I am so dirty that he had to mute it. Universal im never watching your crappy movie. I am only even thinking about it because fantastic and talented people like sideways talk about it
It may be my bizarre concept, but I think it suits the song (not saying it's good) since Gus is meant to be a wash up but still respected. The music reflects someone putting their best but fumbling along the way.
You can just tell he's having a mental breakdown in this part. His singing's off tone and off key, he looks like he''d rather get a beer and go to bed, and he looks out of breath and exhausted.
How ironic. Back in 1993, Ian McKellen starred in a movie called Six Degrees of Separation in which there was a scene where his character was convinced that the musical Cats could never be made into a film.
“So Ian, why did you decide to accept the role in Cats?” “Well I made a bet with Patrick Stewart that I couldn’t be in a worse film than The Emoji Movie. I think it’s safe to say I won that bet by a landslide”
Anyone think Patrick Stewart should've been Gus instead? I get McKellen is supposed to sound old and weary but it still isn't something that's nice to listen to for a long time. I think Stewart could've balanced old and weary and lovely and angelic better.
I understand the sentiment here, but actually it usually IS the other way around with professional theatre. To a degree (key phrase), the orchestra is supposed to follow the performer, especially if they make a mistake or skip something or fall out of time. But you are correct; if the music is not being performed live, then have the actors sing along to a track or a metronome, at least. It is such a disaster to have the orchestra and conductor memorize how the actors randomly decided they were going to perform for that given take and try to follow along.
Oh! So it is. That's the kind of stuff the 1998 stage version is full of, because there's only one set and there's multiple chorus cats there pretty much all the time, so there's always something going on in the wings or the back of the frame. That's the beauty of live theater, since it lets you look past center stage and peek at all the stuff going on in the side.
So, I have listened to the musical version a lot lately and having Gus sing without Jellylorum really changes the tone of the song. This is much more "braggy," which dilutes the power of the song. In the original it was kind of ambiguous how much of what Gus claimed about his past was true, but he clearly had left enough of a mark that the older cats still remembered him and his career, even if the younger cats had never heard of him. Here you don't get that feeling. Musical Gus is a relic, Movie Gus is not.
Yeah it sort of clashes because he sounds at once like he's bragging about his achievements but also mocking himself at the same time. And he also sounds a bit like he's lost his mind with some of the ways he uses third person, like a confused old man having an episode. They should have changed the song way more if they wanted him to sing it.
Sir Ian McKellen deserved better than this travesty. They really embarassed him in this godawful mess, much like how Al Pacino was utterly embarassed in Jack and Jill.
I *PERSONALLY* like to think Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart were doing BFFF things and shenanigans and stumbled upon set and as a form of get, Patrick Stewart dared Ian to walk on set to do this one this and what you are here are seeing is the end result. Everyone was shocked to see Ian, they credited him.... Also I am certain Patrick is one of the Cat extras but which one? That is upfor speculation but I like to imagine he is somewhere there, snickering.
Getting really tired of this notion that speak-singing is a more "natural" and "compelling" way of conveying a character's emotions in song. The music and lyrics were specifically MADE to convey exactly what they are feeling. Seeing a professional actor sing the song in key and on beat WHILE giving a good performance is a huge part of why people enjoy musicals. Anyone can sing offbeat and off-key, which is why having actors do it just mangles the song without adding anything of worth. I love Ian McKellen, but I hope the failure of this movie keeps Hollywood's craving for "realism" away from musicals.
Sondheim said he looked for actors who could sing, not singers who could act. Some of the most fantastic renditions have strong emoting, but are created together and rehearsed. Forcing the piano and the orchestra to follow only the actor, in absence of the musical structure, broke this performance. It could have been fantastic. McKellen's performance could have been great.
I think this movie broke the curse that Les Mis casted. (Did you notice that the live-action musicals after Les Mis emphasize realism? La La Land even tried the same gimmick.) Maybe people finally realize that Oscar-bait live action musicals aren’t just not good but also dangerous.
@@ezelfrancisco1349 Then there were movies like Annie (2014) that openly mock the concept of musicals and joke how it would never happen in most realistic settings. Literally almost every song has at least one moment where a character that makes a quip about a character singing.
The fact that you can hear the orchestra struggling to keep up with him only makes this scene even more difficult to watch. • _____ • For reference, in most musicals, the actors sing to the already planned tempo of a song. But in this movie! The director had the orchestra adjust to the actors, which was extremely hard for the orchestra to play to. They basically had to predict every other note. Really bad
Ian McKellen made this movie worth watching. He was a perfect fit for the role as the actor who is on the last of his nine lives and the melancholy undertones of his performance made him the most captivating part of the movie. I have nothing but respect and admiration for this man
@@jelliclecatjeezisz8485 yeah, in the slander the rest was, this one actualy holds charm and gets the idea this number was about across . . . . I miss the care showen in the show, where even if they sing their own song, they get support and most often get introduced my someone else . . .cat is about interaction and care, Solos do not show this, nur here they cast someone with an apropriate age who understands the situation the character is in . . . Other as like jennyanydots who got cast way to young and redicioulus where she was ment to be a dignefied strict aunt teaching you Mannes and skills so you would have a better life . . I just see this as a seperat thing from the abormination most of the movie was
@@SingingSealRiana let's face it, only the Gumby cat and Bustopher Jones (and the naked Macavity) were truly bad. But they were all due to bad directorial decisions.
I love how Gus looks at his paw after nailing that last note and the thunder was cued by Mr. Mistoffelees, as though to say, "To think, after all these years, I still got it..."
He's now a screen and stage legend, just like Sir John Gielgud, who played Gus on the original production of 'Cats.' The role fits them well as elder statesmen of the British acting industry.
He was pretty great. I thought James Corden and Rebel Wilson were actually good too. Too bad they're duplicitous. Tswift was also great as was Jhud and Francesca Hayward. Dame Dench... obviously. Ok, so everyone was great.
@@connorlove9149 The moral of the story is actually spay and neuter your pets; Dont put your pets outside; Dont treat pets, in general, like ish. But stay in your cat hating ways. All of zero CATS fans have been phased by the baseless opinions of netizens such as yaself.
For as much utter love and respect that I have for sir Ian McKellen; it's sad to see him in this tragic state. If only he'd been given the chance to act this role in an even remotely good circumstance, I'm sure he could've done wonders. This is just tragic to watch.
I saw a review that said every actor thought they were in a different movie, but they should all wish to be in the movie Ian Mckellen thought he was in
Ya I highly doubt that. Most of the performers here are careered theatre professionals. They get Cats. And if you go watch any interviews with Idris, Taylor, Francesca, and 2 early performers I shall not name, they all were familiar. If anyone wasn't getting it, they probably generally don't care too much about jobs they are hired for.
Honestly that's the point of Gus as a character. He was one of great acclaim and praise, but now is a shell of that promise. Weather or not Ian brought parallels to how his own carrier is either up for debate or him to dismiss
Agree. I thought Taylor Swift, Francesca Hayward, Jason DeRulo, and Idris were also great. Rebel Wilson and James Corden, too, though they've since decided to be duplicitous cash grabbing naysayers.
The movie I felt had quite a few redeeming qualities... some of them very minor. I liked the Idea of the Tap Dancing to make the sounds of a train for skimble shanks which I had never seen before... and Beautiful ghosts was a very good song that established the emotions it was supposed... it just REALLY did not belong in cats... it was jarring Anyone who knew nothing about cats could point out the song that was new.
I thought Idris Elba, Jason Derulo, Francesca Hayward, and Taylor Swift did phenomenal jobs. Even Rebel Wilson and James Corden were good despite their current status of lambasting Tom Hooper after their checks dried. Glad we do have video evidence of James groveling over Tom's genius during filming. Duplicity at its finest.
@@jelliclecatjeezisz8485 The problem is not with how good they are acting/singing (even though in half of the scenes are not even really singing). The problem is the awful change of background that Hooper decided to give to some of the characters, as well as his awful choice regarding technology. _Cats_ just can't work as a movie, and he made it work even worse, in my opinion
@@fefifofum7434 well he caries the meaning of the song very well, gus song does not need to be polished, it has to convay emotion and casting an actor, who feels similarly to gus and has cute granpa vibes definitly does the job . . .the movie has a lot of problems, this is not one of them . . . Especialy in contrast to jennyanydots . . .thatone is a dumpster fire
@@SingingSealRiana interesting enough he is the only cat actor who actually lived his character's life, he has been in Shakespeare plays and movies. so both the Shakespeare plays and the reference to how theatre has changed over time fit him.
@@SingingSealRiana What? I don't get it. this is a musical. I love him, but hearing how the orchestra are trying to work around this pacing nightmare is painful. (BTW, not the actors fault, he's just following whatever direction he was given)
My god the clarinet in the backing track. I’m here from Sideways’ Cats video since the audio was content ID’d, and... yeah as a musician it must’ve been hell recording for this.
they may have butchered the songs, but Sir Ian McKellen as Gus... 👌 Brilliant casting choice for multiple reasons: He is the right age, he has the right presence and theatre these days is definitely not what it used to be when he was in his prime, so doubtless some of the feelings he was having were genuine... Poor guy.
This highlights Ian's prowess as an actor, and also is kinda ironic. He sings about how kittens don't respect older ways of doing things. This movie is a prime example of how new effects like CGI don't always make movies good. Cats is such a great musical partly because of all the practical elements. Yet this movie strips the musical of that. This is the best song in the movie imo. Thank you Sir Ian Mckellen. You managed to bring about one of the few things in this movie I liked.
Remember; everyone were singing live. It's all authentic. I've grown up with cats, my birthday present was tickets to Cats. My father and I went alone to the movies to watch this, and we both cried. There are of course things I would have changed (mungojerrie and rumpelteazer is way better in the original), but it's still good, and most of you just say it's bad because it's basically a meme to call it bad. It's so sad that people don't have their own opinion..
xkjekzx I totally agree with you. This is a remarkable movie. Costumes, acting almost everything was perfect! Cats in the original musical are grotesque and very vulgar. Cats in the movie are very nice and believable.
There are so many musical issues with this movie, besides how they screwed over the CGI department for something that was the direction and design faults. And I would love to get into it, but Sideways explains it so much better that I ever could. So I would recomend watching his video of "Why the Music in Cats (2019) is Worse than you Thought"
Why is everyone picking on this movie? Can’t we just appreciate all the time and effort that went into it? Cats has really great animation and plenty of things to like. Especially during COVID, being negative only makes things worse.
At least not after the trailer dropped. From my understanding, the talent assumed they were going to be fully CG characters, not... what we ended up with.
They took what made this song special in the original and completely ripped it to shreds. I do love that you can see Skimbleshanks preparing in the background like he does in the stage show.
There’s a dream like quality to this, and not in a good way, you have no idea what’s going on, the music is flitting around everything, it feels like your brains freakish attempt at recreating a memory of something you saw on tv 17 years ago
I like only this number better than the original. The fact he wasn't sad at the fact he could not play Firefrorefiddle, but that many of his friends are probably not around anymore.
As a movie, this is a disaster, but Ian McKellen is truly emotional and compelling here. The slow, ad-libbed style of the song makes you feel the actual melancholy behind it.
You know, Maiar spirits can take whatever from they want, and being that they are immortal by nature.... I mean... I'm just throwing that out out there.
Amazing! I love him as an actor, I feel it's very relatable to him as an actor in his old age. I love sir McKellen's version, I really like the emotion that the original Broadway version gave.... But I feel that Sir McKellen is relating more to being an ol' theater cat. I really wish he would have brought forward the fear feeling that the Broadway version did. ( if you haven't seen the original Broadway version, it actually has someone dressed up that comes in the background and it has lit up eyes and stuff when he references the character... Loved it)
Ian was one of the best parts of this movie. He is no singer but he actually sounded decent here, and I think this was one of the best songs of the entire movie. This movie is bad, but not nearly as bad as others made it out to be. To me, it is a guilty pleasure so bad it's good movie for me. The singing I enjoyed, the acting was pretty decent, it was just the CG, humor and story I didn't like.
He isn't singing. He's speaking to the rhythm of the piece. Traditional background music would have served this scene better than trying to treat this as a song.
To people commenting how Ian was dragged into an awful movie... I strongly disagree! The movie was strange, yes, but Gus is such an amazing character and this scene is so beautiful and Ian does such an amazing job here, that i simply think this is one of his best roles.
What? One of his best roles, the best part of the musical movie, is him being directed to not really sing a musical number? He is a great actor... but... what?
god... listening to the flute trying to keep up with the inconsistent tempo is a nightmare. Tom Hooper shouldn't be allowed fo direct film adaptations of musicals ever again...
There are only two cats in this whole movie that have the faces to actually make it look like they belong on their body. Number one being Gus the theater cat and skimbl shanks the railway cat. Honerable mentions go to Deuteronomy and mustopholies. Ironically the two good looking ones also happen to be two of the five good scenes in this whole movie. The other three being memory (end varient), Victoria's entry, and last but not least macavity musical number purely for who they got to sing it clearly having the I do not care what I look like face during the whole time she was on screen. Anyone got anything to say on what I just said?
Maybe because it didn't have much of a plot or crappy CGI. Tbh this movie is a guilty pleasure for me, and I call this movie a so bad it is good movie.
I feel so sorry for Ian Mckellen, but his singing is so bad, Jesus, the original song was like a beautiful and heartbreaking lullaby about an actor that's now past his prime, and yearns for the past, and that lullaby feel came mostly from the beautiful voice of Jellylorum.
