, but instead of getting hurt or struggling because of her injuries, she would just give up when her old age made it difficult to dance. She looked distraught every time she failed to dance like everyone else.

Intermission

During intermission, it was announced that Zach Berger would be replacing McGee Maddox as Rum Tum Tugger.

Old D spent most of the intermission sitting out on the tire, while the rest of the stage was empty.

Gus the Theatre Cat/Pekes and the Pollicles (Kaitlyn Davidson, Timothy Gulan, Dan Hoy)

Jelly was so so proud of Gus’ accomplishments, and Gus was very bashful at first

The audience’s collective awww on the line about the palsy which makes his paws shake

Mungo and Rumple were so offended and embarrassed, but also hurt, when Gus singled them out on “think they’re so smart just to jump through a hoop”.

“tHAT’S NOT YOUR BLOCKING THATS NOT YOUR BLOCKING!!!”

Gus would forget the words and look super upset so Old D would rush to his side and help him remember

Skimbleshanks (Ethan Saviet)

Tugger (Zach Berger) spent the whole song up in the balcony, swaying along and nodding his head. He was either standing and leaning of the rail or sitting on the rail. 

He also kept trying to catch Misto’s eye, who was sitting off to the side for most of the song.

Mungo was the conductor of the train when they were acting out the sleeping car, and he was getting way too into it. He and Skimble also exchanged little salutes. 

Skimble came up to where Tugger was sitting, and Tugger gave him a little salute as well.

Skimble practically SCREAMED on the line “ met the station master with ELATION”.

Macavity (Alexa Racioppi, Emma Hearan, Tyler John Logan)

When Mac first showed up, and was using his magic to control everyone, all of the cats except for Demeter were affected.

Bomba and Demeter raced over to protect each other.

Demeter actually fought back, with the help of Alonzo, when Mac was dragging her around.

Before the power surge, instead of acting cornered or panicked, Mac was taunting, daring the cats to come and attack him on the car trunk.

Mr Mistoffelees (PJ Degaetano, Zach Berger)

ZACH BERGER IS PRECIOUS AND NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS. HIS RIFFS AND VOICE GIVE ME LIFE.

I was very disappointed in the audience, because I was the only person to applaud when Misto came down.

Zach Berger and PJ Degaetano didn’t have as much stage chemistry as compared to McGee Maddox and Tion Gaston, but they were still boyfriends best friends.

However, instead of giving Misto a thumbs up, like McGee, Zach... shot Misto finger guns.

Tugger constantly had the utmost faith in Misto, and never EVER took his eyes off of him.

After seeing Old D come back, Gus was so excited he tried to run over to him.

When Tugger sang about Misto right after Old D was brought back, instead of sounding somber and relieved, he was still cocky and confident. It was as if he was saying “I told you so, my magical boyfriend can do anything.”

When Misto ran into Old D’s arms, Old D spun him around

Memory (Tricia Tanguy)

When she came out, instead of looking around for anyone to reach out, she ignored everyone. Cats still came up to taunt her, but she walked out there with the sole intention of telling her story, not caring what anyone thought.

When she started the song, everyone sat facing away from her (outside of Old D), but as the song went on, they all slowly turned to face her.

After she collapses in the middle of her song, all of the cats lurched forwards out of instinct, before they stop, surprised that they were about to help her.

Bomba and Demeter were two of the last cats to greet her, and they went up to her together.

Grizabella was so shocked when she was chosen to ascend

Misc

Tugger always stuck to the side of the stage, on a prop upstage, or stood in the balconies overlooking the junkyard. He was rarely center of the stage, unless the spotlight was on him.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer usually sat together near the car trunk, however, if they weren’t together, Rumple went with some of the other younger queens, like Electra and Sillabub (Ahren Victory), and Mungo sat on his own closer to Munk or Plato and the other toms.

Shockingly, Mungojerrie and Jellylorum stole the spotlight at several points during the show. Mungojerrie just had so much energy and excitement, and would always interact with the people around him. You could tell that his actor knew everyone in the cast and was super close with certain actors, because he gravitated towards them. 

Jellylorum (Kaitlyn Davidson) was always in character, however, instead of being played as older and slightly scrutinizing, she was a little younger and full of motherly energy. She was also close with everyone on stage.

Jellylorum was also always showing off her high notes!! We stan!! She was the cat who hit the C in the opening, and instead of someone belting at the end of RTT, she hit an A in her head voice.

Misto was very playful and energetic, and he could NEVER SIT STILL. He was always either playing with his tail, swaying or shifting how he was sitting, or kneading the ground.

[white-cat-of-doom]

About Me

Hello,

My name is Michael, and I am 26. I am new to the Cats fandom, and have become obsessed with Cats after seeing the movie at the end of 2019. I joined Tumblr because of seeing @incorrectcats and @omikinz posts on Instagram, and figured this is a better place to express my love for Cats.

Cats makes me happy in a way that I had not felt possibly ever. I describe the movie and as pure fun, because that is what it is. I have seen it now 25 times, and will smile and sing for two hours every time. I adore the 1998 film, which I have seen probably over 15 times. Before owning the Blu-ray, I probably listened the Highlights soundtrack over 30 times. I also own the soundtracks for the Original London and Broadway Casts, and listen to them regularly.

At the end of December last year, I was sitting in my house wondering what to do with my time off before the new year. A thought popped into my head that the new Cats movie was in theatres, remembering from months before that it was coming around Christmas. I thought to myself that I should go see it, because I adore cats (the animal), so it should be interesting. All I knew about Cats is that it is a musical, and the cast dressed up like cats. Nothing else. I did not read any reviews, or even watched the trailer. After watching the movie, and sitting through the ending credits, I was the last person to leave the theatre, completely mesmerized. I saw the movie again two days after. Then again one week later. Every time it was more enjoyable. I would have seen it again (and again), but it was pulled from theatres soon afterwards. 

I immediately bought the Highlights soundtrack CD and every version of the movie poster I could find online, including the two 4' x 6' bus shelter posters. I have also bought other promotional items such earmuffs, a mug, booklets, basically anything I can get my hands.

The music, singing, and dancing are amazingly beautiful and energetic. The set and scenery are breathtaking. I personally love the CGI, and I was struck by how the movement of the ears and tails is a spot on emulation of how cats communicate and react.

All the characters are fantastically played by their respective actors and actresses. I have to praise that the smaller name performers are the real stars of this movie. Rumpleteazer (my favourite character) played by @naoimhmorgan, Victoria played by @frankiegoestohayward, Munkustrap played by @robbiefairchild, Mungojerrie played by @dannycollinswright, Cassandra played by @mettenarrative, Demeter played by @dannie_norman, Jellylorum played by @freya_rowley, Tantomile played by @zizistrallen, Skimbleshanks played by @stevenmcrae_ are the reasons this is my favourite movie ever. I do not have enough space here to praise everyone.

I truly hope that the full soundtrack and 4K Blu-ray is released eventually.

Feel free to ask me any questions or my opinions on Cats, as I will be happy to interact with anyone.

[sleevesareforlosers]

thoughts on cats. *obviously baiting you into showinf me pictures*. jokes jm talking about the musical

i will show u my cats bc u (kind of) asked so nicely BUT i actually have thoughts on cats!!

i mean, the movie, not the musical bc im too lazy to find a bootleg and cats doesnt (and/or shouldnt) tour

I REALLY LIKED CATS (2019). I saw it uhhh, twice in theatres and ive watched another two times since then and like. its not good. its very bad in fact. the CG is terrible and the plot itself is weird and they did NOT need to give idris elba a sculpted cat ass and abs but it was like campy and fun and enjoyable.

THINGS I HATED: rebel wilson, why did she peel off her skin, why did she clean herself like that. sir ian mckellen looking like That and meowing like That. the weird implication of why were some cats wearing fur coats and what kind of fur where they made of. taylor swift trying to belt im sorry im allowed to say this ive seen her live but MAAM that song was NOT for her she should not have been bombalurina and the weird cat heels were so much and i jsut couldnt handle it. and?? munkustrap in the final number?? why was he looking like that i literally spent on of my watchthroughs just paying attention to his facial expressions anytime he was onstage and that is a theatre kid that never learned how to act for the screen. stop licking your lips. also i know jennifer hudson like, actually killed it but the way she looked was just. there are no words.

THINGS I LOVED: magical mr mistoffolees! sweet boy. his song was the (second) best. because the best was SKIMBLESHANKS the railway cat, absolute banger 10/10 fucking love that song i listen to it regularly and just bop the entire time. and jason derulo was. i know hes so weird i know hes weird but he was a FANTASTIC rum tum tugger. just slightly unhinged enough that i actually believe he a) thought the movie was good and b) enjoyed being in it. AND mungojerry and rumpleteaser are WEIRD i feel very offkilter when i watch that scene but there is a fun implication that (one of them i cant rmbr names) is trans bc theyre both calicos but played by a man and a woman and calico cats are always male so theres that. oh and i also thought that victoria was like. she did a really good job! very fun to watch

basically: cats (2019) was not good but i LIKED it and would watch it again without question.

Send me things to have thoughts on! 

[the-metaphorical-jellicle-cat]

A Scene in Cats 2019 Where the Music Makes the Scene Better

Last time I spoke about Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat and mostly talked about how I think Steven McRae’s talent as a dancer influenced how the song was basically choreographed and how it seemed as though all the energy went into this performance.This time, it’s Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’s turn. I actually really liked this both as a song and performance. Like with Skimbleshanks, I will be going over my initial thoughts with the music and then the scene itself. I also think the same can be said here when those cast for Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer make the scene better than it needed to be. Alright here we go!

When I first listened to the soundtrack recording, I was very puzzled. I was already familiar with the version from 1998 which is upbeat and fun. This version was jazzy and slow. I was definitely surprised but in a good way. When I did some research to see if this version was actually from the show’s history. And it was (and is) used in the original London production. If you want a good idea of how it was performed you can see it here as it is in the 1993 London production. Anyway, the opening instrumentals really gave an immediate different feel from what I was used to. Just from that opening, I know that these cats are sneaky and they know it.

I also get a Pink Panther type of feeling with the instrumentals. Where Pink Panther sets the mood of the music to be mysterious and shows how it’s a detective film, Jerrie and Teazer give off a mood of sneakiness and danger. And that only in the first 16 second of the track. The use of the cymbals and the horns also lends towards tension. We don't know what these cats are going to do. Because I am listening to it first, I don’t know if they have an audience or not. Who are they singing to and why? The use of piano is also hesitant yet inviting. We want to know. We have a need. The same can be said with the clarinet, strings, and some of the piano. It is a hint of what’s to come.

Then we hear the characters singing. I needed to remember that this was recorded as a ‘live performance’ in the Tom Hooper style. (If you don’t know what I am referring to, watch this video. I also made a post about it. Just search the tag #sideways and you’ll find it.) Anyway, so far in the movie, as according to the soundtrack, we have heard 3 solos. 2 of which were terrible and 1 that was actually pretty good. The reason being that it was sung live just like Les Mis was. I thought they were going to butcher Mungo and Teazer but was surprised when I heard the singing capabilities of the actors (Naoimh Morgan and Danny Collins) who are from the world of musical theater. Of course I didn't know that when listening to the track at first but one can tell they had experience with this type of music. Their voices pull you into their story almost as if they are talking to the audience very much like in the stage show. I also want to point out the instrumentation once more since, unlike the other songs,it almost becomes a character in itself by contributing to the version that is being performed. 

After that we come to the midpoint where we hear big brass and percussion. There is something happening but we don’t know what it is. We can infer by the use of these instruments that something chaotic is happening in the scene. It builds and builds and we hear Rumpletazer come in once more but quieter as she is hiding something. It’s 72 seconds of instrumental music which takes us to a different location musically with the instruments. As Teazer sings her part, we hear more piano but with Mungo, we hear a dynamic change with the horn and the instruments that follow. The music becomes more playful and more like the characters we know from the stage version. 

What I really love about this track is the playfulness we hear when they are at the dining room section of the song. Mungo breaks the song by speaking instead of singing and it works. It works because it helps us understand how the cats view humans. To them, we are their source of fun. These two cats like to trick humans for food and essentially cause as much chaos as they can. Then we hear an entirely new voice. It’s Victoria and we realize these two actually do have an audience. It's this new voice who sounds taken in by their story. They have her wrapped around their paw. You can especially tell this because Victoria finished the line “it’s that horrible cat”.

Afterwards we get another big band moment but it lasts longer than the last. There’s more bombastic horns and saxophones and percussion while their voices reach above them. This combination pushes that chaotic sneaky narrative we heard at the very beginning. We even hear a guitar that uses the same musical theme as the horns/saxophones.

Then we get towards the end of the track and I hear something I have no idea how to take. We hear them creating the chaos we have only heard through the music. We hear the smash. We hear the crash. However, it sounds very rushed and the actors sound out of breath. I can barely tell what the lyrics are and if I wasn't so familiar with this song I would probably never know. 

Then the music quiets while keeping that mischievous tone. I also love Victoria’s high note for the word “and” and how it matches with one of the instruments. But Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer whisper “and there’s nothing at all to be done about that” like it's a conspiracy and they can get away with pretty much anything. The end of the song also has a sense of finality. This is who they are and they managed to get Victoria to follow what they want. The fact that the music does this also suggests that something is going to happen. Nothing stays final and their chaos doesn't end there. All of which we see later in the film but not the music. We just get a taste. 

Overall, I like what they did with this song musically and vocally. This version is different and not used as often as the one we know which is smart. They also had to choose a version that matched the film’s aesthetic, was different in mood from Bustopher Jones, and gave a different interpretation of the characters. It needed to stand out against what we had heard so far and I think it accomplished that task.

Now onto the scene itself. I had to backtrack a bit after Bustopher Jones and really listen to the dialogue that happens during the track itself. The first 16 seconds of the song is instrumental yet the dialogue within that section is important. Victoria had to leave her new friends because of Macavity. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer literally pick her up which transports her into their world of chaos and shenanigans. I’m going to be pointing this out a lot in this section but the tail animation is used perfectly throughout the sequence. Their tails are used to make sure Victoria is looking at them when each of them is speaking. It’s a great detail which then causes us to pay attention to the two cats’ relationship. Their facial expressions are also great! We get a moment where Rumpleteazer is speaking to Victoria and the look on Mungojerrie’s face gives us a hint of what’s in store. The music itself helps with this set up of mischievous fun.

You can also see how Victoria is very uncomfortable with the two cats at the very beginning of the song. Her face and posture is uptight and uncomfortable. She is kind of forced to be there since none of the other cats are there with her. She doesn't want to be there but Rumpleteazer ‘encourages’ her to have some fun. Teazer steals the spotlight in the beginning of the song as it shows Victoria this is what they do. She even does this thing with her hand as if she is hypnotizing the other queen. Teazer even nods to Jerrie to continue with the job. It’s almost as if Teazer is technically used as a reassurance device to show that this is okay and they’ve done this before. 

Then Teazer puts the pearls around Victoria’s neck. Of course this is done with the line “suddenly missing her Woolworth pearls” and it is effective. This is when Victoria begins to trust these two cats. To her they are different. They don't take the world seriously. The fact they are having fun basically destroying every room in the house makes everything right.

The camera work from when they are on the bed to when Mungojerrie puts the drawers on Victoria is very well done. The circular motion of the camera creates movement with the choreography without it becoming nauseating. 

I don’t have much else to say about the sequence other than once the music picks up near the end, we see why they become so out of breath. They are literally destroying the kitchen and the bedroom with very little care. And, again, Victoria is fully invested which also contributes to her part in the actual song. In the version we know, the only vocals come from Mungo and Teazer. This version has Victoria, who represents the audience. At the beginning we only hear the two trouble makers. Then Victoria has bits and pieces. She, like us, wants to be part of this new type of fun. And destroying property can be fun. 

Overall this is a version that deserves to be seen and heard. I think if we got the other version, we might have a different movie all together and these characters might be different. This is definitely one of the many highlights of the film. The others being the ones I’ve already written about. But what I love most about this sequence is the acting, tail animations and the use of practical props. 

I will say this now, if it wasn't for Naoimh Morgan and Danny Collins, this could have been a lot different. The acting, especially the facial expressions throughout the scene, are perfect for these characters. They give a sense of mischievousness and like they can get away with anything. Their facial expressions give more to this idea that these characters like to have some relatively harmless fun. If it wasn't for those facial expressions, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this version as much as I did. 

There is also the use of dialogue that I didn't expect to like but it works. In between some of the phrases, dialogue is said by the two cats which help with their character. My favorite bit is from Mungojerrie on the stairs. He says something to a ‘police officer’ which is in character for the purpose of the film. 

This is also probably one of the best scenes to watch if you want to see how they used the tail animations for the characters. My notes for this scene were mostly just how they animated those tails. I wrote examples above, but another one is when Victoria is singing ‘And’ at the end of the song. If you pay close attention, her tail rattles because of the high note. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer also constantly use their tails to communicate with each other and Victoria. 

There are also two things I want to commend in this sequence. The use of practical props and the scale of the set. I really like how the cast used the practical props in a way that not only showed quirks of the characters but also development (in Victoria’s case.) My favorite set of props they used were during the dining room scene. There were parts where it did feel a bit faked and plastic but I ignored it in favor of the performance. There were several points I did have to remind myself that this world is different from reality. Other than that, this sequence used props that pushed the story rather than hinder it. They weren't there to be there, the props were there for a reason. One can say they are a character in themselves because this world takes human objects and transforms them into how a Jellicle may see them. 

They didn't need the theatrics of the stage version. What I mean to say is they didn't need the double cartwheels because they were not necessary. Instead we got the over the top music, wonderful acting, dialogue that made sense, and a version of the characters that make sense within the world of the film. While I know a lot of people wanted the double cartwheel (myself included), it felt fine the way it was. If you want to watch a version of this with the double cartwheel, I highly suggest watching this video. It’s a dress rehearsal from the 1994 West End production with Jason Parmenter & Vikki Coote.

Overall, I love this version of the song and scene. It fits the characters of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer while also continuing Victoria’s journey through the Jellicle tribe. This is also one of the few songs where there aren't any interruptions from other cats or mice. The other one being Skimbleshanks (there was one but that’s it). The only ‘interruptions’ are dialogue between Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer which never break the song. It doesn't take away from the flow of the song like in Rum Tum Tugger where the interruption disrupts the scene and performance. Here, it was done in a way that was smart. 

I would definitely suggest this to others who want to know some of the good parts of this film. It is definitely up there with one of the best sequences of the film. Right along with Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat and the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees.

[uppastthejelliclemoon]

💔🧡

💔 - Feelings on the 2019 film?

- It wasn’t bad. Yes, there were absolutely things wrong with it. There were major casting mistakes, editing mistakes, no doubt. However, I really love how Robbie played Munkustrap, and I adore Steven’s Skimbleshanks. Some of the music is so much fun to listen to, like “Jellicle Songs” and “Skimbleshanks”, and “Beautiful Ghosts” as a stand-alone single from the movie is a stunning song that, when but into a different context (like say... Grizabella singing it?), is super meaningful and could have added so much more to the movie. Overall, I really did enjoy the movie, and personally, the good outweighs the bad for me. I just have to skip over Rebeldots and Bustopher Corden.

🧡 - Best choreography?

- 1998 choreography, hands down. You just can’t go wrong with the classic. However (and this may be controversial to some), I really, really love the 2016 choreo as well. Maybe it’s the Tuggoffelees stan in me, but there’s something about it that’s just so amazing and wonderful, and every time I watch the 2016 version I can’t help but fall in love with the choreo all over again. 

[kiraraneko]

CATS as reviewed by a furry

Apparently this is a movie review blog now lmao (listen I just have some Opinions™ I feel like writing down lately) You’ve already heard from a hundred sources about the terrible CGI and bad quality of the film overall, so I’m going to focus more on the characters themselves and how they’ve been translated from stage to film. As someone whose been a fan of CATS since childhood AND is active in the furry community, I hope this will be different from the other reviews. (YES THERE ARE SPOILERS)

Let’s just start this off by saying - everyone who keeps comparing this film to “furry porn” clearly is not familiar with furry porn, because the alleged “hornyness” of the actor portrayals is pretty in-line with the stage play. The only reason this movie comes off as so much more sexual is because the bad fur CGI doesn’t keep your brain from knowing these people are all basically nude. The stage play costumes feature fur tufts and limb wraps that work to somewhat hide the human silhouettes, whereas (even with some characters in coats and accessories) everyone’s fur in the movie is so skin-tight they end up being unmistakably human, so every sway and hip-thrust comes off as slightly disturbing in an uncanny way instead of feline and graceful.

Victoria the White Cat Now here’s where I’ll admit to my blatant bias - Victoria has always been my favorite cat (other than Rum Tum). Here’s a bit of trivia for you: Ever wonder why my fursona is a white cat? (Jumpcut to me as an 8 year old wearing a scarf around my waist, pretending to be Victoria). Her role in the play is small but she’s elegant, beautiful, and an incredibly talented dancer, and I always idolized her for that. So, you can imagine I was pretty delighted to find that she plays the role of “main character” in the film. Now in the play, the cats explain to the audience about who and what they are, with Munkustrap (the grey tabby) serving as a kind of narrator/translator and leader. Since you can’t exactly address a stage audience in a movie, Victoria fills that role of the “questioning onlooker”, which I feel fits her character very well considering she’s both a younger/newer cat to the Jellicle scene and she was the first to accept Grizabella, which connects her nicely to the entire story (both in the play and the movie). What I was markedly less jazzed about was the addition of her own song in the movie. I think it was a nice attempt to expand her role, but as an extension to Memories, I found Beautiful Ghosts to be frankly kind of boring and unnecessary. She’s essentially saying to Grizabella “I was just abandoned and I don’t have anything, at least you have good memories to look back on” which to me, came off as belittling to Grizabella with a dash of “poor me” for Victoria. However, the reprise version with Old Deuteronomy I actually ended up liking much more. It is less condescending when two old cats are singing to one another, versus a kitten who has their whole life ahead of them lecturing Grizabella about a past she knows nothing about. One last thing I’ll note about Victoria is her slight re-design in the movie - she’s been given some light striping patterning as opposed to being a pure white cat. This doesn’t bother me at all as I assume when it comes to lighting and rendering, pure white fur would have been too distracting on screen. Jennyanydots / The Gumbie Cat I’ll just come right out and say that this segment was probably the worst translation from the play in the entire movie, and it happens early in the film, so you’re already questioning what the hell the rest of the movie is going to be like. In the play, she’s a slow-paced and motherly type cat that only becomes energetic at night, when she sheds her fur to reveal a vibrant coat and goes to work teaching vermin of the house good manners and skills like crocheting (as opposed to hunting them, like other cats would do). In the movie, she’s flitting about the kitchen like a hyperactive rabbit, rampantly consumes some of the insects she’s painstakingly coached, and whines about wishing to leave her household. If this butchering of her character weren’t enough, they actually included the fur-shedding bit in an incredibly disturbing skin-unzipping sequence where she steps out of her cat skin to reveal a sparkly dress underneath. Characters in the CATS play occasionally do wear some clothing accessories, but this movie does not know the meaning of subtlety, and various characters are wearing fullbody clothes which even further breaks any illusion of these characters being cats. It just constantly wants to remind you that these are human people in unitards jumping around on a greenscreen. Rum Tum Tugger Undoubtedly a fan favorite, Rum Tum is the rockstar cat who swoons all the kittens and makes a general ruckus, with stylistic influences of Mick Jagger and Elvis. To say the least, I thought his part in the movie was fine, but certainly doesn’t quite have the punch to it that the stage play does. The movie has him breaking into a 50′s style diner while milk is liberally poured for all the younger cats. Both his character and that of the Gumbie cat’s are diminished further as she makes fun of his singing and dance moves - which may have been a funny addition, if it weren’t for her alleging his show-offiishness to a recent neutering. This joke just went a little too far in my opinion, and really detracted from the rest of Rum Tum’s performance. Bustopher Jones A very charming and gentlemanly cat, Bustopher’s sequence started well and then just got really weird. His song prominently describes his love of fine dining, his cheerful demeanor, and his well-groomed fur. The last of which was directly contradicted in the movie, as he rolled around in actual garbage making an utter mess of himself. He’s shown gorging himself through the entire segment with increasing fervor, until it’s just a bit too much to bear witness to. At one point, he’s meant to trapeze into a trash can, but the cat who jumps on the other end of the catapult is markedly smaller, and nothing happens. This is actually quite a funny moment, until once again, the joke goes a little too far and Bustopher comments being “sensitive about his weight”. This is just.. a bizarre comment considering he’s sung an entire song about being charmingly large and we’ve just watched him unabashedly stuff his face for five solid minutes. Applying human weight-shaming to the ideals of a cat is just completely unnecessary, awkward, and contradictory to his character. It changes him from an indulgent but experienced chap into something to be pitied. Asparagus / Gus the Theatre Cat Possibly my favorite segment of the movie, this is the only part I actually teared up at. As a child, I always thought Gus was a very boring character with a boring part, but watching as an adult I can understand and appreciate him much better. Sir Ian McKellen did an absolutely phenomenal job of channeling the frail, endearing, proud character of Gus (despite the wonky camera work of the scene). This might be the only part of the movie that matched, or perhaps even exceeded the stage play version, and I don’t think it’s any surprise that it also happens to be the most subdued sequence, relying almost entirely on character acting and line delivery, instead of fancy effects cluttering up the screen (as this musical should be). The end of his storytelling features some “lightning strikes” for emphasis, created by what I imagine would be a simple shadow stencil, and it added some genuine atmosphere to the idea of Gus as a performer with simple stage effects. It was a nice subtle touch, and I only wish the rest of the movie could have been more like that. I found his line condemning “modern productions” to be more poignant than ever before, and it makes you wonder if this movie suddenly became painfully self-aware.  Also I just want to throw this in: Before Gus’s song, there’s an unintentionally hilarious shot of Mr. Mistoffelees walking up on him drinking milk from a dish, except Gus is mostly in shadow with his cat features obscured and is standing fully upright, so he just appears to be a hobo man lapping at a dish, like someone legit just walked up on Ian McKellen being a complete fucking weirdo.  Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer This segment was another one that just didn’t come across quite right. These two are mischievous partners in crime, causing mayhem and stealing treasures. The '98 film version characterizes them as playful and upbeat, delighting in trouble-making, but they don’t seem to be quite experienced or clever enough to get away 100% of the time. The 2019 version came off as almost.. sinister to me. They coerce Victoria into stealing, frame her, and then leave her to what could nearly be her death, all while sort of talking through their lines with a cold inflection. This is supposed to take after the original “languid” London version, but they don’t play off each other very well and you don’t get a sense of the fun, amusing partnership they’re supposed to have. It’s mostly just watching them destroy several rooms of a house and then leaving Victoria to her fate like utter assholes. I don’t really have anything more to say on these two, it was just kind of bland and forgetful and leaves you disliking them instead of enjoying watching them have a fun romp. Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat I would give Skimbleshanks the award for “most baffling redesign”. As mentioned earlier, this movie takes cats-wearing-clothing to an uncanny level, and this is certainly the uncanny-est. While the play version has him in a cute waistcoat and arm warmers with elbow patches to give a “train conductor” vibe, the movie has him in full bright red overalls, with other reviews calling him “gay nightclub Mario”, lmao! As much as I wanted to enjoy this number, the sight of him was just too weird to look past.  The tap dancing during his skit was a fitting addition to his character - he is quite bouncy and light on his feet, so I thought it suited him very well and really liked that part. His song picks up after that, with all the cats dancing on the rail and there’s more weird camera work, at one point zooming out so ridiculously far it’s actually jarring. The rest of his song was okay, a CGI greenscreen that can do anything you want unfortunately just isn’t as creative and inspiring as watching actors build a train engine representation out of junkyard scraps on an actual stage.  Magical Mr. Mistoffelees The movie really took some liberties with this character, and I’m still on the fence about whether it was a good choice or not. In the play, Mistoffelees is a magician cat, performing tricks through his segment (including the most complex dance routine of any character) while other cats usually sing about his feats (in the ‘98 film, it’s Rum Tum). They went for the younger, unsure version of Mistoffelees in this new movie, and doubled up on it by turning him into something of a comedic-relief character. He doesn’t quite have a handle on his magic, and he trips up on his words and his feet several times through the movie. This would have been fine if his musical number hadn’t been such a let down. This is supposed to be his grand moment, but his “magic” ends up being underwhelming and the chorus repeats for SO long you’re practically begging for it to end. Where “Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as Magical Mr Mistoffelees?” was once a cheerful and upbeat line, it will certainly become a droning echo in your mind after watching this movie. The added plot of his implied attraction to Victoria I also found kind of weird, though I’ll admit that might just be my personal tastes. I always liked Mistoffelees being a more aloof kind of cat.  Grizabella / The Glamour Cat Alright buckle in, I’ve got some strong opinions about this one. Grizabella is undeniably the star of CATS - she’s an incredibly emotional character, visually intriguing, and her performance in the musical is nothing short of heartbreaking. She was referred to as “the Glamour Cat” in her prime, but it has turned into an almost mocking title as the other cats reject and shun her. We never really know why, but it can be implied she may have been cold and elitist to the other cats who once adored her, or had some other tragic and sudden fall from grace. Despite Jennifer Hudson putting in a damn good effort to play the role of this character, the movie itself let her down. The CATS play and the Jellicle ball which it centers around, while being a musical, is foremost a ball in which cats perform for the honor of being chosen. The dancing is just as important as the singing, and Grizabella’s character is heavily communicated by her posture. She’s hunched, stiff and limping, reaching out for others to accept her, and at one point even attempts to mimic some of the other cat’s dance moves before slinking away in shame. The 2019 movie paradoxically chooses to use extremely tight face-shots for just about every character routine. It is frustrating and claustrophobic to watch a movie where cats who are supposed to be expressing their character through movement are shown from only the shoulders up, just standing there singing into a camera - and this frustration is paramount at the Grizabella sequences.  Jennifer Hudson, singing her absolute heart out with tears pouring down her face, is still emotionally lacking because of the terrible cinematography refusing to show her doing any actual acting. I was so distracted by the mucus running down her face that I couldn’t even connect with her. I thought the costuming of Grizabella was very well done, but you barely got to see any of it. Overall a very disappointing performance, because Hudson was doing all the right things, and it could have been great if the movie had met her even halfway. Macavity the Mystery Cat Played by the incredible Idris Elba, Macavity underwent some heavy changes and expansion in this new movie. He’s the main antagonist of the play, and most of his antics like committing serious crimes and alluding the police are sung about as rumors but doesn’t himself sing, and actually doesn’t have any speaking lines in the play, adding to his mysterious character. When he eventually appears, he battles with Munkustrap and steals Deuteronomy (who is brought back by Mistoffelees). Macavity is usually depicted with vibrant clashing colors, wild hair, and uses quick threatening movements, while the Idris Elba version rein-visioned him as extremely sleek, black-furred, and sly and cunning, often emerging from the shadows to tempt other cats with their vices. He is given numerous speaking lines, and his villainy is expanded on as he kidnaps the other cats in an attempt to be the chosen Jellicle. I actually quite like this interpretation of the character, and it makes him a little more relatable instead of the vicious enigma he is in the play.  Something of note is just how literally the new movie took the rumors of Macavity’s powers. His abilities, which were muted and used sparingly in the play, were used constantly and without hesitation in this movie. He spends most of his time teleporting other characters and creating illusions, but then uses trickery to try and win the Jellicle ball, and fails to demonstrate his power of levitation when it really matters. So whether he does or doesn’t have real powers seems to be.. situational to say the least. Another thing I want to point out is just how uncomfortably sudden Macavity’s reveal is. He spends most of the movie in the shadows hidden under an oversized coat and hat, and then suddenly appears at the Jellicle ball without any disguise on whatsoever. Idris Elba is a damn fine looking dude, and you can clearly see his very human-shaped abs beneath his sleek Macavity fur, which is so close to his actual skintone that I’ve seen him described as “extra naked” and it’s pretty accurate. You just really aren’t prepared for this moment when it happens. Growltiger This guy is a rough and rowdy pirate-esque character with a dramatic love life. His segment was cut from the ‘98 film, so seeing the play in person is just about the only way to experience it. Because of this, it’s probable that many people may not even be aware of this character, so I was pretty excited to hear that he would be featured in the 2019 movie. Growltiger is quite overdue for his time in the mainstream spotlight. Turns out, unfortunately, Growltiger's Last Stand is not what you get. His appearance in the movie is more or less a cameo with a short introduction, and the rest of the time he’s serving as Macavity‘s henchman in the background. This is based on the 2015 revival of him as a dock worker, but I feel it was a weak representation of his character, and really wish he’d been shown in a better light. The movie cuts out pretty much every fight scene, and Growltiger‘s would have been dramatic and fun to watch, especially after Gus’s reminiscing. Instead, he was kind of lazily thrown into a river by Gus, who previously bragged about playing the role of Growltiger on stage, which is kind of an interesting juxtaposition if you don’t think about it too hard. Old Deuteronomy A surprising change was the decision to make Deuteronomy female, played by Judi Dench. I love old grandpa Deuteronomy, but this didn’t really bother me. Deuteronomy is a wise, beloved leader of the Jellicles and there’s not really anything integral about the character that says they couldn’t be female. Deuteronomy carries himself with dignity, but isn’t afraid to dance along with the songs of the other more lively cats, and Judi Dench certainly has an air of authority and respect about her. The character’s songs are reflective and thought-provoking, but once again, the 2019 movie fails to make any of these sequences actually entertaining. The absolute worst part of the entire movie comes at the very end, when Deuteronomy makes horrific, unblinking eye contact with the camera, and slowly talks her way through the Ad-Dressing of Cats. This is absolutely bewildering considering how the movie deliberately sets up Victoria as a main character in place of the audience, only to completely chuck that out the window of a moving car just to break the 4th wall in the most uncomfortable way possible and directly address the audience anyway. What is even the point? I can’t imagine there’s a single person that would watch that and be okay with it. The Ad-Dressing of Cats is supposed to be a cute, fun little recap of everything the cats supposedly taught you, but this movie made it feel like a lecturing stare-down. Other notes The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles was cut entirely from the movie, which is fine because it isn’t integral to the story or anything, considering it was also cut from the stage play when I saw it live. I kind of shudder to think of how The Great Rumpus Cat would have been interpreted in this movie, so I think we were all probably spared some indignities.  While this movie was watchable and certainly an interesting take on the play, it creatively added very little and only succeeded in making me desperately want to go watch the ‘98 musical. I thought at least this movie would be a fun soundtrack to view, but many of the songs just didn’t have the punchiness, joy, charm, or energy that I’m used to. There were parts of it that I liked enough to say this isn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but that’s not exactly a glowing review. From the perspective of a theatre fan and a furry: If I want to see CATS, I’m most certainly going to choose the filmed musical over this new movie any day.  I’m infinitely more charmed by the graceful 80′s style dancers of the play than I am by the uncanny valley, painfully human cat-people of the new movie (and honestly I haven’t seen a single piece of fanart for it, so that really tells you all you need to know).