CATS (2019) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

CATS (2019) movie

Genre           |   Muiscal Fantasy

Classification   |   G

Running time   |   110 minutes

Released         |   26 December 2019

cast

Francesca Hayward ... Victoria
Taylor Swift ... Bombalurina
Idris Elba ... Macavity
Laurie Davidson ... Mr. Mistoffelees
Rebel Wilson ... Jennyanydots
Judi Dench ... Old Deuteronomy
Jennifer Hudson ... Grizabella
Ian McKellen ... Gus The Theatre Cat
Mette Towley ... Cassandra
James Corden ... Bustopher Jones
​Jason Derulo ... Rum Tum Tugger

director

Tom Hooper

writer

​T.S. Eliot ... (poetry collection "Old Possum's Books of Practical Cats")
Lee Hall ... (screenplay)
Tom Hooper ... (screenplay)
Andrew Lloyd Webber ... (musical)

cinematographer

​​Christopher Ross ... director of photography

music

Andrew Lloyd Webber

film editor

​Melanie Oliver

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box office result

Worldwide             $​TBA

Australia                 $​TBA

North America       $TBA

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movie minutiae

​Dame Judi Dench was cast in the original 1981 London stage production in the dual roles of Jennyanydots and Grizabella. However, shortly before the opening of the original production, she suffered an injury that forced her to withdraw from the show, to be replaced at the last minute by Elaine Paige.

​One clip that features prominently in the trailer is Bombalurina (Taylor Swift) lounging in a lighted crescent moon sign, sprinkling powder from a can marked "catnip". This is a reference to a large sign depicting a lighted crescent moon with a cocaine spoon that hung in the infamous Studio 54 nightclub during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Catnip is a herb containing a compound that acts on the feline brain in a way that some veterinarians describe as analogous to the "high" that humans receive from recreational drugs like cocaine.

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related movies

THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016)

CATS (2019) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

CATS (2019) STORY SYNOPSIS

Featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic music and a world-class cast of dancers under the guidance of Tony-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, In the Heights), CATS reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular production design, state-of-the-art technology, and dance styles ranging from classical ballet to contemporary, hip-hop to jazz, street dance to tap. 

CATS (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 26 December 2019

​​Pop Movee Rating

CATS is an iconic musical; there’s no doubt about it. Debuting in London’s West End in 1981, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage production was an odd spectacle featuring amazingly choreographed dance routines, outrageous costumes and a wafer-thin narrative abouts street cats that was based on a collection of T.S. Elliot poems.

The translation of CATS into a feature film shouldn’t be considered against the normal criteria by which movies are assessed…

Director and Co-Writer Tom Hooper, who also directed THE KING’S SPEECH (2010) and THE DANISH GIRL (2015), has opted to maintain the essence of the stage production, foregoing narrative adaptation in favour of remaining committed to the elements that made CATS popular in the first place.

Hooper has made some adjustments to characters, but these are designed to sharpen the focus of the character’s actions and, in the case of supporting cast members such as Judi Dench, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, James Corden, Idris Elba & Ian McKellen, focus audience attention entirely upon their performance to extract maximum value from their limited screen time. (In most cases, each performer has only one musical number with which to impress.)

Perhaps the biggest change from the musical to the movie is the use of Victoria as the central feline character. Francesca Hayward, who plays Victoria, is a Principal ballerina at London’s Royal Ballet. Her experience as a film actor is limited, but Hooper doesn’t use her in the traditional way a Director would use a leading actor.

Instead, Victoria is the viewer’s guide through the strange, hard-to-comprehend existence of cats. She’s not quite a narrator, as she has very little to say. She’s more like a silent guide, providing the viewer with a privileged view of a cats’ world.

In the stage production, Victoria was a secondary character who had one amazing dance routine. In the film, Victoria interacts with all of the key characters and is the closest that Hooper and Co-Writer Lee Hall come to anything that even closely resembles a narrative device. The presence of Victoria allows Hooper & Hall to introduce the film’s almost never-ending stream of musical numbers without them seeming even more random than what they are in the context of a traditional film.

CATS is ninety percent character and ten percent plot...

Despite this, the closest CATS comes to genuine drama is the relationship that develops between Victoria and Jennifer Hudson’s Grizabella. 

Hayward and Hudson have several scenes together throughout the film’s 110 minute running time and Victoria is the catalyst for Grizabella to perform “Memory”, the musical’s most recognisable song. Unfortunately, the Jennifer Hudson version of the number doesn’t have the same soaring emotion of the Elaine Paige stage version and there’s a feeling of an opportunity missed with the film’s interpretation of the song.

New for the movie is “Beautiful Ghosts”, a song performed by Victoria, witten by Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

The song may go some way to compensating the disappointment Tay-Tay fans may have about her on-screen involvement in CATS. Swift’s involvement in the actual film has been inflated to the point where unsuspecting viewers might purchase a ticket just on the basis of her association with the movie.

The pop singer’s screen time as Bombalurina is limited to a single song and she doesn’t appear until well into the second half of the movie. Fans of the musical will also be surprised to see that Hooper & Hall have changed her perspective. In the musical, Bombalurina’s “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” serves as a warning to the other cats to stay away from him. In the movie, Swift’s version skews toward being more of a tribute to Idris Elba’s version of the antagonist.

Another of the changes made for the film is the accommodation of Judi Dench in the role of Old Deuterronomy, the wise elder cat responsible for bestowing the honour of rebirth upon one of the “Jellicle” cats. Given her place as one of Britain’s greatest performers, it’s pretty easy to accept Dench in the role. For those interested in trivial irony, Dench had to withdraw from the original 1981 stage production after damaging her achilles tendon. She had been cast to play Grizabella and was replaced by Elaine Paige!

Imagine “Memory” being performed by Dench… She’s a great actress but, if her singing efforts in this movie are anything to go by, the song that became the signature tune of the stage production may not have had quite the same cultural resonance.

Tom Hooper’s film version of CATS is, for the most part, a faithful interpretation of the musical. That’s where the confusion lies for viewers of the movie…

CATS is not a feature film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical; it IS his musical. Instead of being staged for a live audience, the production has been staged for a camera.

Hooper and his collaborators make few concessions to the cinematic medium in order to stage the performance. Yes, fur began to fly when the trailer revealed the CGI enhancements made to the characters, but the visual effects are secondary to just about everything else in the film.

Even with CGI upgrades, the overall result is an unconventional movie that is difficult to access unless the viewer is familiar with the energised atmosphere of the live musical. Fans will love it, but, for the uninitiated, an understanding and appreciation of the Musical cinema genre would go a long way to helping unlock this version of a poem about some dear little cats.

CATS MOVIE (2019) USEFUL LINKS

Cats (2019 film) - Wikipedia
​Cats (2019) - IMDb
​Cats (2019) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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