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As a musical theatre actor and someone who went to school for musical theatre I wanna point out two things. 1. Andrew Lloyd Webber set a book of poems by TS Elliot to music so most of the lyrics are not his at all. That is why there is no story because it was originally just going to be a song cycle of poems set to music that eventually became a show. 2. I think it’s important to point out that Cats is more of a dance show than it is a singing show. This is why it doesn’t work as well in a movie platform. The real power of the show comes from the incredible dancers on stage dancing and doing great physical work and tricks and that is what makes it so compelling in person. That does not translate well when the whole movie is being done with motion capture. I you think of the show more in the sense of a cirque show that has always been more the vibes to me. More about the spectacle less about the over all story telling.

Did I hear Paul say it was “jellicle cats and police dogs”? T.S. Elliot used the terms “Jellicle cats and Pollicle dogs”. He came up with these names because that’s what it sounded like when his niece kept trying to say "dear little cat" and "poor little dog".

Ok HDTGM family.... I'm not crazy right?! Sir Ian was totally conjuring Gandalf for this moment. Audio here: https://i.imgur.com/qxugj6e.mp4

Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, and Vincent Price!!! also, i would suggest rock and roll high school 2 with Corey Feldmen. awesome movies

I am really excited to talk about this. The commercial for CATS used to terrify me as a child. Then when the movie came out I paid $20 (!) for it. Why? Because I knew HDTGM would cover it. (And actually, in hindsight, I think the makeup and costumes that scared me so much as a kid were a plus for the musical. Because if you went, at least you knew they put that amount of effort into it.) Then I managed to actually miss the live stream. The PFT opening made me happy. Too bad he wasn’t there for the livestream either. I want to talk about Ian Mckellen. I saw an interview with him when they asked him about the cat school. I believe it was Stephen Colbert. Because apparently the actors had to go learn the cat movement, which Paul mentions. And McKellen straight up was like “oh I didn’t go to that. I’m Ian McKellen.” I would bet June’s feeling that it came and went is because some actors did not go. And when I watched the film, he and Jennifer Hudson were my faves. Hudson is obviously for her singing. McKellen isn’t a great singer. But I still liked watching him. I would posit that the “cat school” made people worse. Interesting when Jason says he thought kids invented Cats, because it is based on children’s poems by TS Eliot. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Possum's_Book_of_Practical_Cats It is what an adult thinks kids want.

Part of it is that Tom Hooper is a terrible director for musicals. He doesn't get the stylistic needs at all. Everything about the Cats movie indicates that the director is striving for a kind of in-your-face realism. Yeah, that's right, for freakin' Cats! The way Hooper insists on recording the singing live on set, using CGI to make it all look like "real" fur, the way his hand-held camera is constantly moving and shaking around in medium and close-up shots of the actors . . . it's all a horrible way to do a musical that relies on big group dance numbers for its "wow" factor. I'm not sure that ALW musicals translate well to the screen anyway, but Hooper makes the wrong choices whenever possible.

I tend to agree. I think, because of Eliot’s erudition and the density and scope of the allusions found in his work, that there’s a bit of literary FOMO - now and from his contemporaries. I always felt, particularly in college, there was a fear that if you admitted that you didn’t like him, you were opening yourself to accusations of “not getting it” regardless of whether or not your criticisms had any merit. (Personally, I’m more of an e e cummings man.) But, yeah, with these inviolable literary genius types, there always tends to be a move to over analyze their work — even when all signs point to it just being something they threw together on a lazy afternoon.

There was a lot of confusion about what Cats is supposed to be about, but per the great theater director Harold Prince, Andrew Lloyd Webber already told us what it's about. It's about cats.

I haven’t seen it, only the commercials. But the dancing and spectacle always seemed like the draw of CATS, not the story. In the film they cast the ballerina as the main cat but then you never really get to see her do what I assume she can do. You just never got a cool dance sequence. Did they not have a choreographer or something? It was very flat. And, as June mentioned, they danced down the aisles and came out at the audience. There is nothing about the film that POPS that way.

The term jellicle comes from the T.S. Eliot poems (and he can go fuck himself). There is CATS fandom controversy over its origins. I quote the sources from a Cats wiki. Playbill: The National Theatre Magazine, April 30, 1991. Quote: "Eliot heard this word [Jellicle] from his young niece, who sounded as if she were saying "Jellicle cat" whenever she called for her "dear little cat" and "Pollicle dog" whenever she called for her "poor little puppy." The Letters of T. S. Eliot Volume 7: 1934–1935. Faber & Faber, May 30, 2017. Quote: "TSE's secretary replied, 25 June 1959: 'Mr Eliot has asked me to write and say that he does not wish to copyright the word "jellicle" and is quite content that it should be used without acknowledgement, so long as its use conforms to the definition of Jellicle Cats given in his poem about them. And jellicle, by the way, is not a diminutive of "angelical" but is a diminutive of "Jellylorum" which was the name of a cat of that description which Mr Eliot once owned.'" The movie has Judi Dench say “dear little cat” so they are siding with the Playbill explanation. But I think it’s bullshit because even if you do a crazy British accent with a lisp I still can’t get from dear little to jellicle. I think Eliot just used his own cat’s nickname. But I tend to think this because I do not like these poems and think it’s all dumb and people pretend all his poems are great because they had to read PRUFROCK in school. Eta I agree with Cameron’s theory about self actualization in the context of the film and, probably the musical. I haven’t seen it. But I also think the film and the musical give this weird word significance just because it came from the pen of a Pulitzer Prize winner. And it’s just s stupid thing.

Thanks again for participating! Again, more hilarious responses. See you next time! RESULTS There is still time to take the survey before you read the results! Cats Post-Movie Survey

I have a theory about the different amounts of hair that the Cats had. If the whole point of this movie, if you can call it that, is for the cats to win the right to die, and then be reincarnated into a better life, maybe the amount of hair the cats had is to signify that they were the "Feline Death Champion of 1996" or whatever year they did it, and the extra patches of hair is used like the star whenever a national football team wins the FIFA World Cup. So, you had some cats that barely had any, and then you had others that had died a bunch of times, which would also explain why it fit so well, they're not wearing hair that was taken from other cats, it's hair they won for being so good at dying. That being said, I hate cats, and I hate musicals, so I didn't watch the movie, and I might be wrong.

Only the strong can survive A Very Nutty Christmas.

I've seen Early Summer. Definitely want to jump into the trilogy fully now though, even though I wasn't fond of Tokyo Story.

I know I'm a couple of weeks behind on this but I wanted to add my Prince story. Back in 2011 I was working on a little indie film called "Unlucky" and we were shooting in Princes mansion in Toronto. My holding was placed in his "Rec Room". Now I want you to picture Princes' Rec Room, don't change that image in your head at all, you nailed it. Purple shag carpeting, mirrored walls with a plush velvet restaurant booth in the corner, golden mirrored stars on the ceiling, oh so many disco balls. He had a Purple Snooker table, with Purple chalk, and the reds were all purple. The doors to the dining room were frosted glass with the Symbol on it. he was genial and friendly to the crew and I got to play snooker on Princes' purple pool table.

Two girls one cup? What kind of beer pong tournament is this?

Love Prince, but found it excruciatingly boring to listen to an episode where their love of prince had them gushing and rationalizing over absurd moments rather than laying in in a comedic style like they would on bad movie they actually enjoyed like Face Off. I honestly don’t buy that they liked this movie.

This film is legitimately amazing, not so bad its good not guilty pleasure it is just an amazingly fun watch. From beginning to end its just packed with so much and would give HDTGM so much to talk and laugh about, I can't believe they have not done this one yet it is an 80s hidden gem. So glad I bought it on blue ray when I first say it 3 + years ago as I get to watch it all the time now

Wait, how could you hold this up as a recommendation without mentioning that it's a zombie buddy-cop movie? Yes, Joe Piscopo is an intriguing proposition, but zombie buddy-cop movie.