CATS
**
Director: Tom Hooper
Screenwriters: Tom Hooper and Lee Hall, adapted from the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber which is based on T.S. Elliot’s poetry collection, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
Principal cast:
Francesca Hayward
Judi Dench
Taylor Swift
Idris Elba
Rebel Wilson
Ian McKellen
Country: UK/USA
Classification: G
Runtime: 110 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2019
Previewed at: Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney, on 17 December 2019.
I’ve long held the view that just because technology allows you to do something doesn’t mean you should do it. Think of the nuclear bomb. While undeniably an extraordinary achievement, we’d all be better off without it. Now along comes Cats, a movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s world-conquering musical that features digitally-rendered actors as the felines. It’s another kind of bomb that we could all do without. These singing and dancing moggies are a weird mash-up of hominid and animal; the faces, hands and feet are humanoid but the rest of the body is cat-like, with the exclusion of the bits ‘down there’ (which is also somewhat creepy - when these cats raise their tails, there’s nothing there!) Some of them wear pieces of clothing, a hat, shoes, a cloak, and others are just in the altogether, clad only in their fur. Like I said, weird. “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.” The scale is peculiar, too. These pussies are supposed to have the same height ratio as real cats do to human beings but as there are no full-size humans in the film the device is not always effective; sometimes it works but often it doesn’t. Again, it just looks strange.
The producers of Cats have certainly assembled an incredibly talented cast for their film, so it’s doubly disappointing that the CGI is so off-putting. Dame Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Sir Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson, James Corden, Taylor Swift and newcomer Francesca Hayward give their all to the production, successfully capturing all the mannerisms of our feline friends and convincingly delivering T. S. Eliot’s whimsical cat names and vocabulary. Hayward is the principal dancer of the Royal Ballet and she’s a standout, even in this exalted company, as the naïve, abandoned stray Victoria. She’s taken under the wing (paw?) of Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) on the night of the annual Jellicle Ball, where the contenders have to sing a song about themselves and the winner gets to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a new life. The outlaw cat Macavity (Idris Elba) has designs on the prize, though, and makes the competition disappear one by one until the magical intervention of Mr. Mistoffelees (Laurie Davidson) saves the day. At this point, Grizabella the Glamour Cat (Jennifer Hudson) sings the stunningly beautiful and moving Memories and wins the stairway to heaven. I’m guessing none of this will spoil Cats for you because the musical has so far been seen by 81 million people in over 50 countries, including Australia, so you’re likely to be familiar with the very thin plot.
Director Tom Hooper has form with filmed versions of stage musicals, having previously directed Les Misérables, and he’s brought all the skills he learnt on that award-winning production to this one. The movie features some fabulous choreography and dance routines (by Tony Award-winner Andy Blankenbuehler) and, of course, some equally wonderful musical numbers. There’s much fun to be had in songs by James Corden as the gluttonous Bustopher Jones and Rebel Wilson as the cooped-up kitchen cat Jennyanydots; plus, there’s a new song, Beautiful Ghosts, written especially for the film by Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In the end, though, none of this matters because you just can’t get past the peculiar appearance of these singing, dancing cats enough to care about them. Sorry to say, but Cats is a dog.
Screenwriters: Tom Hooper and Lee Hall, adapted from the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber which is based on T.S. Elliot’s poetry collection, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
Principal cast:
Francesca Hayward
Judi Dench
Taylor Swift
Idris Elba
Rebel Wilson
Ian McKellen
Country: UK/USA
Classification: G
Runtime: 110 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2019
Previewed at: Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney, on 17 December 2019.
I’ve long held the view that just because technology allows you to do something doesn’t mean you should do it. Think of the nuclear bomb. While undeniably an extraordinary achievement, we’d all be better off without it. Now along comes Cats, a movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s world-conquering musical that features digitally-rendered actors as the felines. It’s another kind of bomb that we could all do without. These singing and dancing moggies are a weird mash-up of hominid and animal; the faces, hands and feet are humanoid but the rest of the body is cat-like, with the exclusion of the bits ‘down there’ (which is also somewhat creepy - when these cats raise their tails, there’s nothing there!) Some of them wear pieces of clothing, a hat, shoes, a cloak, and others are just in the altogether, clad only in their fur. Like I said, weird. “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.” The scale is peculiar, too. These pussies are supposed to have the same height ratio as real cats do to human beings but as there are no full-size humans in the film the device is not always effective; sometimes it works but often it doesn’t. Again, it just looks strange.
The producers of Cats have certainly assembled an incredibly talented cast for their film, so it’s doubly disappointing that the CGI is so off-putting. Dame Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Sir Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson, James Corden, Taylor Swift and newcomer Francesca Hayward give their all to the production, successfully capturing all the mannerisms of our feline friends and convincingly delivering T. S. Eliot’s whimsical cat names and vocabulary. Hayward is the principal dancer of the Royal Ballet and she’s a standout, even in this exalted company, as the naïve, abandoned stray Victoria. She’s taken under the wing (paw?) of Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) on the night of the annual Jellicle Ball, where the contenders have to sing a song about themselves and the winner gets to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a new life. The outlaw cat Macavity (Idris Elba) has designs on the prize, though, and makes the competition disappear one by one until the magical intervention of Mr. Mistoffelees (Laurie Davidson) saves the day. At this point, Grizabella the Glamour Cat (Jennifer Hudson) sings the stunningly beautiful and moving Memories and wins the stairway to heaven. I’m guessing none of this will spoil Cats for you because the musical has so far been seen by 81 million people in over 50 countries, including Australia, so you’re likely to be familiar with the very thin plot.
Director Tom Hooper has form with filmed versions of stage musicals, having previously directed Les Misérables, and he’s brought all the skills he learnt on that award-winning production to this one. The movie features some fabulous choreography and dance routines (by Tony Award-winner Andy Blankenbuehler) and, of course, some equally wonderful musical numbers. There’s much fun to be had in songs by James Corden as the gluttonous Bustopher Jones and Rebel Wilson as the cooped-up kitchen cat Jennyanydots; plus, there’s a new song, Beautiful Ghosts, written especially for the film by Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In the end, though, none of this matters because you just can’t get past the peculiar appearance of these singing, dancing cats enough to care about them. Sorry to say, but Cats is a dog.