Summary
Once a year, the Jellicle Cats gather to send one to a place of heavenly reward, if the evil MaCavity doesn’t get his way instead.
The Film
If you are reading this review, then you probably already know that “Cats” has been widely panned by critical and general audiences since before it was even released. After releasing, some of the cgi was considered so jarring that updates to the film were made and new versions screened after the first couple of weeks in the theaters. Unfortunately, there was no way to erase the movie, and money spent on it, from existence entirely which is what this film really needs.
I can’t say this will be along review. I can only describe for so long the strange sights and sounds of “Cats” because without the context of seeing the film it is nigh impossible to relate the discomfort, cringe inducing, and baffling moments that barrage you from the moment the film begins.
We open with a cat being tossed into the street inside of a bag and being freed by a group of cats called Jellicle . If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry. It won’t be important and, like many things in this movie, won’t be explained or of interest to either the characters in the film or the audience watching it. These Jellicle all sing songs about themselves and how special they are with the hopes of being chosen at the Jellicle Ball to go on to their afterlife/reward/heaven.
Seriously, the whole movie is just these cats singing about how much they like to dance, eat mice, and do magic.
The ways that this film goes off are innumerable from CGI that is jarring, to added one-liners that will have even the punniest jokesters rolling their eyes, and on to unexplained and convenient magical powers but the way that it seems to miss most profoundly, to me, is the entire conception and direction if this mainstay Broadway work.
“Cats,” the theatrical production, is not loved because of its plot. It is loved because of the unique concept, dancing, and singing. When you take away the actual building of large sets and people acting like they are cat sized with just make-up and leotards you end up diminishing the skill necessary to create such an illusion. The productions works as a stage musical because you can’t use cgi, an actor has to be able to leap that way or sing/purr that way with no help from computers. It is impressive. When it is all done with computers, there is no skill to be amazed by. The actor aren’t really singing these songs even as they perform difficult dances. The actors themselves aren’t really very good singers and only a few numbers actually land well at all.
It seems like a person who had no particular love for the musical form or specifically “Cats” got tasked with making it (though I am sure this is not so) and they never really understood what made the play special at all. They thus turned out a film which is only special in its tremendous failure and misconception from the start.
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