Cats - the film based on the musical

[zico]

Cats (the Musical). 4/10. Film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical, with Judi Dench, James Corden, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, Idris Elba and Jennifer Hudson.

You don’t get many films like this one, which on balance, is probably a good thing. The whole visual thing of cats/people has attracted a lot of pre-release attention. Basically, all the actors are wearing catprint onesies, a cat hat with two big ears, a 3 foot long tail, and some big whiskers, but (I assume) CGI has been used to blend costumes to skin to make it more natural, if you can use the word “natural” about cat/human hybrids. Sometimes the catpeople move on all fours like cats, but mostly they move around like a mix of the kids from Fame and a ballet class.

I’ve never seen the “Cats” musical, but it seems that the plot is that lots of Jellicle cats meet one night a year for a Jellicle cats’ ball, they each do a song & dance routine to impress the cat-goddess who then selects one cat to go to the Heaviside Layer which is a place where Jellicle cats go to be reincarnated as a new and better cat. Apparently not just any cat can become a Jellicle cat, they’ve got to be invited into the Jellicle club. I hope I’ve got this right, because I wouldn’t want to inadvertently give the impression that all this is a bucketload of incredibly stupid tosh. Oh no. Mrs.Zico is a musicals fan and said the film actually has a more coherent plot than the stage show.

Almost the entire film is sung, with just brief bits of dialogue linking each song. There’s a few pratfalls and bits of humour in amongst all the showbiz stuff. The visual backdrop is interesting, and some of the scenes are frankly bizarre – I didn’t expect to see cockroaches with human faces doing Busby Berkeley numbers while being eaten by cats. There are also mice with human faces, which are a bit disturbing. Idris Elba plays himself yet again, as does greatest living actor Judi Dench with her trusty three expressions.

There are some big songs in this but Taylor Swift is a disappointment in her one song, whilst Jennifer Hudson oversings “Memory”, milking every last drop of emotion out of this, and then some, to the detriment of the actual tune. There's a very literal bit of direction when Jennifer sings "in the lamplight the withered leaves collect around my feet" and the camera focuses on the withered leaves which are indeed collecting around her feet in the lamplight.

This film will probably become a cult classic amongst Andrew Lloyd Webber superfans, but if you don’t like musicals, then you’ll be bored rigid after the initial first half-hour of weird scenes that have you thinking “what fresh hell is this?” but holds your interest wondering what they’ll come up with next. Total running time is 1 hour 40 minutes, but it felt like a long, long fim, especially with the “will it never end” bits towards the end. Just when you think it’s all over, it isn't yet.

[monabri]

They should have consulted the BBC....

https://youtu.be/WBwSzSM0C-M

[Stonge]

Sounds really depressing if you get dragged along to see it.

Probably better than diarrhoea though that's doing the rounds.

[ReformedCharacter]

Probably better than diarrhoea though that's doing the rounds.

Judging from the pictures I've seen of Cats, I might well choose the diarrhoea.

RC