Former 'Cats' actress review the 'Cats' movie

what the hell was I thinking no one wants to see this much better hello everyone my name is Alison and welcome to a former cats actress reviews that cats movie it's no secret to one that the cats movie has been a hot topic as of late basically everyone and their dogs babysitter has decided to with you the movie so what could I possibly add to the already intense criticism well for one I'm a theater kid and I know the meeting of new musicals and these schools in general pretty well and - I was in cat and I know the show pretty well most people that I have seen making reviews on the cat's movie haven't been theater people and usually they've you know openly expressed they've never seen cats on stage now does that mean that they're not entitled to their opinion on the movie of course not the movie was made for a mainstream audience they would have had that star-studded cast if it wasn't so obviously it's important to hear the general public's consensus but since I know the show pretty well hopefully I can elaborate more on the criticism and say more than just the CGI was terrible and destroy made no sense but first let me explain to you my history with the show so I've been involved in theater for quite a long time and like most theater kids I consider cats to be the gold standard for a bad musical it stood as this quintessential substance spectacle that threatened good theater this past summer I was getting over a string of failed auditions I haven't booked anything for the summer and I was kind of bummed out I was working at a musical theater summer camp and my counselor buddy was like hey the theaters hosting auditions for cats we should go and this is a theater that I've been trying to work out for a while and I was like screw it let's go audition for cats so I went to audition for my least favorite musical I went to the dance call I had a vocal appointment and that was it I really wanted to do a show just so badly and I hadn't gotten cast in a while and I kind of just gave up hope but then surprise surprise I got cast in my first professional adult production when I wasn't part of the kids chorus one of the first things that I told my dad was oh crap I'm gonna have to learn to light cats so I listen to the cats album non-stop I watched every documentary made on cats I watched the Tyler Haynes what's new pussycat vlogs for the second time I watched clips from the 1998 movie version over and over again and I walked in to the first day of rehearsal a changed woman I had drunk the cats kool-aid and I was the biggest cat's fan ever for the next month I lived and breathed cats I spent all of my time outside of rehearsal practice sing songs dances I really bond with my cast and we wanted to make sure that we put on a really great production we ran for three weeks we were sold out almost every single night we got really good reviews and we don't nominate for summer Awards - needless to say that production lied changed my life it was a great experience and I fell in love with cats and so me and my cats were really excited to see how they maybe screwed it all up okay now before I wrote the movie to shreds let's first talk about why the stage production of cats works so it really makes cats is the gorgeous dancing the playful characters and the incredible score written by Andrew Lloyd Webber it's usually regarded as a plotless musical and it's been ridiculed for years for not having a cohesive storyline and to that I say have you ever heard of a concept musical a Content musical is defined as a show that uses musical numbers and scenes to convey an overarching theme or message rather than move a plot along think of shows that company or Avenue cube these shows have done a great job of sending an overarching message rather than pushing along a plot where cats fails is that it doesn't fully commit to this concept musical style it includes loose plot elements that try to establish a weak storyline the first of which is obvious the musical numbers are taking place for a reason these cats are presenting their story on why they think that they should go to the Heaviside lair and get a new chance at life this is a good way to tie the musical elements together but Katz tries to go a step further by adding in some additional elements the main one that everyone is familiar with is that Grizabella a glamour that comes back and is trying to reunite with the cats try and when she's rejected she spends the rest musical lamenting and then there's the overarching threat throughout the whole musical that macavity the mystery cat is going to come and ruin the Jellicle ball halfway through the second act he's actually successful he infiltrates Jellicle ball he kidnapped old Deuteronomy which is basically cat Jesus and then Demeter and BOM ballerinas sing a song about him after that he fights monk a strap and then oh no cats have lost their Jellico leader what will they ever do and you kind of think that this story is going now it's all hands on deck to get back old Deuteronomy but now comes back in the next number because magical mistress awfully is is just such an incredible magical cat that it just brings them back these plot elements hinder the whole idea of the concept musical because you're sitting throughout the whole show and you know you're used to it you're like okay no story we're gonna hear from this cat we're gonna hear from that cat we're gonna find out what all these cats are so special and then old Deuteronomy gets kidnapped and it's like Oh are we going somewhere Oh or not we're just gonna what's gonna he's back now these elements do kind of ruin the concept musical feel but honestly people really pay attention to that because this show is a mega musical it's a spectacle do you wanna know the plot of cats is all tell you with the pod cats is cats is a musical about junkyard cats you take the audience on a journey through their Jellicle ball a time when they all gather come together and decide which cat gets to ascend to the Heaviside lair and get a new lease on life the cats introduce themselves and you meet many memorable characters there are the naive and innocent cats who are experienced about their first time there are the immature kittens who are trying to make the show all about themselves and cause a ton of commotion there are the adult cats who want to help other cats share their story there are the older ones who deserve to be reborn there's a cat is trying to ruin the ball by kidnapping all the kittens and another cat who just wants to be accepted back into the jelf will try they get a new lease on life there is beautiful choreography from Gillian Lynne a sweeping score by Andrew Lloyd Webber does an immersive set fantastic lighting skin-tight unitards of leg warmers and wigs made out of back hair it's genius and stupid it's crazy yet beautiful it's cats okay enough about that why does the movie suck that you can't really criticize the movie without pointing out the eyesore that is the CGI the CGI doesn't work for two reasons okay first it's just awful it's so poorly done and executed the human faces would like bounce off of the cat bodies whenever they would like step their feet would like be hovering over the ground and like their limbs would just like they keep twitching and like jerking around it looked awful even though the execution is bad what they were going for it just doesn't make sense you have these humanoid cats with like realistic tails no realistic ears and realistic fur but then they have human faces human hands human feet they somehow made them look more and less like cats at the same time I think that this photo that mike has made posted on our Facebook group just basically sums it all up what do you have to understand is that in the original London production they weren't trying to make them look like cats the creative team knew they weren't gonna make these humans look exactly like cats on stage there's just no way so they opted for a more avant-garde approach they had leg warmers and patches of fabric that were supposed to resemble fur without covering them all in fur they had tails that were loose and that were like tied around as a belt and the wigs weren't supposed to make their heads look like the heads of cats they were supposed to hand more feline features they very much developed their own style and honestly it works it keeps a human element while hinting at a cat element it's a good balance of these elements and it's done right and it's done practically what happens when you try to make them look like real cats this okay let's talk about the dancing I wasn't mesmerised by the dancing sure there were actors doing gorgeous leaps and turns but I didn't see that no what I saw was CGI animated cats doing gorgeous leaps and turns I know they're humans dancing underneath the CGI but the CGI was just so bad and looked so unrealistic that I didn't feel like it was a human dancing I felt like it was an animated character dancing and obviously when you see that happen you're like that's not really that impressive because it was made all digitally when you see a living breathing human doing that stuff you're impressed I wasn't impressed it just takes away that sense of all okay so I absolutely love the music to cats I think it's great and I was like you know what there's one thing that bad CGI can't hurt it's music oh I was so wrong no what can hurt music is money-hungry producers are trying so desperately to modernize me so you can keep it cool for the kids so the overture sound and I said we'll give them that they kept all the original orchestral elements which is one of my favorite parts of the show but then you have songs like Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats where they're trying to add in some new funky bees and it just sounds awful the cast music is straight out of the 1980s there's so many synthesizers it's just pure a you can you try to pull some of that out and make it modern it just doesn't work you got to go all or nothing and they tried to have it both ways and it sounded bad also the orchestra was overpowering and singing a lot which honestly might have been a good thing I think the biggest offenders in this room where the ensemble we just listened to Jellicle song surge all crap they all sound weak but you even a girl that how to sing the high seed you think they get a good soprano to do that what it is it's like flat also there are like no harmonies like in numbers like for rum tum tugger everyone's singing the melody I barely hear parts where people aren't just singing the melody and like come on give me your share of car cats as a purely dance musical and it's not it's not the singing is really hard and that goes for everyone the ensemble parts are really really difficult and if they don't have it on someone that can sing it oh my gosh just dub over it you have auto-tune you can do that type of stuff you can auto-tune what you have or you could dub over it but it just sounds and I don't like how they changed MUNGO JERRY and Rumple teaser to like this jazzy number like completely contradicts with what you're seeing on the screen you're seeing them like throw pay plates and rebook pillows and they're singing this like sexy jazz number oh we're doing all this no it's so much better when it's like this cute vaudeville number a sofa okay and like what the hell was going on with you two Dench is old Deuteronomy if you don't know old Deuteronomy cat Jesus the tenor and the notes that he sings are pretty high for a guy to say and it's really impressive you hear this great sound and there's so much gravitas - it's amazing it's amazing to hear it but they kept the notes exactly the same for Judi Dench they didn't even like change the octave at all and it's not that hard for a girl to sing that I mean you can have a girl with like a lower voice and it's like the moments of happiness just like that's not hard that's not hard like take it up an octave just to something they should have changed it vocally for her or just kept older on me as a guy okay so I'm gonna be positive for a second and acknowledge some good vocal performances so Francesca Hayward did really well I thought she did really well I mean I only know her as a ballerina and so I thought she sang very well Jennifer Hudson obviously killed it she did really really well it's a hard song to sing and she sang along so good for her Robert Fairchild he sounded really good at smile go strap I'll give him that and honestly I think Taylor Swift was that bad vocally in Macavity I think she's a bit breathy but she sounded oh pretty good honestly okay let's talk about the plot okay so the creative team decides take the very least plot that threatened the concept musical feel of cats and just drag it out I don't even know why would they do that it does not work it doesn't work okay so the story follows Victoria as she you know tries to join the Jellicle cat tribe throughout the movie she's introduced to each cat who is trying to go to the Heaviside lair she's acting in the rule of the audience for most of the performance there are many songs that are directed to the audience explained to them like what a Jellicle cat is and you know what types of names cats have but they're directed to her instead because she's kinda like a newcomer into this world but the second thing introduced a cat like they're magically take taken away by Macavity who is now in cahoots with bomb ballerina and growl tiger and griddle bone who are real in this version like turned hot opera characters they're real okay so Macavity is kidnapping these cats so that he's the only cat left to you know make his case for why he should go - have you said layer and okay I have a lot of problems with this Macavity wants to go to the Heaviside layer to get reborn as a new and innocent cat and get a new chance at life to be a good cat Macavity the Catholic kidnaps kittens that steals that cheat that god damn cards wants to go to the Heaviside lair cavitate out of all of the characters i would want to go to the heavyset leer he doesn't want to go there's no reason he would want to go you know you think that if you'd want to go there'd be some reason we find out about his backstory about how he wants to be good and there'd be this contrast between doing the wrong thing to get to the right place and you know doing saying bad to be able to right your wrongs but no no he's just the same Macavity that wants to kidnap kittens and you know ruin the Jellicle ball why does he want to go to the Heaviside lair if anything you'd want to stay and keep being evil it makes absolutely no sense just no sense at all okay so cavity kidnaps older on me now the pressures put on mr. Mistoffelees to bring older romney back mr. Hall please who is now meek and very shy in this version and crap magician so I understand why they wanted to make mr. Mistoffelees shy in this version and in him to have a very date you know weak grasp of his magical skills because it ends up you know creating more tension it's like oh well if this cat you know sucks at magic we ain't getting cat Jesus back and this ends up giving him a character arc but we don't have time for all these cats to have a character arc this is a concept musical we're introducing him as is and as is in in the song he's a great magical cat it contradicts all the lyrics he's supposed to be this great magician he's supposed to be able to throw cards and they all changed number I don't know I don't know why does he meet and shine this version mr. Mistoffelees on stage is absolutely incredible I saw the national tour and he came in from the ceiling his entire unitard lit up he made Cassandra's unitard light up he did like Ellie it had to be like 30 turns in second and like eight pirouettes this version robs us of the best number in the show and I hate it okay so older on me comes back Jennifer had singsong everyone cries it's so sad old wrong who says you can throw the heavy said later she sends her up in a chandelier go so the happy sad there she gets reborn yay yay good for crisabel oh and then we have the addressing of cats remember I always said that a lot of the musical numbers that were supposed to be directed at the audience are now directed at Victoria I feel like the producers they had this idea and then they got to the addressing of cats which is the final number and they're like oh crap you can't address this to Victoria so in the stage version they taped the humans throughout this journey of like what a Jellicle cat is and at the very end you're like okay what did you learn so your memory I'll jog a cat is not a dog it can't direct it at Victoria because of course you know the cat's not a dog she's being introduced to the concept of Jellico cats but this song the ending song is about how cats are individualistic and they're more like humans of course Victoria knows that she's a cat so then they direct it at the audience you can't bring the audience into it in the last five minutes of the show it must be bookended you must bring them in in the beginning you tell them the story of why Jellicle cats are so important and you shouldn't you know throw them in the garbage and then you finish it up and like what did we learn it's the first time in the whole movie that they directed it at the audience and we have five minutes left it makes no sense okay so in the end it heightened the loose plot enough to create that much tension and at the same time if you heighten the plot and you stop caring about all these different vignettes you stop caring about all these different songs when a cat's you know expressing why they're so special because we don't care why you're so special because this cat got kidnapped and this cat got kidnapped and there's a plot now one thing that I didn't like is they basically hindered the whole idea that this show is an ensemble piece by taking them out of the junkyard they show us where Buster gets us food they show us Jenny's roaches they show us skimble shanks is you know trained this honestly robs us of the heart of cats cats is about different Jellico cats coming together in a junkyard and acting out their livelihood they all work together and use the items in the junkyard to tell each other stories skimble shanks will grab a cone and you know pretend to be one of Jenny any dots is Mike's and then Jenny any dots we'll grab a wheel and pretend to be part of skimble shanks is trained it's cute it shows how they come together and they want to help each other tell each other stories they're all helping each other out the movie bruins is by a trying to make it a competition between them there's nothing in the source material that says that these cats were competing these cats were all abandoned these cats are all junkyard cats these cats all have terrible lives but they try to come together and help each other get to the Heaviside layer Jenny and edocs has her big number she has her big tap number and then she tells a story of bustopher trying to help him get there in this version we have a cat that just has a solo number and then we never really see them again they turned the delightful Gumby cat number into a horrific solo performed by rebel Wilson Jenny any dots is no longer singing about bustopher jones jelly Laura no longer tells Gus's story and demeanor bomb ballerina are no longer telling the Macavity story it's just Taylor Smith now this completely ruins the idea of all these cats helping each other out they have their solo numbers and they don't to the background it help tell other cats as stories you also squandered all the cats as individuality which is really important in this show in the beginning of the Jellicle bo we hear all these different cats you know they're all saying what they think a telco cat is Jellicle cats are white and black they're of moderate size they jump they have moonlit eyes not saying that all these cats have all these characteristics and you know they're all black and white all of you that eyes are saying some are small some are of moderate size some have moon eyes some jump really high in the movie they all sing this line no you're not rather small and of moderate size you're not this color and that color you don't have these characteristics and that characteristic or as well that doesn't make sense second of all the whole point of that is to say that Jellicle cats aren't just these random junkyard cats they have all these different characteristics they're individual they have these different things going for them in the movie when they all sing that it doesn't make it about them anymore it makes them about the whole collection and the whole point of cats is that hats are just like you and me they have their own personalities at the end of the show in addressing of cats old Ronnie basically says I hope that you can see that cats are like you and me they have different personality they have specific characteristics they like trains some of them like top numbers some of them like theater they're just like you and me I didn't see that at all no no I didn't see it there are a billion things I can say about this movie honestly I have enough of the headache just thinking about this I was up till 2:00 a.m. this morning I was on my phone I was watching videos oh speaking about cats what the hell was the scale okay sometimes they were like half the size of a doorframe sometimes they were like this small like on the rail what is that scale why is Bombay Arena now in cahoots with Macavity what's up with that where's Demeter where's Joel or honestly if the CGI wasn't that bad it would still suck it would still suck it would still I think it would still suck I think this is the worst thing ever Kenneth was already weird enough yeah do you see this costume do you see this all is basically like nude on stage the whole time for three weeks cats is weird it's a weird show they made it oh oh so much worse I am just mad I was starting to like cats I started like it I was like you know what this is cool this musical is cool I like it I like it I like it I like cats that movie was awful that movie was absolutely terrible I think the biggest takeaway is that movie didn't make me leave the theater dancing it didn't make me leave theater singing the songs it didn't put me in that mood I'm not entirely sure why it could have been the issues I highlighted it could have been something else I mean granted when the credits are rolling and they were playing Java ball in my entire cast you had to try to get every seat in that very small feeder we're dancing along with our original choreography and really freaking out the people behind us who had try to get us kicked out of that fear more than once if you saw the cats movie and we're horrified which you should have been I beg you please don't give up on this show go see it in person cats is a crazy show but it just has to be digested in the proper medium and I hope that you give it another chance the national tour that's based off of the most recent revival of the show is currently traveling around North America and there is a 1998 version a recording of the London production but you can find on the web I will leave links to those down below okay well um okay so I just spent the last 24 hours thinking of the cat's movie and I think I'm actually going insane um I'm gonna go watch The Music Man an actual good movie musical to clear my sinuses thank you all for watching and always remember a cat is not a dog 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Channel: Alison Marie

Views: 808,332

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Id: 1hL-3MRle7o

Length: 23min 55sec (1435 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 29 2019