Cats the Musical

I've read some of the original book. Quite the doorstopper, although I've liked what I have read. I will say that I like Marius in the movie more than I like him either in the stage version or in the original novel.

I really like the backstory in the book with Marius' family, especially the character of his grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand. He's very entertaining.

I like how Hugo presents the idea of "liberal when young conservative when old" by having Gillenormand go from a Voltarian liberal as a young man to an arch-conservative as an old man without really changing his beliefs in any way.

And how Hugo makes the metaphor literal by also having him never alter his style of dress or behavior (especially his predilection for womanizing), making him go from a stylish young man to a ridiculous old man without changing in any way except for aging.

Back on topic though, Hooper definitley seems like The Peter Principle at work.

Edited by Hodor2 on Apr 11th 2020 at 6:13:28 AM

As to why the uprising happened (which was the failed June Rebellion of 1832, not the French Revolution itself which was forty years earlier), historically it had a lot to do with the people being utterly pissed at how badly the government was handling a cholera epidemic that was going around (insert coronavirus joke here), and what really set it off was the sudden death of a prominent general named Lamarque (who is mentioned in Les Mis), who was well known for utterly ripping into his fellow government bigshots for their incompetence on the matter. The modern historical consensus is that the disease simply got him too, but at the time it was widely believed that his superiors had him poisoned to shut him up.

I watched it and it was worse than I thought:

• The songs were so blandly done. "Memory", "Rum Tum Tugger", and "Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer" are three of my favorite Cats songs but were way worse in the film. "Mr. Mistoffolees" was an okay interpretation but I hate how toned down it is. The song is supposed to be campy and sung by Rum Tum Tugger It's weird being sungby Mistoffolees.
• Was Rum Tum Tugger even in the film? He's one of the most popular characters, if not the most popular one, yet I can't remember anything he did after his musical number.
• The best looking cats were the ones that were fluffy, namely Old Deuteronomy and Gus.. The rest of the cats were just awful Uncanny Valley monsters. I hated the redesigns for Rum Tum Tugger and Grizabella. Their original designs are so iconic. Rum Tum Tugger is too blandly colored and Grizabella as a short-furred brown tabby doesn't work.
• Making Olivia the main character was odd. She's a mute character who doesn't have much screentime. Giving her a character felt weird.

Edited by Pichu-kun on Apr 12th 2020 at 6:19:07 AM

Rum Tum Tugger has a scene where he... runs? From Macavity?

Question... do people like "Beautiful Ghosts"? Because based on our YMMV page it seems like it's an amazing song that deserves all the awards but anecdotally I've never met anyone who liked it, and from podcasts and videos it seems like critics are split, some liking it, some outright hating the song, others liking the song but not liking its inclusion/place in the film.

It strikes me as more of a Base Breaker than universally beloved.

Edited by Larkmarn on Apr 13th 2020 at 11:09:46 AM

I don't like it, but that's half because it isn't a good song, and half because it was written in a day and handed to a non-singer the next day as a naked attempt to win Taylor Swift an Oscar.

It's not bad, IMO, but I hate its inclusion as it seems too much like it's trying to paint Grizabella as being selfish for wishing for a time when things were better. It feels disrespectful to something that's supposed to be the heart and soul of the show.

I feel like if it was its own song separate from the movie, it'd be more well-liked, like a few of the songs from The Greatest Showman.

Edited by Weirdguy149 on Apr 13th 2020 at 8:52:34 AM

... did you guys intentionally illustrate the three viewpoints I mentioned?

I'm thinking a Broken Base entry is in order when the six month limit is up.

The Honest Trailer is here, and it’s a musical. They apologize -

The Cats musical (the 98 version to be exact) was up for free on You Tube this past weekend

I watched it live MY GOD ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE MOVIE

Despite having less plot than the movie, it makes way more sense than the movie.

Jennyanydots and Bustopher Jones were way more enjoyable than their movie counterparts.

Macavity is actually threatening and not silly.

And it was way more emotional, plus doesn't have the stupid plot point of Grizabella going out with Macavity that wen't absolutely nowhere in the movie.

It just further shows how ill-advised the movie was

Edited by troperaiser on May 16th 2020 at 12:38:58 PM

The tonal choices of the movie compared to the play are so weird. In the play, Jennyanydots is more akin to Molly Weasley, so Munkustrap's warm description of her sounds genuine. While in the film she's ruder and clumsily careening all over the place so it sounds super weird that Munkustrap is speaking of her so reverentially.

There’s a You Tube Chanel for the stage version, it’s had all the songs from the original VHS film up on it for ages, I still enjoy listening to them every now and then.

I feel like Cats was made because Tom Hooper's head got fifteen sizes too big after seeing how well Les Mis did and decided to go for one of the most difficult plays to adapt for the big screen.

Macavity in the movie makes absolutely no sense. He’s a feared criminal mastermind with teleportation powers and cat girl Taylor Swift as his right hand woman.

And yet for some reason he wants to throw it all away for a new life where he probably won’t have any of that.

Also to add insult to injury, he ends up somehow losing his powers and stuck on top of a statue by the end of the movie.

Also his whole kidnapping plot ends up being completely pointless because he just tries to hitch a ride on Grizabella’s balloon before he ends up in the above mentioned situation.

I could probably go on and on about how the universe of the movie makes 0 sense, but I want to stay sane

The thing I still don't get is why the cats look so creepy. The stage show is full body cat suits and tons of makeup and they look fine.

it mainly due to how human brains work and the difference between the two medium. People who see a play know this isn't supposed to look realistic but should be see as something more surreal. Meanwhile movies mostly lean on the the realistic angle which lead to the uncanny valley issue.