Line #14 YMMV/Cats


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2	[[folder:The stage musical]]
3	* AdaptationDisplacement: The lyrics were lifted from Creator/TSEliot's poems, mainly from the book ''Literature/OldPossumsBookOfPracticalCats''. Guess which gets more exposure?
4	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
5	** This can often be for any of the characters and relationships, since each production and country does it slightly differently, e.g., who Victoria does her "Sexual Awakening" dance with, who Alonzo gets paired with (Demeter or Cassandra), and which cats are in the cast. Often "Swing Kittens" like Etcetera, and Electra, or the London Swings (e.g. the 'Brown Queen') can be left out due to some of them originally being other characters (Rumpleteazer/Etcetera, Quaxo/Misto for example), so Rumpleteazer and Tantomile can be members of Rum Tum Tugger's screaming fan club. What fans use as "their canon" can depend on which country they're in, which productions they've seen, and whether they own the filmed stage version.
6	** Rum Tum Tugger and Mistoffelees are a particularly confusing instance. RTT sings Mistoffolees' song, and it's commonly accepted that they're friends, at least until you remember that in RTT's song the chorus goes "The Rum Tum Tugger is a-" and Mistoffelees shouts "...terrible bore!" Fans are divided on their relationship with one another.
7	** It can also be caused by who is doing what part. For example, one critic compared Creator/BettyBuckley's Grizabella to Elaine Paige's Grizabella as follows:
8	--->''"When Buckley sings "Memory," Grizabella is burdened by regrets about the life she's lived, having spurned all those who once knew her for her days of glamour and now wants to reconnect with others as a form of redemption for her betrayals. Paige's performance, however, is a lonely, lost forgotten star who is now past her prime, and simply wants someone to remember that she was there."''
9	** Are the titular cats [[FunnyAnimal anthropomorphic]], or is the staging, costuming and choreography meant to be an artistic interpretation of how normal cats behave?
10	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Entire documentaries have been made regarding the fact no one in the business thought a Broadway musical about singing and dancing pussycat people in a trashcan would ever be anything but a massive failure.
11	* AuthorsSavingThrow: Rum Tum Tugger was retooled from having a camp rock star characterization to a modern pop star[=/=]rapper characterization. Fans hated it so much that it only lasted a year before he went back to being a Music/MickJagger expy.
12	* BrokenBase: The cast interacting with the audience tended to be ''the'' deciding factor in whether or not you enjoyed the show. It was either a fun thrill or wholly unenjoyable, if not uncomfortable, especially if you're someone who HatesBeingTouched.
13	* CriticalDissonance: While British critics liked the show just fine, [[AmericansHateTingle American critics never understood it and were downright baffled by its success]]. And yet it's the second-longest-running show in Broadway history. If anything, the lack of critical praise ''[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools helped]]'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools the show]]: no soundbites or quotes meant nothing to clutter the show's famed minimalist poster. You ''had'' to see it for yourself to know why it was so popular.
14	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Gus, the Theater Cat, only has one song and doesn't feature in much of the show. However, his story of an older cat with lots of great stories tugged on fan's heartstrings. It wasn't uncommon for fans of the show to suggest that Grizabella should simply be welcomed back into the Jellicle fold and allow Gus to go to the Heaviside Layer.
15	* EpilepticTrees: Regarding the relationships (familial & romantic) of the Jellicles (and Macavity).
16	* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory:
17	** A common interpretation is that the play takes place in the afterlife -- Jellicle being "'gelical," or Angelical -- and they recount their mortal lives as a reason they should be allowed to be reincarnated.
18	** It can be argued that the whole thing is about Sanctification by Grace; the cat who is chosen to be taken up to the Celestial Lair isn't the clever Mistoffeles, the charming Rum Tum Tugger, the wise Deuteronomy, or even Jennyanydots with her good works -- it was Grizzabella, mangy, skanky Grizzabella, the cat who NEEDED it most.
19	* FauxSymbolism: Per word of Andrew Lloyd Webber, there's really no greater meaning to the story. It's just some amusing song-and-dance numbers about some cats and that's it.
20	-->'''Hal Prince (Producer)''': "I listened to it all and I said, 'Andrew, is this something I don't get? Is this about Queen Victoria (she's the main cat), and Disraeli and Gladstone or other cats and -- and then there are, y'know, poor cats and... am I missing this?' And he took a terrible, painful long pause, and said 'Hal, it's about cats.' And we never discussed it again."
21	* GenreTurningPoint: Before this show, even the most successful stage musicals had relatively brief runs. Everyone was caught off guard by audiences’ willingness to keep coming back to it year after year, kicking off the idea of the spectacle-driven "mega-musical" that can similarly stand the test of time.
22	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
23	** The ''Cats'' fandom in the West may be fanatical, but it's nothing compared to Japan where there is an entire theater dedicated solely to the show and the songs sometimes play on trains as the departure melody.
24	** Not only that, but early success of the show has been directly attributed to the fact since the story is so simple compared to the wild costumes and catchy music, that during its debut it was a hit for foreign tourists who did not speak English very well.
25	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: "Old Deuteronomy", especially as he arrives at the end, and the other cats greet him with undiluted love and affection.
26	* HoYay:
27	** Here and there, but mostly between Mistoffolees and the Rum Tum Tugger. Mistoffolees insults Tugger during his song, but later Rum Tum Tugger sings an entire song about how amazing Mistoffolees is.
28	** Deme and Bomba, anyone? Though this leads right into {{squick}} territory if you consider them sisters or not.
29	* HypeBacklash: Those who saw the show only after it became a pop culture phenomenon and were unaware that it was mostly just two hours of [[RandomEventsPlot plotless]] spectacle involving people dancing ballet in cat costumes tended to leave the theater asking "Was that ''it''?"
30	* MemeticMutation:
31	** ''Macavity's not there!''
32	** Commercials for another Broadway play (unknown as of 2014, until the commercial resurfaces) of an older woman with a thick New York accent exclaiming "I laughed, I cried, it was better than ''Cats''!" Even referenced on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''.
33	* NewbieBoom: Ironically, the infamous 2019 movie adaptation wound up earning the original show hoards of millennial fans who were too young to have seen the show on Broadway and, out of curiosity, sought out both the original Broadway cast recording and 1998 live recording for comparison (often on recommendation from older fans), ultimately preferring both by a wide margin.
34	* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity
35	** As mentioned above, the lukewarm reception from critics meant the showrunners had no quotes for the poster... which was perfect because the poster's design was already minimal to begin with and adding any reviews would've just cluttered it up. This meant anyone who wanted to form their own opinion of the show ''had'' to see it for themselves.
36	** As mentioned above, the 2019 movie adaptation ended up making the original show ''more'' popular by comparison, thanks to the consensus that, if nothing else, [[DamnedByFaintPraise the movie didn't make it look comparatively]] ''[[DamnedByFaintPraise worse]]''.
37	* OneSceneWonder: Bustopher Jones, Gus, and Macavity.
38	* PopularWithFurries: What would you expect from a show about dancing, anthropomorphic cats?
39	* SignatureSong: "Memory", likely because it's one of the few songs not based on the original poems. A popular joke is that it's the most common song that's usually sung badly simply because ''everyone'' knows it (famously shown in ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' when Summer "proves" that she can sing with a short, horribly off-key rendition of it).
40	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The replacement of the rock star Rum Tum Tugger with a rapping hip-hop "street cat". There was so much backlash from fans that Andrew Lloyd Webber ended up phasing out the new version and bringing back the original.
41	* ValuesDissonance:
42	** Macavity's habit of cheating at cards, which now reads as ArsonMurderAndJaywalking, was never a criminal act, but it was once an extremely serious social offense. In the nineteenth century, accusations of cheating could and did lead to duels.
43	** The line about a "heathen Chinese" was acceptable when T.S. Eliot wrote the line. However, it's very clearly racist, and is seen as such today. Ditto the Siamese cats being referred to as "chinks" in "Growltiger's Last Stand," to the extent where later showings either omit the slur or drop the entire song.
44	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Director Hal Prince famously asked Creator/AndrewLloydWebber if the play was meant to be metaphoric for Victorian England; Webber equally famously responded with "Hal, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin it's about cats."]]
45	* TheWoobie: Grizabella, an elderly, ragged cat whose beautiful years are long past and who finds herself being shunned by the Jellicle cats.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:The 2019 film]]
49	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Viewers who aren't familiar with the musical have taken to interpret the Jellicle Cats to be a death / sex cult who lure vulnerable NaiveNewcomer Victoria into their ranks.
50	* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Adapting ''Cats'' to film is a unique challenge: stage-to-screen adaptations normally only appeal to musical fans, and ''Cats'' in particular relies on an ExcusePlot where the spectacle and theatrics come first. In an attempt to appeal more to a casual moviegoing audience, several drastic changes were made to the source material. The songs were especially affected, being drastically altered in arrangement and performance, which put off fans of the original show. However, the spectacle is much less of a draw on film compared to a live performance, and the paper-thin plot still didn't draw in casual viewers. On top of that, the original costumes were swapped out in favor of giving the actors bodysuits of digital fur, which both fans and casual viewers have called unsettling and uncomfortably sexual. The end result was a box office bomb (only making 75$ million on a 100$ million dollar budget) that had a difficult time appealing to anybody.
51	* AwardSnub:
52	** Justifiable given the movie's overall reception, but many feel that had "Beautiful Ghosts" featured in ''any'' movie except for this one, it would likely have gotten an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, and likely been in with a shot of winning it too, although the song received a [[UsefulNotes/GoldenGlobeAward Golden Globe]] nomination in said category, and received a [[UsefulNotes/GrammyAward Grammy]] nomination in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category.
53	** Conversely, many critics agree that Francesca Hayward would under most circumstances have been a slam-dunk for Worst Actress at that year's [[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Razzie Awards]]... were it not for Music/HilaryDuff's turn as the title role in the same year's spectacularly tasteless ''Film/TheHauntingOfSharonTate''. Interestingly enough, Creator/RebelWilson was also nominated in the Worst Actress category for her performance in ''Film/TheHustle'', along with Creator/AnneHathaway.
54	** While it didn't receive any Oscar nominations, many were highly annoyed that it was shortlisted for Best Visual Effects at the expense of anything else.
55	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
56	** [[https://youtu.be/trIjpVH8h88 "Beautiful Ghosts"]] (written by Lloyd Webber and Music/TaylorSwift and performed by the latter) is a gorgeous piece that also acts as a response song to the iconic "Memory", with the singer telling Grizabella that at least she ''has'' all of these good memories, while the singer herself has nothing like that.
57	** Many people predicted "Memory" would be the only good part of the film, it being the show-stopper from the on-stage show, and it did not disappoint, with many thinking this particular version of the song is excellent. Sure enough, Creator/LindsayEllis described going to two otherwise-rowdy screenings which quieted down and respectfully listened to Music/JenniferHudson's rendition as Grizabella.
58	** [[https://youtu.be/DNBfo0dbEzY "Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat"]] is also very well done and catchy compared to the rest of the film. Special mention goes to the tap dance number. A major part of this is that it was actually performed by professional dancers and singers to a click track without the improvisation of other songs, making it one of the few songs to actually bear a resemblance to a professional Broadway performance.
59	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
60	** The film's take on "The Ad-dressing of Cats", in which Old Deuteronomy looks directly at the camera throughout the song, can come off as jarring to some viewers, since no other [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall breaks]] ever occur in the movie (unlike the stage show).
61	** In the most infamous of the moments original to the film, we get a brief dance number with human-faced cockroaches, which are then promptly eaten by Jennyanydots. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Yes, really.]]
62	** There's also the scene after Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer's musical number where Victoria and Mr. Mistoffelees make their escape out the bedroom window before an unseen dog that is knocking at the door comes in. There is no build-up of any kind, and it is never addressed again afterward.
63	* BileFascination: The scores of brutal reviews the film has been receiving describing the film as a sort of incredibly bizarre and uncanny kafkaesque spectacle have led to many people declaring interest in seeing ''Cats'' just to be part of the experience.
64	* BrokenBase: As evidenced by this very page, there are three solid camps in regards to the film's original song "Beautiful Ghosts": One camp thinks it's an excellent song and were it not tied to this movie it would be widely liked, another camp that thinks the song sounds like the rushed song performed by a non-singer that it is and undercuts the movie's showstopping number "Memory," and a moderate third group that finds the song itself to be pleasing out of context, but agreeing that it undercuts "Memory"--the entire purpose of "Memory" being that it's a much heavier song than the rest of the soundtrack that undeniably proves Grizabella to be deserving, which gets hurt if there's a very similar song that basically exists so another character can claim Grizabella ''isn't''.
65	* CriticalBacklash: The sheer abundance of bad press that the film got on its original release inevitably earned it a few apologists when it went to home video, with a few latecomers feeling that the film wasn't ''that'' bad, even if it's not exactly a masterpiece.
66	* CriticalDissonance: Website/RottenTomatoes has the critics rating at a pretty dire 19% but the audience score is more forgiving SoOkayItsAverage 53%.
67	* DiscreditedMeme:
68	** Critics backed off on the visual effects once the VFX team came forward about their grueling schedules and what a struggle it was to work under Creator/TomHooper. Creator/JamesCorden and Creator/RebelWilson's attempt to poke fun at themselves[[note]]Appearing in costumes reminiscent of the stage version at the Oscars saying "we understand the importance of good visual effects."[[/note]] was criticized for seeming to kick the artists while they were down (though like everyone else, they dialed back on this joke once the behind-the-scenes stories came out). Mocking the character designs is still usually considered fair game, as most people seem to agree that no amount of time or money would have made them look good, but making fun of the effects flubs is generally just seen as a cheap shot.
69	** Francesca Hayward's singing, which was often mocked as sounding unsure and nervous, quickly become much more forgivable when Music/TaylorSwift and Creator/AndrewLloydWebber revealed that "Beautiful Ghosts" was finished the day the scene was shot, and since Tom Hooper demanded live audio from the set instead of recording in a studio, she had to learn the song only a few hours before filming the scene. This caused many to assume she was unsure about what she was supposed to sing, or else they simply disliked her timid characterization.
70	** The appearance of what was taken to be a wedding ring on Creator/JudiDench's hand during the final scene was widely mocked, and commonly shared as evidence of the film's unfinished nature. However, Old Deuteronomy can clearly be seen wearing rings on both hands earlier in the film as well, suggesting the rings were a creative decision rather than an oversight.
71	* EndingFatigue: The final fourth-wall-breaking sequence at what is clearly the end of the film when Old Deuteronomy recites "The Ad-dressing of Cats". Ty Burr of the Boston Globe wrote that the audience was left in fits of laughter as Creator/JudiDench slowly enunciated her way through each verse and ended each on a definitively conclusive note (with accompanying musical cue), seemingly signaling the end of the movie... only to fire up another verse after a several-second pause. The whole sequence is about four minutes long.
72	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
73	** Skimbleshanks is just another Jellicle candidate, but given that his scene was one of the few that a majority of audiences found enjoyable is probably the single most popular cat to audiences. Even before his introduction proper, his distinct look as one of the cats in ensemble scenes made him visually interesting. As stated above, this is likely because he was played by ballet and tap dancer Steven [=McRae=] to a click track for the complex 13/8 time signature, removing the awkward improvisation and unskilled singers of many other songs.
74	** Gus the Theater Cat's song is basically five minutes of Creator/IanMcKellen saying "All right you youngsters, this is what ''acting'' looks like."
75	* FetishRetardant: One of the biggest criticisms the film gets is how weirdly horny and sexual it is, constantly trying to make the various cats seem sexy, which obviously falls flat when combined with the rampant UnintentionalUncannyValley. It doesn't help that it also has an utterly inconsistent relationship with clothing. It ''might've'' worked if the cats were strictly clothed or unclothed, but the mixture of clothed and unclothed cats makes everyone suddenly register as varying degrees of "naked" and things become much more uncomfortable (particularly once the clothed cats ''disrobe'').
76	-->'''Kyle Buchanan:''' Watching ''Cats'' is like stumbling upon an unholy and heretofore unknown genre of porn. [[ARareSentence Every time these horny fur demons tongue a milk bowl and start moaning,]] I was certain the FBI would raid the theater.
77	* FranchiseOriginalSin:
78	** Despite criticisms that Music/JenniferHudson was too young to play Grizabella at 37, the first actresses to play her on stage (Elaine Paige in London, Betty Buckley in New York) were actually ''younger'' at only 33 and 34, respectively (many other stage Grizabellas have been around the same age). However many people are still best familiar with the 1998 filmed version of the stage show, in which Elaine Page reprised her performance at the age of 50, which can give the false impression that the role is normally played by much older actresses. Of course, the make-up for the stage version conveyed the WhiteDwarfStarlet look just fine, and suspension of disbelief with regards to age is easier to take on the stage. In the film however, the needs of the CGI meant that they couldn't use much makeup on her since her face would have to be superimposed later on the body (behind the scenes footage of her filming her scenes shows her in little makeup at all). All of this leads to her appearing in the final film as a very youthful and vibrant woman with a normal looking build, in very strong contrast to the old and run down character she's meant to be portraying.
79	** The stage musical was similarly divisive upon opening, especially in New York, precisely because of how strange and bizarre it was - some audience members walking out in disgust. It did, however, have just as many fans because of the {{Camp}} and weirdness, and the experience of seeing it in the theatre made the spectacle a part of the fun. The film however tries so hard for realism that it goes straight into Uncanny Valley; the actors are scaled down to miniature (often unsuccessfully, being either too big or too small) and their faces on realistic cat fur, along with more typical cat movements and mannerisms - in contrast to the make-up and choreography that was more evocative than literal (Tom Hooper apparently wanted to see footage of actual cats performing what the actors would do for reference).
80	** Creator/LindsayEllis claims in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6iqAip-ZNo&t=2226s her video essay that]] each controversial creative decision taken here had a precedent in ''Film/LesMiserables2012'':
81	*** The UnintentionalUncannyValley nature of the titular cats was heavily criticized, with Tom Hooper defending it on the basis of trying to be realistic. While that works for a fairly grounded musical like ''Les Misérables'', ''Cats'' is one of the gaudiest and most surreal musicals ever made, and thus any attempts at realism were inherently missing the point of the play and inevitably plunged into Uncanny Valley.
82	*** The AllStarCast of ''Les Misérables'' was supposed to be replicated here, but whereas ''Les Mis'' has a constantly rotating cast, in ''Cats'' every character is on stage for the entire duration of the play, thus forcing Hooper to turn Macavity into a more solid antagonist to get the A-Listers out the way. In addition, said celebrities wanted to perform group numbers solo, thus lowering their quality.
83	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Despite the near-universal negative reception of the film, the film did surprisingly well in Japan and was mildly successful. This can be chalked up to either Japan's love for musicals, Music/TaylorSwift's popularity in Japan, or the fact that the film was [[InternationalCoproduction co-produced]] by local studio Creator/{{Toho}}.
84	* HamAndCheese: Music/TaylorSwift, Creator/IdrisElba, and Creator/IanMcKellen are clearly having the time of their life while the rest of the cast TookTheBadFilmSeriously.
85	* HoYay: While the film seemed to actively try to tone down the HomoeroticSubtext between Rum Tum Tugger and Mr. Mistoffelees, it still gives a bit at the beginning of "The Magical Mister Mistoffelees" when a breathless Munkustrap gets in Mistoffelees' face and sings his praises.
86	* HardToAdaptWork: Story changes aside, the film's detractors feel that the biggest problem in adapting ''Cats'' to film is that it doesn't work in the format of a computer-animated live-action film ''at all'', and that an animated version would have been vastly superior in practice alone.
87	* MemeticMolester: Macavity has "broken every human law". Basic FridgeHorror therefore leads to the conclusion that he's guilty of rape, pedophilia, bestiality (him having sex with a human since he's a cat), and necrophilia.
88	* MemeticMutation:
89	** Due to the film's [[UnintentionalUncannyValley radically redesigned CGI characters]] freaking out almost everyone, [[EveryoneHasStandards even the]] UsefulNotes/FurryFandom, and with its official trailer being released the same day as ''Film/ITChapterTwo''[='=]s own, people have joked that ''Cats'' was competing for (or even winning) the scariest movie of the year.
90	** On the same note, captioning pictures of cats with poorly photoshopped people faces on them as "digital fur technology" to poke fun at how seriously the phrase was stated in the behind-the-scenes trailer for the film.
91	** Many comparisons to the original trailer for Creator/{{Paramount}}'s ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020 movie]] have been made. Many have joked that the movie is actually an adaptation of ''VideoGame/SonicRush'', with Big the Cat being in it for whatever reason. Others have pasted Sonic's Uncanny Valley face on the humanoid cat bodies, the results are surprisingly preferable. There's also jokes that Sonic saying "Uh... meow?" was actually {{Foreshadowing}}. Not helping is the fact that Moving Picture Company’s Vancouver branch did VFX work on ''both'' movies, and was shuttered before they both came out.
92	*** The comparisons become extra HilariousInHindsight when it was announced Creator/IdrisElba (Macavity) would be voicing Knuckles in the ''Sonic'' movie’s sequel.
93	** Not dissimilar to decisions to release ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks: The Road Chip'' on the same day as ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ferdinand}}'' opposite ''Film/TheLastJedi'', the fact that [[SuicidalOverconfidence someone thought this movie]] would have a good chance of competing with ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' on the same release date led to many jokes about the perceived lopsidedness of the competition, i.e: "''Star Wars'' is [[SarcasmMode going to get absolutely slaughtered.]]"
94	** The film naturally crossed over with actual cat videos, as funnily enough a lot of them look back at their owners in confusion after a few seconds of the trailer.
95	** Many have compared the character designs to [[https://youtu.be/L05cJ5G6T9A?t=39 Vlad’s attempted cat transformation]] from ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows''.
96	** Soon after the reviews came out posting some of the more damning or [[HurricaneOfPuns pun-filled]] lines from them, some of the most popular being:
97	--->--''The worst thing to happen to cats since dogs.''\
98	--''A half-digested hairball of a movie.''\
99	--''[[DespairEventHorizon I felt the light inside me slowly fading.]]''\
100	--''By the time I left the theater I wasn't even sure what a real cat looked like anymore.''\
101	--''[[DespairEventHorizon I'm admittedly not a cat person. And after seeing this movie, I'm not sure I'm a movie person anymore.]]''\
102	--''[[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow I have seen sights no human should see.]]''\
103	--''Glad to report that Cats is everything you'd hoped for and more: a mesmerisingly ugly fiasco that makes you feel like your brain is being eaten by a parasite. A viewing experience so stressful that it honestly brought on a migraine.''\
104	--''At my screening of CATS I sat next to an 8-year-old child who, 45 minutes in, during a break in the singing, sat up and said loudly to his mother, "I hate this!!!" And I thought, [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes here is a child of superior discernment]].''\
105	--''Everyone who sees'' Cats ''will have their own reaction, their own moment that becomes seared into their being for the rest of time, like prophets of old glimpsing the true face of God. I, for one, am unable to express in words the scream that emanated from deep within my soul when Judi Dench’s Old Deuteronomy spreads her legs wide and scissors them in the air to express her approval of another cat’s musical number.''\
106	--''Oh God, my eyes.''\
107	--''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking I didn’t]] [[DamnedByFaintPraise hate it.]]''
108	*** Special mention to [[https://twitter.com/davidfarrier/status/1207450843844243456 a Twitter review by David Farrier]]. His use of flashbacks to establish context for his reaction reminded enough readers of Dr. Manhattan from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' that two different {{Remix Comic}}s, and even a [=YouTube=] fan video were released with Dr. Manhattan reading the interview in-character:
109	---->--''I'm 37 now. I've just seen '' Cats'', the movie. (...) I am 13 again. I am 25 again. I'm at my parents' house, hearing cats fuck. I'm watching a furry put on a catsuit. I'm watching Idris Elba, nude, as a cat. His ass is sticking out. I am watching all the cats, legs constantly spread, gyrating, grinding, growling, [[MadnessMantra yowling, prowling, fucking]].''\
110	--''This is the worst thing I've ever seen. This is what death feels like. This is the worst ketamine trip. This is awful. This is not a film, this is chaos. This is the CGI from ''[[Film/TheScorpionKing Scorpion King]]''. I don't know if I'm five minutes in or five hours. Nothing matters anymore. [[DespairEventHorizon This is the death of all things. Fuck it.]]''
111	** Fan reviews of ''The Rise of Skywalker'' brought back the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch mentioned from the musical section, above, as a TakeThat to both films:
112	--->--''[[SarcasmMode I loved it.]] [[DamnedByFaintPraise It was much better than Cats.]] [[BlatantLies I'm going to see it again and again.]]"
113	** Comparisons of the film's version of Bustopher Jones to [[Film/TheCatInTheHat Mike Myers' version of the Cat in the Hat]] are pretty popular too.
114	** When a [[https://twitter.com/mike_blacklist/status/1208139131391332352 notification to theater managers]] about getting new prints with "some improved visual effects" made the rounds on Twitter, there was many a joke about the movie getting what was basically a major video game's Day One patch.
115	** A ''Variety'' interview with Swift revealed that director Tom Hooper [[https://theplaylist.net/cats-taylor-swift-tom-hooper-catnip-20191217/ had somehow never heard of catnip until shooting the "Macavity" number]], and had to have it described to him by Swift's father on-set. Many people immediately began jokingly questioning if Hooper knew anything about cats at all, and if that might not explain how the movie turned out.
116	** [=#ReleaseTheButtholeCut=][[note]]After it was reported that a CGI engineer had removed CGI buttholes from the cats of the movie, people began demanding a cut in a parody of the very loud [[Film/JusticeLeague2017 [=#ReleaseTheSnyderCut=]]] crowd[[/note]]
117	** Jokes taking the claim that Macavity has broken "every human law" literally, and listing the most preposterous possibilities implied by the statement. Macavity committed tax fraud, copyright infringement, [[BreadMilkEggsSquick genocide]]...
118	** Many people, including ''WebVideo/HonestTrailers'', joked that Tom Hooper made a DealWithTheDevil so that he could win an Oscar for ''Film/TheKingsSpeech'', and ''Cats'' was the result of Satan coming to collect. Or that the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic was God punishing humanity for creating ''Cats''.
119	* MemeticPsychopath: Macavity has "broken every human law". As Internet users have pointed out, this implies he's guilty of murder, torture, hate crimes, terrorism, genocide, and every other heinous crime you can think of.
120	* {{Narm}}: In the climactic last verse of "Memory", the orchestra is mixed so loud that it nearly drowns out Music/JenniferHudson's voice.
121	* NarmCharm: If you don't take the movie seriously, this is what it becomes to some people: weird, unnecessarily sexual, poorly executed, and downright disgusting in some places that it circles back around to being SoBadItsGood.
122	* NightmareFuel: Let's just say the entire movie is this in order to save some time, especially with UnintentionalUncannyValley.
123	* OlderThanTheyThink:
124	** The [[spoiler:Victoria/Mistoffelees romance subplot]] was not invented for the film, as there have been a few productions of the stage show where [[spoiler:they're partners during the "mating dance"]].
125	** This isn't the first time the Rum Tum Tugger has been reimagined as a rapping cat, instead of a Music/MickJagger like singer. As he briefly became a hip-hip "street cat" during the show's 2014 run. (Though the film merely includes a modernized arrangement of the original number, rather than the more substantially re-written "hip-hop" version several revivals featured.)
126	* OneSceneWonder:
127	** Steven [=McRae=] brings everything he has to Skimbleshanks and it shows. Many agree that if the rest of the film had the same energy that was put into "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat", it would be a large improvement.
128	** Sir Creator/IanMcKellen has a very small role as Gus but he certainly leaves a good impression.
129	** Similarily, Music/TaylorSwift has a minor but memorable role as Bombalurina.
130	* OvershadowedByControversy: To this day, the film is best known for its large quantities of UnintentionalUncannyValley because of Hooper's decision to {{rotoscop\|ing}}e CGI cat costumes over the actors' skintight bodysuits--instead of using standard MotionCapture--and for HostilityOnTheSet between Hooper and the (overworked) VFX team.
131	* PanderingToTheBase: The story, visuals and even the music changed so little in the transition to film that the movie has been accused of existing exclusively for people who already liked the stage show. The fact that many fans of the show still didn't like it, especially when compared to the 1998 filmed version of the stage show, only [[EpicFail adds insult to injury]].
132	* ProtectionFromEditors: Tom Hooper appears to have had a lot of leeaway granted by Universal, especially when it came to the visual effects. His lack of understanding of CGI animation could have been compensated by the studio guiding him and telling him what not to do, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
133	* QuestionableCasting
134	** While most of the casting choices are considered odd, none got more raised critical eyebrows than Jason Derulo as Rum Tum Tugger. However, the backlash died down after the film's release, with many coming around to consider him not just providing one of the better performances, but some of the best makeup and designs in the movie.
135	** Creator/RebelWilson and Creator/JamesCorden as Jennyanydots and Bustopher Jones, respectively, are also generally considered poor choices. Though both have some musical theater experience, their respective brands of CringeComedy are largely agreed to be ill-fitting for this kind of movie. Few were surprised when they both won Razzies.
136	** Francesca Hayward may be the principal dancer at the Royal Ballet and her dancing is indeed excellent, but her limited facial expressions suggest to some that she should stick to her day job. This wouldn't be an issue if Victoria were just a silent character as in the original show (and therefore better to be played by a dancer) but she is upgraded to a main protagonist with a MovieBonusSong.
137	** Music/JenniferHudson would likely have regarded as a fantastic casting choice for any of the female characters ''except'' Grizabella. And while both her acting and singing in the role are top-notch, her very attractive and youthful appearance plays against the idea of Grizabella being old and worn down (though as seen in FranchiseOriginalSin, younger actresses have played the character before). This was ''not'' helped by the film doing little to create this effect through makeup or costuming as the stage shows do... likely to prevent covering up Jennifer Hudson's very famous face.
138	** Creator/JudiDench may be a rightfully beloved actress, but Dench - then in her mid 80s - is far from a strong singer, which is only made all the more noticeable when you cast her as Old Deuteronomy, one of the most vocally demanding roles in the show.
139	* TheScrappy:
140	** Jennyanydots is generally considered to be the only part that's wholly unenjoyable, thanks to Creator/RebelWilson playing her with her usual CringeComedy schtick and limited singing skills (it says something when the character who's meant to be funny on purpose in a SoBadItsGood movie is considered ''neither''). Jenny's singing mice and cockroaches are considered the worst part of the movie period. Unsurprisingly, Wilson was given a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress in addition to her Worst Actress nomination, as mentioned above.
141	** Bustopher Jones isn't ''as'' disliked as Jennyanydots, but is similarly considered one of the worst parts of the movie due to just about every one of his jokes landing with a massive thud. Like Rebel Wilson, it says something when his one bit of dialogue in the final trailer was considered to be the worst part of what was already considered one of the worst trailers ever. Corden also took home a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor.
142	* SoBadItsGood: Though few have praised the film overall, it’s most vocal detractors consider it highly entertaining for all of the [[UnintentionalUncannyValley wrong]] [[{{Narm}} reasons]]. It helps that plenty of things that were already considered silly in the show remain unchanged for the adaptation and, to them, look downright ridiculous when depicted here.
143	* SpecialEffectFailure: And not just because of the [[UnintentionalUncannyValley questionable stylistic choice to have all the cats be live-actors with CGI cat bodies]]. The film was shot without the standard 3D tracking bodysuits, meaning that, rather than MotionCapture, most of the actor's movements were manually {{rotoscop\|ing}}ed by the CGI animators in a new software created specifically for the film to achieve its realistic fur look. This, combined with the film being ChristmasRushed and director Tom Hooper's apparent inability to grasp how the animation process works, resulted in much of the CGI in the finished film being at best broken and at worst ''incomplete''. Even the "improved special effects" print Universal released just days after the original theatrical release was considered a less-than-marginal improvement.
144	** Even in the home video/streaming version, numerous shots are still incomplete. The "digital fur" isn't even applied to Francesca Hayward's face during her embrace with Mistopheles in the final scene, meaning her face suddenly has a very peach, human skin tone in the middle of the white cat fur.
145	** Further compounding the problems with the CGI was the time allocated to it. Because the film itself was ChristmasRushed and they needed to get a trailer out there to promote it ahead of the film's release, the animation team were given six months to create the film's two-minute trailer. However, possibly owing to director Tom Hooper's lack of familiarity with the animation process, the animators were given just ''four months'' to complete the entire film, with some visuals being finished just hours before the premiere. Even as the animation was underway during this reduced production time, Tom Hooper kept delaying their progress by asking for dailies (the animation equivalent of rushes for live action filmmaking, which he'd likely have been more familiar with), still failing to appreciate that rendering even low-resolution frames takes a very long time, doesn't necessarily show anything useful to a director, and so typically doesn't happen at all until much later in the animation production process.
146	* {{Squick}}:
147	** Cockroaches with human faces. Which Rebel Wilson's character proceeds to eat. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, really.]]
148	*** What's more is that when we first meet Jennyanydots, she appears to be attempting to groom herself.
149	** Much of Bustopher Jones' song features the cast eating out of garbage cans...which street cats admittedly do.
150	* TaintedByThePreview:
151	** The teaser trailer turned the movie into a pop-culture punching bag overnight, particularly because of [[UnintentionalUncannyValley how the cats looked]]. Reactions could be split into "''Cats'' looks horrible, no way I'm watching this!" or "''Cats'' looks horrible, can't wait to watch this!"
152	** This was followed by an ad with the tagline “There are two kinds of people, people who love ''Cats'' and people who are wrong,” which just came off as pathetically defensive after the mockery the first one got.
153	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
154	** The decision to make the costumes almost entirely CGI was largely ill-received, especially given how the flamboyant costumes and makeup of the musical were so endearing.
155	** The theatre fans were not pleased with changes made to the score. Just about the only song where theatregoers deemed the changes acceptable was Skimbleshanks - which simply got retooled into a more modern sounding genre. Meanwhile, the Jellicle Ball has a disco section halfway through, "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" reverted to the slow, jazzy version originally used in London (rather than the up-tempo version popularised in later productions), and "The Old Gumbie Cat" has Rebel Wilson focusing more on comedy than vocal perfection, in addition to singing one of the harmony parts (original sung by three people) as a solo. Also “Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town” gets a similar treatment, with the number getting interrupted at least ''four'' times (once to show Macavity kidnapping Jennyanydots, and thrice so James Corden can perform CringeComedy that stops both the song and pretty much the entire movie dead in its tracks). For these fans of the show's music, the soundtrack to this film essentially [[FanonDiscontinuity doesn't exist]].
156	** As explained by [=YouTuber=] WebVideo/{{Sideways}}, due to the choice of the actors leading the orchestra rather than the other way around (which is how things are usually done), the beat of the music is frequently off, which adds to the devisive quality of the music. He also criticized the decision to make Victoria the protagonist, arguing that it detracted from the emotional core of the original show, Grizabella.
157	** "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer". The movie's take on the song used the original, 1981 version of the piece which kept the entire thing in 4/4 time, giving it a slow jazz feel. The 1983 version (and the more well known 1998 version which took 1983 as the base) changed time signatures: It started in 4/4, but changed to 7/8 during the performance, significantly upping the tempo. The original had a menacing feel whereas the faster version felt more playful. Both takes have their fans, but overwhelmingly, fans preferred the version with the mixed tempo due to its energetic nature fitting with the overall nature of the show.
158	* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: The acting was one of the only things critics praised about the film; everyone is clearly trying their damnedest to make this musical work, and most say they had a great time on set.
159	** Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian [=McKellen=]'s performances as Old Deuteronomy and Gus, respectively, and Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "Memory" are generally considered to be the strongest performances.
160	** The Skimbleshanks scene is largely considered to be the only one which the movie completely nails, thanks to it being one of the more fun songs, Steven [=McRae=] doing some incredible dancing, and the entire cast clearly giving it their all.
161	** Even people who dislike Jason Derulo's music have said that his was one of the better performances ''and'' better costumes in the movie.
162	* UncertainAudience: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMvbHr-HY-M Katherine Steele]] pointed out that parts of the film seemed to be taking itself seriously (Tom Hooper apparently wanted to go for a variant of the realism he had done with ''Film/LesMiserables2012'') but there were several cast members hamming it up and going more for {{Camp}} and whimsy. The film seemed to be going for MultipleDemographicAppeal by giving the musical a plot to make it more accessible to a mainstream audience, but then that had the effect of turning off fans of the original show. And there's also, of course, the visuals of the film. By making the cats portrayed by real people, along with the proportions of humans, and giving them CG ears and tails, the end result is the movie [[UnintentionalUncannyValley is too visually unappealing]] for the both average moviegoers and fans of the musical.
163	* UnintentionalUncannyValley: Easily the biggest complaint.
164	** Cat fur, ears and tails placed on human bodies might work onstage and only slightly less in the 1998 filmed version of the stage show. In a proper film, though? Shudder-inducing, for many. While the stage show enhances the costumes with face paint, the cats in the film just look like human faces grafted onto anthropomorphic cat bodies. ''And then their tails'' '''''start moving'''''. As Dan Olson of ''WebVideo/FoldingIdeas'' put it in his impressions video on the film...
165	--->'''Dan Olson:''' ''Cats'' is a film seated so firmly at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley that it has set up residences, sown and harvested wheat, raised children, and developed its own system of divine mathematics.
166	** The fact that some cats appear clothed while others aren't (or in some cases ''remove their fur'' to show clothes underneath) is one of the contributing factors to the perceived [[FetishRetardant uncomfortable unintentional eroticism]]. In Idris Elba's case, the fur is so short and colored so similarly to his natural skin tone that he straight-up looks naked.
167	** The human-faced mice and cockroaches are only slightly worse. They've been compared to bad Snapchat filters.
168	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Taken individually, many of the visuals and rendering in the movie is quite impressive, with ''enormous'' amounts of animal fur, specular lighting and oversized environments. Taken as a surrealist endeavor it has some appeal, but the character designs inherently slammed into UnintentionalUncannyValley and as a full length movie not every scene will maintain the same level of quality. This incited some online conflict when it came to criticizing the CG effects, as when overworked visual effect houses go bankrupt creating the MoneyMakingShot for blockbuster movies it seems ignorant to criticize the thousands of man hours put into animating poor design choices.
169	* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: For a film with a PG rating, the characters engage in an awful lot of sensual rubbing and suggestive dancing, all while dressed in ''revealing'' skintight costumes. Justified, perhaps, in that they engage in behavior common to cats rather than humans.
170	* WTHCostumingDepartment: The infamous "digital fur" costumes. While there were some {{motion capture}} effects, by and large, the actors wore skintight body suits and the VFX team ''manually {{rotoscop\|ing}}ed'' CGI cat costumes onto them. At best, the effect is unconvincing, with the virtual costumes mostly floating on top of their subjects and the lighting never quite matching up. At worst, it's an unholy mishmash of human and cat features right out of Uncanny Valley. The worst of which is Macavity, who's fur is colored to match Idris Elba's ''skin tone'', with horrifying results. We can thank Universal giving the VFX team no time to refine this technique and pairing them up with a director who only barely understood how animation works for that.
171	[[/folder]]

Context YMMV / Cats