Why the Music in Cats (2019) is Worse than you Thought 

legit my tought

I would say "and it was better than the actual movie" but thats not exactly a *high* bar to jump over

@@brunop.8745 I don’t think you even need to jump to get over that bar

@@asterisk4540 Yeah it seems like a bar that is quite far underground

Dude did you even watch the film?

^^^ this is 100% IT!!

Pretty much. That $200 million budget has to have mostly gone to securing huge names: Taylor Swift, Jason DeRulo, Judy Dench, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson, so on, these are all people who can demand a fatass paycheck because of their star power. I sure as shit know that if I'm Ian McKellen I'm not showing up and doing a half-removed impression of a character I already portrayed for 15 years while saying "meow meow meow" for anything less than the price of a new mansion. So to bring down the cost, you gotta accommodate the actors' egos too! That means that instead of being sung _about_ (the Gumby Cat section portrayed that pretty well, the Gumby Cat barely says anything about herself and most of the lyrics are delivered by the Andrew Sisters-esque trio), they have to sing it themselves, about themselves, about how awesome and cool they are, and then the music is bent to fit them instead of them bending to fit the music as every performer in history prior has done.

Lol yes show off the actors that we covered in cgi

Not even. It was all, evidently, a gigantic monument to Hooper's hubris and abusive devotion to overengineered technological spectacle. Man doesn't give a shit about actors, he made them all sing until their throats risked permanent damage on Les Mis. Make no mistake, this was just the Tom Hooper Can Do Anything show.

Jason Derulo: "Jason Derulo"

Yeah, it's a mistake a lot of adaptations make, they treat the themes and elements of a story as just ambience or tonal choices. Always frustrating.

YES! Musicals are not just a story with a bunch of songs, it is the songs that make the story, they matter. Yes, I am here after 2 years cause this musical offense still make me angry and I love this dude

@@isabelafreitas8438oh my god same im just waiting for sideways’ comeback if it ever happens

It's really amazing how they managed to fudge up every aspect of this really very straightforward concept. I mean there just isn't that much to leave out, but they managed. Song and dance? Remove the rhythm. A cast of interesting, individual cats? Can barely tell them apart. A story about a cat who's desperate to be touched? Not that important.

It's still funny how a song flatout has the lyrics of "a ginger cat".......so of course he's a black cat in this adaptation. Did they think no one would care?

omg I didn't notice that, what wonderful visual storytelling!! I agree; the more I understand about the play CATS the more I realize how much of a disservice the movie was (and wish we got a movie that did the source material justice)

I like when people have the complaint of like, “I’m not even fucked about the story but the art of storytelling was debased here, characterization! Visual storytelling! The purpose of visuals beyond theater of the mind!” And I’m just like yeah you get it

I noticed this for the first time during this video, and it smacked me in the face when Grizabella literally belts "TOUCH ME". Cats are social groomers, so the fact she can't take care of herself yet the other cats aren't taking care of her just deeply emphasizes how ostracized she is! We cat moms know though lol Cats is truly a fantastic musical about weird cats for weird cat people lol

Bingo!

​@@ernie39Cats barely uses the music to tell its story and I love it!!

this is the most accurate thing ive ever heard

Funny that his best movie, The King's Speech, is just a straight well made drama film, no gimmicks or anything.

Quint: "Well it proves one thing, Mr. Hooper. It proves that you wealthy college boys don't have the education enough to admit when you're wrong."

... but also has literally no understanding about how the wheel is shaped or why it's shape is significant... 🙄

Simple but powerful analogy. Producers and Directors who want to change up well loved classics need to first truly understand what they're changing and know exactly why and what they're altering. Changing things for the sake of doing something different isn't enough. They did a similar thing with Ghost in the Shell, the director loved the anime and remembers some pretty iconic scenes, but in interviews he doesn't seem to grasp some of the deeper concepts behind the storytelling and the live action movie suffered as a result, it felt more like a collection of the amazing memorable scenes from the anime patched together with a generic Hollywood "antagonist is actually from the protagonist's forgotten past and the real antagonist was controlling the protagonist all along" plot.

It was, because the movie was that bad that no one forgot it sucked.

Perhaps making Cats has convinced God to torture us.

2020 was so shit we're just erasing it from our memory as soon as we don't have to deal with it.

Well, this year hasn't felt like a year.

And yet at the same time it's felt like a decade.

this would have made a funny skit

oh my god im wheezing

This comment is literally funnier than any one of Rebel Wilson's lines in cats

This is the greatest thing ive ever read!

Rebel Wilson was not come to this world to be funny, but to die a Virgin!

He could have saved the movie if he was allowed 😢

That's my favorite line in this entire video. It always gets a laugh out of me.

The hero we didn't need, want, or deserve but got.

It's a better build up than the movie ever had.

Yes

@@teenytinyredhead3817 Lol

Totally a rehash of me, a Cats newb, watching this movie with my friend who actually liked the original and watching her slow boil over as it dragged on xD

666th like

Is that why some places are silent and others have random music in place of the video/talking?

@@euwue yes

I thought my device had a problem

Thank you! I was looking through the comments for an explanation of the long silences and musical breaks. I thought my phone was screwed up a bit.

I see that everyone here didn't read the description

Any OTHER musical. This one is based on the poems of T. S. Eliot and when Andrew Lloyd Weber first began writing the songs, he went to Eliot's widow who was still alive and she said, "Promise me you won't turn them into cartoon characters."

Howard Ashman himself said that musicals work extremely well in an animated film while discussing The Little Mermaid.

@@ManofevilWhy? Did she hate cartoons that much? And is that why this movie that was supposed to be animated end up like this?

I don't know, An American in Paris, Singing in the Rain, Hello Dolly, those movies really worked on their own. They just need to learn why the methods that produced those movies worked, not just resign to dishing out amateurish visual feasts with no sense of composition or artistic cohesion.

@@guitarbrother1234 That's true. I think specifically when it comes to having stories with anthropomorphic characters, it should at least be partially animated, like some sort of Who Framed Roger Rabbit type of scenario.

Yeah that's one thing I felt. Like the whole story of how hooper treated his orchestra sounded abusive.

It's like he's trying to get some weird praise. Like as if he feels like he had this big vision and made it come true despite these super huge annoying hurdles like tempo lmfao. It's truly unfortunate he keeps being allowed to butcher some of the most gorgeous stage music ever, and then THATS the version people know.

@@otter.mayhem I'm just thrilled that it probably won't happen for Tommy-Tom-Tombo a third time. Sure, Le Mis (2012) _somehow_ stumbled ass-backwards into 3 Academy Awards, but the sheer embarrassing trainwreck that is Cats (2019) has all but ensured that he won't have this level of creative control over a musical again. They might let him direct another, but he'll have far less freedom to actively fuck-up everything. That's my bet and I'm placing it.

its like he thinks hes revolutionary, but doesnt realise nobody else is doing what hes doing because its just a bad idea

It sounds like he thought direxting an orchestra is no different than an actor.

It's absolutely POGGERS

As a Musical Theatre kid who is now studying music as a minor in college imma let you in on a lil secret......a lot of us actually enjoy Cats we just hide it because it’s one of the first Pop Musicals that normies watched

but musical Cats is actually great

@caro I get the impression that he loves some parts of it, but thinks it’s just okay overall. I’m pretty sure his favorite musical is West Side Story.

Yeah! A good sidecar to this one would be Lindsay Ellis' video on Cats. I bet it's even in the sidebar of this one. She's great ♥

Is that why some places are silent and others have random music in place of the video/talking?

@@euwue Yes

Thank you for pointing this out. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my headphones.

Well of course! He's not praising them so no one needs to hear they're music in his video! Especially since the pieces muted were the some of the worst and most disappointing numbers in the flick. At this point we're lucky they haven't tried to have it taken down. 😡

I kept trying to figure out what was wrong!! Omg it was driving me crazy. What’s funny is he played chunks of what they kept muting before in the video!!

"Hal...it's about cats."

Your profile picture I-

my dude your profile picture could cause people ptsd attacks lmao

Are you sure that it's only your laughter?

@@yellowjellow5744 what’s the pfp?

Feel better soon!

@Mickenzie McGraw What I meant to say is that sideways thinks we only care about music when it's related to a movie

@@Isa-lh2mw fuck that, college let us down, explain everything with a personal angle!!!!

I don't know shit about music or most of the movies he's talked about, I just like hearing him talk

@@ashikjaman1940 I know right?! it's so weirdly entertaining for me to just listen to someone talk about something they're passionate about or even just someone who really knows their stuff 😂😂

@@rougedionisio2057 I think you hit right on what makes listening to him talk about music so engaging. The emotion, the passion, the fervor, its engaging. I could listen to Sideways go on musical tangents for hours upon hours. Pretty sure I've listened to him talk about Cats for over 24 full hours at this point, just playing this video again on a second monitor.

Agreed. Also, in a theatre it was just set in a simple junk yard - nothing distracting - which made it easier to focus on the performers and the story itself. The movie tried to create an over the top real world story that just took away the immersion.

That's one of the reasons that I don't think of all the touching as too strange or even sometimes sexual like a lot of other people do because... that's just kind of how cats are.

@@mastermarkus5307Thank you!

​@@mastermarkus5307💯 That's why the toxic masculinity boys will proclaim how they hate cats, they are so openly affectionate in a more physical way than dogs, I think that's part of it.

​@@mastermarkus5307 that's actually a really good point. Cats are always touching each other and the things they love. For example, my cat likes to be RIGHT next to you, and she'll fall asleep ON your feet.

YUP.

Along with Avatar and Eragon

Legitimate rants are so cathartic to listen to😂

same with star wars sequels and stuff i saw so many videos on those movies before actually watching them they just feel really satisfying

@@IssyCoonify oh we just pretend avatar didn’t exist

No, non of them being in beat is the inevitable result of that decision.

@@Apfelstrudl Except for the few who actually were on beat like Skimbleshankes

@@Apfelstrudl That's what happens when you cast mostly actors who don't have any professional singing and dancing experience. This isn't to say they can't ever be cast in a musical, but they're going to need training in that department instead of being told to "just do whatever."

@@6thgraderfriends exactly that.

Directors really need to get it into their heads (again) that actors, even expensive, well-awarded veterans, don't automatically come with all the skills needed to pull off your film. Whether it's pulling off stunts, learning an unfamiliar accent, or learning to sing professionally, you need to actually hire experts to coach your talent if you want them to be good, and especially if you want the performances to match.

I couldn’t agree more dude Like yes, Macavity the Mystery Cat is a very suggestive song but Bombalurina and Demeter both clearly don’t like Macavity. And getting rid of Demeter is so dumb it pisses me off to an unreasonable level. Like you have these two cats that are pretty damn different personality wise but still work well together, but nnnOOOOO Taylor Swift needs a solo 🥺🥺

​@@vikaaaaaa Demeter is in the movie, but you wouldn't know it's her because they turned her into a Russian Blue for some reason. Instead of being Bombalurina's best friend, she now hangs out with Cassandra, who also looks completely different that she suffers the same problem with Demeter regarding her recognizability. I actually had to pause the movie to go to the wiki to check these two female cats' names because they looked so unremarkable.

@@lmahu6627 yeah, I actually watched the movie recently, I never actually looked the character’s names up but I got a pretty good idea of who Demeter was. I’m glad she at least had a part, considering that she was pretty important to the original musical.

I think it's supposed to be implied Demeter and Bombalurina are sisters and they have history with Macavity, which is why they do the song about him. Still, they definitely hate him so wtf movie

and from a musical standpoint, they did taylor a huge disservice by giving her a duet to sing solo. ESPECIALLY because the mcavity song is not at all her style- i feel like she would’ve done 10x better if they just gave her a partner rather than try to piggyback off of her success (and i know i have a taylor pfp but it still stands!)

Watching the movie in theaters was the aural equivalent of _squinting my ears_

The instrumentation is also very inconsistent. It can't decide between synthesizers or a full orchestra, frequently in the same song.

Not only that, but this is the least questionable example of criticism and education imaginable.

Bruh this is like when Nintendo canned those fan-made CDI Zelda Remasters.

@@johnnyspeedboat6656 They were trying to sweep it under the rug I suppose.

wait - is THAT what's going on?! I'm sitting here listening to some of his points - and then suddently he's interrupted by some...8bit version of "The Girl from Ipanema"...-ish...

@@FunnyFungus I remember the first time I saw this video that one could hear the parts when Mr Mistofolees (please ignor the misspelling) and Gus singing/talking (yes, I mean you Mr. M) their songs. But the next time, they had either other music or just silence over them. And I can remember clearly that you could hear them before, because I remember reacting to what he said about Gus' song.

Holy shit your right

You are absolutely right. The most unfair part is that CATS was originally going to be an animated movie directed by Steven Spielberg but later scrapped for unknown reasons.

I watched the whole thing, and I've watched Lindsay ellises video essay multiple times. I've never seen Cats. 😆

Just like MauLer’s TLJ and TFA Critiques!

I watched 50 minutes and then just realised I'd just watched 50 minutes

And it’s a lot of parts where he is about to make a point, and then it just has to drop out.

He should be allowed to use any music he wants!

I will occasionally by sheer accident cheer myself up during moments of utter frustration just because "Hey Tom! Tommy! Tombo! MY MAN!" pops into my head. It's so fucking glorious.

Lol my uncle is named Tommy. I've hit him with that before.

i could not agree more

I think it could have worked. Him singing the song ruined it. If he was confident, him singing about how great he is would make him unlikable. The song would basically be: hey, I am so smart and clever, look at all this shit I can do. Have other people sing it (like in the show)and give him confidence to do the shit. Making all the songs be about the people singing them hurt a lot of songs. You could even have a small moment with Rum Tum if you want to acknowledge how gay they are in the show. You could still cut it out for China if you want to cater to people who are stupid.

Ikr! He’s not demure!!

Ikr. I also hate how they took away Misto and Tuggers friendship. That’s made me so mad.

schjsdhfgmhtf agreed

I would give anything to see their faces when he told them to "make it sound less romantic"

He’s that one high school band director that your band director asks to come “do a workshop”, and then after “the workshop,” your band director just says, “yeah, disregard everything he said, actually”

@@skyeoak3 🤣 mine was a fucking creep and he’s still working at the school luckily not the band director but music theory and he’s the reason I don’t take it

Damage control. It was well-known that he treated the orchestra horribly during the filming of "Les Miserables". I guess, Hooper's next special features would be about him being sweet and decent towards the CGI team.

i am BAFFLED that they kept in the director's frustrations as if it was some kind of brag

@@mammoneymelon, he was suffering for the art.

Her agent(s) did her SO dirty is criminal

Judi Dench was the original cast for Grizabella way back. Unfortunately, she injured her foot during rehearsal. And then Elaine Paige got the role of Grizabella. So I get casting her as a nod to her history with Cats.

I think it's even worse than a failure

@@royal3809 A disgraceful insult to the craft would be my take

They’re just trying to get some money that they didn’t get from the movie 😆

What siedways is doing is criticism and review. Completely protected under fair use. It's infuriating that they were able to get away with copystriking considering: a. People often get away with a lot more b. Legally the studio is in the wrong for copystriking something which is not arguably, but *clearly* under fair use

To be true it might not be 100% fair use. It would be without video though.

I noticed that too and it took me out of it more than the CGI because that is at least consistent. It's also really sad because I actually liked the set design but I couldn't focus on it.

I think it's that they are cat-sized but when you then give them human proportions they look slighter and wispier than a cat at that size. They don't fit.

@@EvanCWaters but they're not cat sized in the dancing scene on the train tracks, right? they're tiny there!

what about the heads of the cats being so oddly proportioned?! on the movie version

They aren't alive. Its dream like because they're dead.

Doesn't he still have a link to a copy that isn't full of copyright mutes? In the description.

Tbf both of those sound more fun to watch than cats (2019)

I HAD NO CLUE WHAT THAT WAS AND NONE OF THE COMMENTS WERE TALKING ABT IT

I THOUGHT IT WAS SOME SICK JOKE I DIDNT GET

@@chunky16 lol nope, his old video got taken down for “copyright” so he edited it.

I went and looked up a clip of that bit.. .. my god it was bad. After watching some of this video, it made me buy and watch Cats (the good one) .. and wow, just, the difference was crazy.. the Gus in the 98 one was sad and made me cry a bit, but I also liked how he started out really old, but then as the song continued, he perked up a lot and got more animated, as he relived his memories (gee, maybe a theme).. it was just great Then you got this one and it's like.. he doesn't get spoken for at the start, his paws aren't even particularly shaking like he damn says (not sings) they are.. and he just seems to sorta.. keep most of the same energy the entire song. Which I would describe as 'old'

It's also not how copyright works. This is literally textbook fair use.

Definitely - the show itself is very misunderstood and dismissed because it’s more of a concept musical than the more conventional type with protagonists, plot etc. It’s great and unique 😊

You should definitely check out Maggie Mae Fish’s video essay on Cats and T.S. Elliot.

Right? And it pisses me off so much because before the film came out, the stage version was generally regarded as a good musical, both by audiences and critics, it was a kind of a weird little classic. No one thought it was ugly, or attacked it for 'having no story', they understood that it was an odd, dreamy spectacle, and great at that.

Lindsay Ellis video essay seemed like, while she didn’t personally get Cats, she still understood the why and where the musical worked where the movie didn’t.

@@maikenzupancicdanko9377 In theatre circles, there are actually a LOT of snobs who dismiss and deride Cats, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's work in general, for being populist trash with no substance. And this was even before Cats the movie came out. There's been debates about this even dating back to when Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" beat Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods" at the Tonys for Best Musical in 1988. To many people both familiar and unfamiliar with musical theatre, Cats' success is dumbfounding.

I got to do that too!! And one of the pieces we did was the flamingo thing from one of the fantasias. Funny part about that one, the click track *wasn't * even, but that was because the original orchestra hadn't been and the animation followed the music, instead of the other way round.

My theater class got to this as well, but with vocals instead!

I'd add "leitmotif" but I don't want people dying five minutes into every video.

That third one has a bit of irony to it

Dies illa

His video on Sweeny Todd would be considered a murder weapon

@@teganhunter9977 solvet saeclum

You don't have to imagine it - it actually happened! Not surprising considering that Universal and UMG had also covered up a massive archival fire that ended up destroying the original master tapes for a century's worth of artists. The joys of bureaucracies valuing copyright over both art and artists... :(

@@matthewfloyd2195 Oh is this why there's random cuts in audio in the video?

​@@cammo353 Sadly yes it is the reason why! Sideways had to insert random cuts so that his video would stay up, as UMG had claimed it as violating copyright.... despite him critically reviewing/analyzing the film, which does count as fair use. Even for terrible media, corporations will always exploit systems just to claim ownership of their property rights, almost aways at the common good's expense. :(

Yeah I thought that it was playing on the different things they were playing in the performers ears.

Did anybody actually download the original one?

fun little factoid, Page originated the role in the west end in 1981, she replaced Judi Dench 4 days before opening night! Which goes ot show Dench's performance is all directorial in this movie to boot! Jeeze he has somthing to answer for!

​@@GeekySquidoo quick question, you do realise that factoid means false fact, yes?

"Factoid" has two distinct meanings, one of which might imply a falsehood, while the other does not: 1. Originally, "factoid" referred to a piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact, although it is not necessarily true or is outright false, simply because it is widely repeated and circulated. In this sense, a factoid is something that resembles a fact but is not factually accurate. 2. Over time, "factoid" has also come to mean a brief or trivial piece of factual information. In this usage, a factoid is not necessarily false but is a small, interesting fact. The CONTEXT in which "factoid" is used determines which meaning is intended.

100 PERCENT YES AGREED

This but also I've never seen or heard the stage performance 😂

BIG SAMEEEE

What makes it better is that is roasting full of totally valid reasons and fundaments

@@chloeelimam3899 OMG SAME

@@RuleroftheSandcastle he calls Tom Hooper Tomathy in the vid as a joke

I read this as he said it lmao

Yes. Even my individualistic grade-school ass would have been like, "The hell?"

I'm a drummer and this is basically the musical equivalent of just stabbing a baby in the face on stage. If there's a click track you fucking play to the click. The thing about getting off-tempo the way they clearly are is that this ultimately ends up sounding like just sounds being laid on top of each other rather than actually, you know, music.

Those poor souls in the orchestra... I bet they still wake up in a cold sweat.

How to give people in an orchestra PTSD

@@2480hanna having done orchestral work to weird tempos with soloists I can confirm that it is an absolute nightmare. That singer really butchered Purcell... T.T

Oof lol

Agreed.

I mean, he has made some incredible films. Cats was just not good.

We could already tell that by how he treated actors for Les Mis.

he id horrible doing musical

IT HAPPENS AGAIN AT 47:13 AND IT SOUND LIKE ITS CENSORING A HEINOUS INSULT TO THE PERFORMANCE

Why start now?

[Monkey Paw finger curls] Granted, all musicals are now directed by late 90s and early 2000s music video directors

Oh wow ya don't say

@@thomasgiles2876 this means michael bay is now back on crack Sorry i mean track

Imagine that

On the contrary, this video made me hate the musical even more.

@@Soitisisit why?

@@emmyloveslosing4107 Better understanding of just how bad the musical is in the first place.

@@Soitisisit There's a difference between not liking something (not to mention "hating" it which is a rather strong word) then that something being actually bad. I don't see how any of the things he said can make someone think the musical is BAD other then just being quite simple (which isn't bad).

@@OctagonCookies Alright, yes. Simplicity can be good. Simplicity can also be simply lazy. There's a difference between making something simple to be more poignant and connect with more people who might not have the time or brainpower to spare to pick apart a complex narrative and making something that's dumbed down because *you* didn't want to work hard. And Androyd Webber's Cats is definitely the latter. Musically speaking, it's competent and beyond what I can do as a composer, but for a broadway musical it's not great, not even par for the course. It definitely leans heavy into spectacle and using costumes and choreography to mask the lack of musical and narrative substance. The fact that so many people didn't even piece together what the plot even was without someone like Sideways explaining means that it fails to even be simple and therefore it's just stupid. Yes, there's a difference between hating something and it being bad, but by the same logic there's a difference between loving something and it being good. Just because something has mass appeal doesn't mean it's good or even competent. People are as inclined to go see something that's incompetent as they are to see something that's competent, especially when there's spectacle involved. And frankly, you could explain the mass appeal of cats with latent furry fetishes. Sex appeal doesn't really require any extra effort to sell. I'm not out to tell anyone that they shouldn't like the musical. It is a fun musical for a lot of people to turn their brains off to, but that doesn't make it good. I don't want to turn my brain off for a musical and I don't find it fun, I find it obnoxious. So it's not for me. But it's quite definitely bad as musical theatre, because it captures neither music or theatre very well. In terms of costuming and choreography... it's a pretty nice dance show. I wouldn't say ground-breaking, but it doesn't need to be because it's Cats and the fact that any hit was produced out of this at all is not the writer/composer's doing, it's the professionalism of the performers and directors. ( And a touch of luck, if we're being honest. All smash hits ever are right place, right time situations where they wouldn't have worked so well otherwise. ) Its badness as musical theatre is not the performers' fault or the director's. The entire fact that this video exists is down to great performers carrying a bad play and bad performers and a crappy director dropping a huge flop of a movie. That doesn't make Cats the play good, it makes Cats the movie even worse. Also, before you think I'm just mindlessly shitting on Androyd as a creator. I know he can do better because he has done better. He's a mainstay of that crowd for a reason. Now, I wouldn't say he's the guy to look up to because he's kind of a shitty guy who compromises integrity to make a buck. Just look up the time he plagiarized Pink Floyd. He's not above taking shortcuts by any means, he's out to make money. And Cats did succeed at that. So Cats is good inasfar as it did what its creator wanted it to do: Made a fuck-ton of money. In terms of artistic integrity or merit tho it's "meh" at best. It's not even Androyd's best work out of what's really his work. Ignoring the parts he plagiarized and repurposed from other material for Phantom, its a better work musically and dramatically. I can't say it's a better adaptation though, because Cats does beat Phantom as an adaptation of source material in fidelity and pragmatic adaptation, but like how many people even would give a damn about the source material these days if it hadn't been for his plays. Edit: RU-vid messed up my formatting for emphasis so I just removed it. :/

Spray him down with hairspray as a dancer that shit hurts

Hooper: But I want to do Hamilt- Everyone: NOOOO! *Pulls Hamilton and every other musical that has no adaptation yet away from Hooper’s reach*

😂 this comment cracked me up

Shake the can of pennies at him!!!!

Just duct tape him to wall he can’t do any damage if he can’t move

The ranting was entertaining on its own merit. Now don't do what I did and go listen to the one good song and get it stuck in your head for two weeks.

Sameee

me too. I even got mad along with him.

Unlike you, I actually DIDN'T know the main song, until now. I literally knew nothing about cats, yet heard that melody my whole life thinking it was some Hollywood opera or something.

Me too. I've watched my fair share of musicals, but I have never seen Cats. And I only know about Memory, because I watched the movie Jersey Girl once and they made a joke of it because the little girl's school was doing a presentation and EVERYBODY but her sang Memory from Cats. She sang God That's Good from Sweeney Todd and made her teacher faint. I DID enjoy his perspective though. lol

Just thought the same thing LOL

Well, there certainly is a high level of imbecility. And I'm using the medical term.

The fact that Hooper was apparently surprised to find out he could direct the orchestra like he would direct actors is ... something. I don't know what but it's something. Perhaps it would've been better if he'd never found out and the conductor might have had a bit more control.

I'd be surprised if it was 50%

Between Hooper not understanding musicals, Snyder not understanding comics, and Abrams not understanding *finishing your mystery before you publish it*, I'd recon there's at best a 60& rate.

It would explain a lot of book adaptations.

Well to be fair, most musicals are wierd and you loving it is what gives them sense

Only issue with the plot recap is that not all the cats (#NotAllCats) want to die. The majority of the younger cats (Mungo and Rumple, Misto, Rum Tum Tugger etc.) are just there as bystanders. The older cats like Gus and Bustopher Jones are the ones ‘auditioning’ to die, the other cats are just introducing themselves to the audience or each other (like Mungo and Rumple literally crash the party). But yeah even then it doesn’t really make sense. It’s not so much a plot as a framing device, mainly because apart from Memory all of these songs are TS Elliot poems that have no connection outside of being about cats.

yea... I've done Cats and there is basically no plot. We had to make our own little plots to try to drive our plots as specific characters, which was fun, but yea. Everyone asked what it was about and we just pointed to the front of the playbill. It's called Cats and its just about Cats

@@brooklynnking6652 It’s about a tribe of cats deciding who will have the honor of being ritualistically sacrificed and reincarnated into the next generation. At least that’s what I read from it.

@@stingerjohnny9951 Yea lmao I've done the show but they mention it in the beginning and it doesn't come back til the end otherwise it's just songs describing cats

That is a really good "what the fuck" face though

It took nearly 13 months since the release of the movie, but anything would have been better then the hundreds of videos of people having tantrums over the cgi.

Lindsay Ellis' video is pretty good too

Lindsay and Maggie Mae Smith both have pretty good videos

I've honestly seen several great critiques of cats by several content creators

@@ILikedGooglePlus that's also because Lindsey was a theater kid growing up, so she understands how musicals work and how cats didn't work. It seems only theater and music people can accurately describe the issues of this movie outside of "CGI bad" which makes sense since no joe schmo is going to put in the time to understand why they hate the music and then talk about it in detail.

Seriously! Especially Old Deuteronomy, whose vocal range is so varied and powerful! WHY, Judi, WHY?!

@@stellabelikiewicz1523 exactly! i was wonder ing why they chose her because most of his lines are meant for a deeper voice!!

@@thextremekittenmdj I don't necessarily think a change in the octave to support a female casting would be a bad one. It just would have helped if she actually... you know... sang.

@@rcslyman8929 you're right, it would still be good. and yeah she really did not sing at all lol

@@rcslyman8929 it’s not just the octave, it’s the sheer strength and volume. 2019 Deuteronomy is a nice old lady singing a lullaby, og cats Deuteronomy is belting out emotion

stop speaking your lines!!! sing the song its a song a song for singing sing it!!!!

Yes ! I hate when people (singers or actors) act as if musicals as an art form/medium are below them, like, if you're not gonna commit to it, then DON'T DO IT. Hell, even if they want to do it mockingly, they can still go all out ! But no, it has to be all wink wink nudge camera cuts etc.

Performative self-awareness is a bit of a plague, really.

We were sleeper agents for Big Musical all along. We have been activated.

It's like he used staples, STAPLES people!

Right?! I thought I've seen all the reviews i needed to see about this movie but this took the cake!

@@philipyates3194 What is staple? (Seriously)

Right he is so good at explaining things and it’s super interesting to learn about it as well.

Sadly I don't have the financial resources to support Sideways, but I always love his vids

Can you give a timestamp?

@@kp4692 58:50

@@kswinton2666 thanks! I love that bit too lololol

@@kp4692 58:50 ish

And then we get the line “Tomothy Hooper”

Eh not rlly

@Gellert Grindelwald He could teach film/theatre at a university level, he is great at establishing a convincing thesis, and the format of his videos are closer to a writing based Phd dissertation than a practice based capstone/thesis project you would find in an MFA program. Modern academia needs this valuable and engaging criticism with less of the obtuse language and obscure subject matter just for its own sake. I’ve learned more from his videos than entire semesters worth or classes because of how clearly organized it is. I do not know his credentials, but he has influenced the way I teach in a major way.

Im now re watching it. Im glad I managed to see it early on before it got butchered.

I just watched it two days ago and rewatching it, I got so confused about what the heck was going on and scoured the comments for an answer.

Wow they’ve made him butcher it.

@@nou5614 Me too! I was super confused for a fat minute.

@@daphnerosales2072 did he have to cut some out? i’m just now watching it

Shoot. Now I am too.

Shit. I'm sad now.

That’s so saddd

sobs thinking of the matted little stray that bonks me when he comes by. i love that little man

AAAWWWEEEE I'm really sad now!!

Agreed!

I’ve watched Cats with my sisters maybe a hundred times and we love it for its silliness. But I NEVER knew it had an actual story.😅

I'm particularly fond of the Bowser's castle analogy

A cat cult gets together to decide which cat get sacrificed; what’s not to get.

Probably better than whoever explained the plot to the director of the movie apparently

The video's an hour long so it might as well be a replacement for the movie 😂

I’ve watched it twice already

@@norajiyu And it's free 😂

This doesn’t seem to be a hot take at all 😊 maybe that’s what you needed ^^

Hal...it's about cats.

I agree. I feel like Cats 2019 required some explanation - its a monstrosity that needs exorcising - but most people explained it as "look at this obvious monstrosity, isn't it obviously monstrous?" Which isn't satisfying nor does it explain it. But this video actually provides an insightful analysis both for the musical's existence and the movie's horrors, beyond the obvious "uncanny valley" nature of the effects.

Any time we get a Cats review, we realize Cats was the real MENACE all along.

Why is Tomathy Hooper?

Ah, a cameo appearance Lindsay Ellis The Menace!

Just... How?? Did this get all the way to theaters

You too got me into fucking Cats. Thanks a lot 🙄🙄🙄

Seriously, has ANYONE told him 'no'? For ANYTHING!?

People have always told me bourgeois culture is white supremacist, but I didn't know it was to this extent! XD

AND SHE DOESN'T EVEN STAND OUT IN THE MOVIE! ALL THE CATS LOOKED MUDDY GREY

@@alexlefay seriosuly, in the original i could tell which was which, but here they all look the same (with only a few exceptions)

It feels like he never even saw CATS befor

how is this the best analogy

This is the best way to explain the issue with this

It also reminds me of how in early animation they used to finish the animations first and then have the voice actor do their lines, and that's why old animated movies sound and look like that, it's the voice actor trying to sync up with the drawing, not the other way around like it is now

“Oh, but the crossing was built for the cars, you see. They should be able to make the creative decisions about who gets to cross.” - Tomathy Hooper

@@christopherj.lechner4529 you're welcome!

I think that he likes them because he knows they move people, and he, too, is moved by the originals. He's trying to alter the musicals for film in such a way that they move even more people than the originals did. However, he lacks any of the technical knowledge needed to take creative liberties with shows widely considered to be exceptional. It's like giving a toddler expensive paints simply because they love Van Gogh - while their dreams may be masterpieces, they still only have experience with crayons.

@@atlasbradford6535 I honestly don't think he likes them or gets them. I can't imagine anyone who likes them destroying the music like he does

Maybe he thinks he can "fix" them

@@OpqHMg He could just have a really bad ear for music. I love music, and I really like the music from Cats I find on youtube, but I can barely notice half the mistakes pointed out in this video without re-listening and paying really close attention to the beat and such. Heck, even most of the really obvious ones I can't really catch without having it pointed out first.

He needs to let it out, let it out, let it out I'm not sorry

I guess cos otherwise the general public will have less interest in it and it’ll make less money

Agreed, but I was surprised by Russell Crow in les Miss thought he would be much worse (I had very low expectations).

Money, sadly

@@jenniedarling3710 but what suprised me was that Russel Crowe is actuslly a pretty good singer. He's in a band. It was the overworking and terrible directing that made his performance sound so horrible.

Really, really hoping that the Broadway cred of much of the cast and Lin's involvement mean that In the Heights won't be the hot pile of garbage that so many movie musicals have been over the last few years.

Because people won't come see the movie unless they can recognize Taylor Swift's face on the cgi cat abomination.

Yes! Even IMPROV has more structure.

"just wing it, this is the guy who didn't care enough to make the paper rip at the timing in Les Miserables, so as long as you don't die during the dance he'll take it"

@@leopoldsimmons4804 he might take it if you do die considering how much he told his actors to tear up their bodies

THIS. I literally couldn’t imagine them giving you a dance to a piece of music but oh also do whatever the hell you want cos it doesn’t matter. I would actually die.

hello fellow former ballet dancer, I fucking can't imagine not have even a click track to dance to... fucking excuse me? dancing is moving TO music, not the other way around

Thank you! Everyone keep saying she’s the only good part of the movie, or her talent is wasted on this. But she is so poorly casted for this role! She can’t sing like a withering mangy cat, why cast her to be one?

@@bowmanc.7439 Well to be fair, EVERYONE’S talent was wasted on this movie.

@@MrLegendofLP fair enough. Still, all those people praising her really get on my nerves.

Yeah... it made no sense for her to be chosen. She looked very lively, and she looked like she had a long time left. Old D. Seems to aim towards choosing the oldest and least fit of cats, because choosing younger ones would be pointless.

Jennifer Hudson is a beautiful, young woman but so was Betty Buckley when she got the Tony for her performance of grizabella. And she was actually a year younger than Hudson. Elaine Page was about 5 years younger than Hudson when she originated the role. Age really isn't an issue here. Grizabella isn't Gus. She doesn't have to be an older cat. Just worn down and sickly, which people can be at any age