25:05 Hahahahaha, it's because it's actually sung on beat! I forgot the guy's name, but he trained and just said screw this click track and sung the song the correct way. And his tap dancing is awesome
I always got the impression everyone made fun of the costumes in the theater version but if you see those costumes they add volume the head, hands and legs of the actors, it's enough to trick our brain into buying that the actors don't have human proportions, cause their heads, hands and feet are too wide. Also all actors in the theater production have cat make up with painted on noses and lip split in the middle that cats have, the actors in the movie however have human noses and lips but they still have whiskers. I can't believe the choice of giving them whiskers but no cat nose and lips was a planned choice, any CGI artists would know doing it like that would send the characters straight into the uncanny valley, I think they ran out of time to CGI the cat noses and lips.
The actor who did the tap number has a great version of the Mad Hatter in a ballet performance of Alice in Wonderland, one of my favorite takes on the character. He's also pretty hot when he's not in cat CGI/makeup 😏
Oh no! 😱 When we said we wanted musicals, not like this! If you really wanted to see Cats, should have gone for the pro-shot commemorative edition. I only hope for your sakes that you’ve already seen it and this wasn’t your first intro to the show; that would be heartbreaking.
The book of poetry is pretty fun. It’s been a long time since I compared the poems to the musical but if I recall right, Webber didn’t change the words all that much. But the poetry is just some fun stuff Elliott wrote for his Godchildren. Theres no real deeper meaning to them except that they extravagantly describe normal cat behavior. Like ascribing “magic” to a cat whose tricks are all stuff like appearing in rooms you would swear the cat wasn’t in. The poems are fun and whimsical and describe totally normal cat stuff using silly language. The movie turns that into a weird cat death cult.
Such a shame, too. When I was in college at SVA in Manhattan, back during the original run of Cats on Broadway, that was one of my favorite shows to go watch. The craziness, the music, the dancing, the incredibly attractive performers in incredibly tight costumes, etc. And then the movie stripped all of what made it so good, by trying to have it "make sense" instead.
Thank you so much for watching/Reacting to this one. I've been wanting to see and watch it for a while, just to see if it was like everyone was saying it was like. But felt great watching it along side you both, cringe, musical wonder and all.
Also, Victoria was created completely for the movie, basically she's there to take the place of the 'audience" That's why Taylor Swift had to write a song for her, because she wasn't in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats nor the stage play.
After getting to the end of the reaction, a few extra things I noticed was that they seriously butchered the Bustopher Jones and Mungojerrie & Rumpelteazer songs; the whole point of the former is that yes he is fat but he's also a sophisticated high society cat that everyone respects, in this version they just portrayed him like a clown, for the latter it sounds like they just cut the degree of tonal shifting in the melody in half and made an originally quite fun song sound way flatter. Something that I was already aware of beforehand was the way they made Macavity an obstinate villain and a foil to Mistoffeles for some reason, but if you look at the poem that his song was based on, the whole thing was HEAVILY based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's description of Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem" and the whole point of it was to also portray him as a hands-off crime boss who prefers to avoid the spotlight just like the canon Moriarty was, not a magical kidnapper who was obsessed with getting the best guy ever™ award through the Bradbury method of overtaking the competition.
Genuinely I love this STAGE musical. One of my core memories from childhood…I didn’t even make it a half hour through this movie until turning it off for my sanity 😂
i'd highly recommend you two watch the phenomenal video about this movie by the youtuber Sideways, it details many of the creative decisions that turned this movie into the disaster it is including failures in the music and an inability to comprehend one of the most simplistic musical plots ever written lmao
This was so close to being the last movie I saw before the lockdowns hit. I thankfully decided to go see Parasite about 3 days before the world closed down, because otherwise Cats would have been my last cinema memory for about 2 years. A delightful fever dream of a film. I hatepreciate it. (Edit: I had typed the above before Hayley referred to the play as a fever dream. Not just me then.)
" Who is that actor?" Me: recognizing the voice) Ohhhh my god, tell me they didn't drag poor Ray Winstone into this piece of sh--!!! *movie progresses to include Judi Dench and Ian McKellan* OH MY GOD I SPOKE TOO SOON..... Guys, this reaction is getting a like based on the only merits I can give: having the courage to watch and react to whatever the hell this movie is! Thanks for braving the weirdness!
I'm kinda glad this movie exists, because it introduced me to Cats (the broadway show) and all the fun Lore and Music theory videos people have made It's thanks to those people that I understand who much they ruined, or got wrong, in this adaptation. Characters, Songs, their looks, their dances! Their reasons. Their story. Even the concept. lmaooo
honestly I think it would be amazing to see you guys react to the musical, you might actually enjoy it more for what it is since there is a better clear story line, and theater presence!
If, and this is a big if, you are willing to give cats a second chance, try the late 90s recording of the stage production. That being said, Cats as a whole is far down my list of favorites. Maybe bottom 10 or so. Memories on the other hand is a great song, and a few others are a lot of fun.
I'm old enough to remember when original Cats cast member Betty Buckley (the teacher in "Carrie") was making the rounds singing memory back in the early 1980's, and hate to say it, but her version of Memory blew Jennifer Hudson's out of the water.
If you haven't seen Sideways' video about it, you're missing out. Amazing musical theory rant. It's a fun re-watch now & then just to remind the universe how much they screwed up with this movie.
You dabbling in some cosmic horror today, aren't we? Because that's what this movie is, some real Eldritch terrors stuff, some of the close ups on faces are horrifying, this couldn't be unintentional, someone knew how this would come off to audiences. Perhaps if the script had played into the cosmic horror, the movie would have been more interesting?
I am a huge fan of the stage play and the original book of poetry it was based upon, T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" and I don't know anyone who is a CATS fan who liked this movie, it was an absolute trainwreck, not to mention they completely ruined the plot in making Macavity some big bad villain of the entire movie, so they didn't have to pay their big name artists to stick around after their single musical number.
To be clear, Macavity DOES kidnap Old Deuteronomy, but he (Old Deuteronomy was as I recall male in the play) was the only one and does so during the Macavity song (which for the record, he doesn't sing, it's told about him, not by him.)
I've never bothered to watch this version but I remember being a fan of the 1998 recording at least, after it was the school play when I was in like the 4th grade and even went to see it in a big auditorium in my city a few years later. While that experience was certainly uncanny at first I ended up liking the songs quite a bit, in particular "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" which has always seemed to be one of the underrated ones, and "Growltiger's Last Stand" which ended up cut from that recording for some reason and gets singled out by some ignorant folk because it has "nAuGhTy LaNgUaGe" 🙄. I'm not sure what Lloyd Webber's deal is beyond being vaguely aware that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd also hates his guts (funnily, I also ended up getting some free tickets for a screening that Roger Waters was presenting in my city after I agreed to take a volunteer interpreter gig once); personally as someone who got the book of poems back during those days (and went through quite a bit of effort to do so as I live in a non-anglophone country and those were times before amazon or any kind of online shopping was really big) in the long run I ended up taking more of an issue with TS Eliot and the modernist poets in general; the years I spent in uni studying literature made me immensely disillusioned with modern academia, but my beef with that movement in particular was how not only inherently inconsistent but also utterly boring the symbolism they used is. The actual poems that the musical is based on were literally used 1:1 as the song lyrics in most cases, so you can decide whether they'd be worthwhile based on that information. Something about this version that a friend of mine took issue with was Macavity's portrayal as a sun tanned black cat when the poem very plainly describes him as a ginger cat; something else that strikes me as really weird and unnecessary was how they tried to force it to have an overarching "plot" rather than have it essentially be a series of vignettes and added a bunch of non-sung "book" dialogue; the old versions had neither because these things quite simply aren't needed. I like how the characters looking like hellspawns is the last of the glaring flaws in this version that comes to mind.
I saw this in theaters KNOWING how bad it is. I had a great time laughing with my best friend. I was even going to go to a rowdy screening of it until it got canceled by the start of the pandemic. I like some of the songs at least as well as the train scene and that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. Actually, you guys should react to Evita. That's my favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of all time.
11:00 I am desentisized, but there is a lot of touching in the stage musical as well, but not *only* the sexual kind. That type of vibe is actually barely there XD You know how cats rub against your leg? The stage version plays with that in a sense that groups of cats who belong together, will sit together, rub hands etc. It's even a part of the climax of the story. Young kittens aren't allowed to touch the outcast (Grizabella), until one does, the group accepts them. Like if they were humans they would basically be shaking hands or hugging (in the friendship way) all the time.
😺Stella!!! 😺 😺Hayley!!!😺 You've gone to the dark side and to where no Reactor has dared to go!!! Go Girls!!! I do love 'cats' but I couldn't stomach this... Better off watching "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture" (1986) not as good as the actual original ballet - and yes I saw it - but very close and very good.
Such courage watching this.... umm, whatever the hell it is and keeping your sanity girls. I'm not a big musical fan but this thing is so chaotic I felt like it suck 5 years of my life away just listening to it.
Bless your souls for this. You didn't have to suffer for our entertainment like this. Please watch an actually good musical next to cleanse your souls.
Definitely watch Xanadu! It's bad but in a much more awesome, fun, enjoyable way. It's also *not* ALW (in fact the soundtrack is incredible and went platinum) but ELO (Jeff Lynne) and John Farrar.
I know it's gonna be a good reaction when you're already embarrassed to even announce what you're reacting to and haven't even started the film yet! I'll have to check this film out myself just to experience what the hype is about with this! For context, Sonic the Hedgehog which came out a few months later, at around the start and early stages of the pandemic, had the same budget as this film and made around over four times the box office gross profit than Cats did! That's very very telling, despite having such a handicap! Sonic was flawed but was still a fine fun film.
Xanadu, thankfully, is NOT Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s still pretty cringey - don’t get me wrong I LOVE XANADU - but it’s cringey in a dated 80s way, not a fever dream acid trip way. I appreciate you ladies taking one for the team on this one.
Big fan of Xanadu here as well. Of course, I may be somewhat biased, because-like many young boys my age at the time-I had a massive early-teen crush on Olivia Newton-John.
I heard the soundtrack long before seeing the film, and I was sooo disappointed as I loved the soundtrack. To me, the film has some really nice ingredients that don't work properly when put together. It might've worked better if 'Andy Gibb' had been cast as planned.
@@TheNightBadger the soundtrack is great. I agree, Sonny might have been more likeable if Andy Gibb had been involved. But I love Gene Kelly and I thought he and Olivia were as good as the script allows. I’m kind of still hoping for a remake - the story could be great if they had today’s writers.
NO ! This is not the version of Cats to watch . There is a 2000 IRC version which was filmed in a theatre over a couple of days with the cast of the stage play , its awesome
Yes. It has almost zero story. But I feel like the appeal of the play (not this movie, oh, goodness) is being able to point at it and be like "Oh! that's my cat" or "I know a cat like that". Because if you listen to the lyrics most of them are stuff that cats just do. The fat one that gets food from everyone, the one that makes things 'disappear', the ones that break everything, the one that makes friends with the mice instead of killing them, the one that never knows what it wants. A thing that they do in the play that they don't do in the movie, that certainly removes one entertainment value is that they are in an alley with a ton of the trash and they USE the trash in entertaining ways to tell their stories. Like when the railway cat comes on they take bicycle tires and a trash can to 'make' a train as he is singing his song. Or when Jenny is singing about mice the other cats make little mouse costumes out of the garbage to pretend to be the mice. It's entertaining to watch them use the 'environment' to tell their story.
You should do a reaction to Spielberg's "West Side Story"! I felt like he finally brought the musical to its cinematic potential, freeing the camera to dance among the performers and bringing us into the thrilling energy of the world, moreso than any previous movie musical ever made.
Also, absolutely agree with Stella's take on ALW. A lot of his songs are etched into my heart but I recognize that he is not on the level of Sondheim or JRB in musical or lyrical sophistication.
Regarding Dame Judi, this is awful of course but she was cast as the original Grizabella in 1981 so it wasn't a surprise that she was approached. She had to pull out of the original performance as she tore her Achilles Tendon.
I saw this in the cinema and regretted it. So glad I have the 1998 version of it on DVD. In future, you guys should watch the 1998 version of Cats. It a lot better than this one (in my opinion anyway)
depends on the production/cast you see. I remember seeing the show as a kid and it was really well done and absolute fun, the choreography was great and the singing was amazing. Then i saw it again as an adult, new cast/production and the quality was very meh with okayish vocals, a fun night but not great. Still a hundred times better than this dumpster fire of a movie. Also the Uncanny Valley CGI for Cats movie was done by the same production company that did that creepy humanoid muscular model of Sonic in the first Sonic the Hedghog movie.
Musicals and horror. Get some Repo and Little Shop in. Else I have never watched a live reprise of this. I grew up young on opera and was groomed as a singer so I saw it all. Certain ones never appealed past that to me. Like The Barber of Seville for example. I felt sated by the opera experience and did not feel enticed to see a live version of it. Normally any attraction to a film musical is that it appears to provide something special that the in house experience did not. Moulin Rouge! 2001 is an example of a film that provides a unique experience. And I am aware this is a self inflicted cognitive bias yet it just is. Also I normally do not check reactions to things I haven't seen but in this case I sort of do not intend to and more am just around to see you two react. And it is nice to see you two still on YT doing it. We have to do something about boosting you in the algos here.
I'm so sorry. I watched this movie with friends expecting it to be "so bad, it's good", in a make-fun-of-it kind of way, but... it ended up just making me sad and angry, lol. I couldn't believe how bad it was.
Just another example of someone who hates musicals making a musical. Thanks Hooper. Les Miz was sort of saved by its cast, but even that was an extreme disappointment. Regarding Cats specifically, I can't really defend it as I do not like the Stage Version very much either, but at least it's a cohesive show. What's it about? As Andrew Lloyd Weber said, "Cats. It's just about Cats." And that's it. Any deeper dive into the story is silly as it's just meant to be a silly over the top dance extravaganza with the cast as Cats for style. hahaha. But yeah, Lindsey Ellis and Sideways have the best videos analyzing what happened here. Lindsey's vid more from the Hollywood perspective and Sideways from the musical perspective. Because they BUTCHERED the music. I especially recommend Sideways if you are interested in music on any level as that vid is damn near perfect.
I like Hayley and Stella more than I hate Cats, turns out. I have negative interest in Cats, would remove it from my memory if I could, but I watched the video anyway
I want to give y’all a view, but this movie makes me incredibly unjellicle. I’ll try to let it run while I go take a shower or something, lol. I agree with Stella, I don’t really dig the songs, so it’s just got nothing going for it, really.
Cats, much like 'Starlight Express', to me, is a 'concept' musical which was meant to be seen live for the interactive aspects. I only liked one or two songs from both and care nothing for the concepts, so they were always 'meh' to me. I preferred Jesus Christ and Evita, Phantom was ok too. Lloyd Webber doesn't write lyrics by the way - just the music. _"Is that Napoleon, ironically?"_ - I weep. _"He's not Stephen Sondheim"_ - How dare you! Wait, it's literally true... 'Xanadu' wasn't him either...
I don't like this musical nor the movie either. It's a fun watch to do it while drunk haha but two things that I like for sure are Jennifer Hudson's performance and the Beautiful Ghosts song (but the credits version)
Consider viewing the 1998 film version of Cats. It was a recording of the actual stage play that inspired this face plant. 1998's version was way better.
I remember seeing this with my friend when it was in theaters and we both agreed that this movie would be fun to act in with all the cat mannerisms but not to watch
you two win a ticket to go see "Eye of the Cat" and a poster of 'Batman Returns". For just sitting through the whole thing. Fir a good cat movie may I suggest "Cat People"
A weird and weirdly misconstrued and misguided version CGI version of a rather dull musical about a cat suicide cult must surely be a hit with everyone? Right? :D
Oh wow, this was….hrmmph 🥴 I think the only thing that saved this reaction was Stella’s adorable Jersey accent and Hailey’s catchphrase when she’s grossed out, “Oh my god, what?….No! Ew!” 😂 Otherwise yeah, Cats is a painful movie to sit through but you girls made it worth it. Y’all should totally do a reaction once a month sit down and watch a random horrible flop of a movie nobody’s ever heard of and then rip all over it that’d be super fun to watch - kinda like a mystery science theater kind of thing but with you gals hosting it 😁 that’d be fun to watch
I don’t know about anyone else, but I honestly bursted out laughing at the costumes. Like really? These are your cats? They don’t even look convincing, either. They look like they’re getting ready for trick or treating.
Ive managed to stay away from this movie, mostly because I want to avoid nightmares. Its time to watch it though....through your reaction. Its the only way Ill do it lol Edit: Just finished the movie part of the reaction.....oh boy. I almost gave up minutes in. How did people sit through this in the theater?
Growing up I was never a fan of musicals at all. I think Into The Woods was the first time I actually enjoyed one. And then I discovered Starkid. That’s when I realized ya ok there are some pretty great musicals out there after all 😂 But ya, never been a fan of Cats either.
No good of a movie but the reaction was entertaining. Who could blame both Hayley and Stella? I don't blame them even one bit. Love the reaction. But not the movie.
You can't convince me that this movie didn't start the pandemic
Mother Nature was like: "This is a warning. Don't do this again."
@RedTanglerfr fr
Lol
I agree. Some dark, jellicle juju got brought up from the depths when this was made.
Literally the last movie I paid to see before lockdown. Can’t be a coincidence.
"And he also hasn't taken off his pants. And I really appreciate those pants staying on." Best backhanded compliment to a character in a movie yet!
Hayley realizing they weren’t even halfway through it is killing me
25:05 Hahahahaha, it's because it's actually sung on beat! I forgot the guy's name, but he trained and just said screw this click track and sung the song the correct way. And his tap dancing is awesome
Thank you for displaying the courage and moral fortitude to react to CATS.
“Some parts of it don’t involve cats eating cockroaches or being creepily sexualized!”
-blurb from Hayley & Stella
I always got the impression everyone made fun of the costumes in the theater version but if you see those costumes they add volume the head, hands and legs of the actors, it's enough to trick our brain into buying that the actors don't have human proportions, cause their heads, hands and feet are too wide. Also all actors in the theater production have cat make up with painted on noses and lip split in the middle that cats have, the actors in the movie however have human noses and lips but they still have whiskers. I can't believe the choice of giving them whiskers but no cat nose and lips was a planned choice, any CGI artists would know doing it like that would send the characters straight into the uncanny valley, I think they ran out of time to CGI the cat noses and lips.
Almost makes The Rock’s cgi in Mummy 2 look believable 😂 ….,,almost 😜
I remember Taylor was so hyped while promoting this movie, and then after the movie came out, she never mentioned it again 😭💀
She literally painstakingly deleted every mention of Cats from her social media accounts.
The actor who did the tap number has a great version of the Mad Hatter in a ballet performance of Alice in Wonderland, one of my favorite takes on the character. He's also pretty hot when he's not in cat CGI/makeup 😏
Oh no! 😱 When we said we wanted musicals, not like this! If you really wanted to see Cats, should have gone for the pro-shot commemorative edition. I only hope for your sakes that you’ve already seen it and this wasn’t your first intro to the show; that would be heartbreaking.
the original cats yes lol 😆 crazy they thought 2019....
The original musical from 1998 is the one to watch. Had it on VHS and love it all these years later
Good Lord, this reaction felt like it was four hours. Can’t imagine what it felt like for you two.
The book of poetry is pretty fun. It’s been a long time since I compared the poems to the musical but if I recall right, Webber didn’t change the words all that much. But the poetry is just some fun stuff Elliott wrote for his Godchildren. Theres no real deeper meaning to them except that they extravagantly describe normal cat behavior. Like ascribing “magic” to a cat whose tricks are all stuff like appearing in rooms you would swear the cat wasn’t in. The poems are fun and whimsical and describe totally normal cat stuff using silly language. The movie turns that into a weird cat death cult.
Such a shame, too. When I was in college at SVA in Manhattan, back during the original run of Cats on Broadway, that was one of my favorite shows to go watch. The craziness, the music, the dancing, the incredibly attractive performers in incredibly tight costumes, etc. And then the movie stripped all of what made it so good, by trying to have it "make sense" instead.
The worst live action musical ever made!
It won 6/9 Golden Razzie Awards including Worst Picture.
Thank you so much for watching/Reacting to this one. I've been wanting to see and watch it for a while, just to see if it was like everyone was saying it was like. But felt great watching it along side you both, cringe, musical wonder and all.
To quote David St Hubbins (This is spinal Tap). "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" you may have crossed the line with this reaction
Also, Victoria was created completely for the movie, basically she's there to take the place of the 'audience" That's why Taylor Swift had to write a song for her, because she wasn't in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats nor the stage play.
Victoria has been there since the beginning. She was the white kitten dancing (no vocals) in the '98 film
After getting to the end of the reaction, a few extra things I noticed was that they seriously butchered the Bustopher Jones and Mungojerrie & Rumpelteazer songs; the whole point of the former is that yes he is fat but he's also a sophisticated high society cat that everyone respects, in this version they just portrayed him like a clown, for the latter it sounds like they just cut the degree of tonal shifting in the melody in half and made an originally quite fun song sound way flatter. Something that I was already aware of beforehand was the way they made Macavity an obstinate villain and a foil to Mistoffeles for some reason, but if you look at the poem that his song was based on, the whole thing was HEAVILY based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's description of Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem" and the whole point of it was to also portray him as a hands-off crime boss who prefers to avoid the spotlight just like the canon Moriarty was, not a magical kidnapper who was obsessed with getting the best guy ever™ award through the Bradbury method of overtaking the competition.
I feel like the Bustopher Jones problem flowed from casting James Corden. Nothing makes him sophisticated :P
Oh no. WHY??? 😱
Love this lol
Not the movie but the reaction 😂
Genuinely I love this STAGE musical. One of my core memories from childhood…I didn’t even make it a half hour through this movie until turning it off for my sanity 😂
i'd highly recommend you two watch the phenomenal video about this movie by the youtuber Sideways, it details many of the creative decisions that turned this movie into the disaster it is including failures in the music and an inability to comprehend one of the most simplistic musical plots ever written lmao
I laughed almost uncontrollably and had to leave early. I snuck into another movie😂
This was so close to being the last movie I saw before the lockdowns hit. I thankfully decided to go see Parasite about 3 days before the world closed down, because otherwise Cats would have been my last cinema memory for about 2 years.
A delightful fever dream of a film. I hatepreciate it.
(Edit: I had typed the above before Hayley referred to the play as a fever dream. Not just me then.)
" Who is that actor?"
Me: recognizing the voice) Ohhhh my god, tell me they didn't drag poor Ray Winstone into this piece of sh--!!!
*movie progresses to include Judi Dench and Ian McKellan*
OH MY GOD I SPOKE TOO SOON.....
Guys, this reaction is getting a like based on the only merits I can give: having the courage to watch and react to whatever the hell this movie is! Thanks for braving the weirdness!
IMHO, "Memory" is the only good thing about any version of this musical. Thank you both for suffering through this for us!
I like that for your transition from musicals to mostly horror, you picked a movie that is both.
I'm kinda glad this movie exists, because it introduced me to Cats (the broadway show) and all the fun Lore and Music theory videos people have made
It's thanks to those people that I understand who much they ruined, or got wrong, in this adaptation.
Characters, Songs, their looks, their dances! Their reasons. Their story. Even the concept. lmaooo
A theatrical HD re-release of the filmed Broadway production would've done so much better than this.
Still waiting for "The Butthole Cut" of the film
honestly I think it would be amazing to see you guys react to the musical, you might actually enjoy it more for what it is since there is a better clear story line, and theater presence!
If, and this is a big if, you are willing to give cats a second chance, try the late 90s recording of the stage production. That being said, Cats as a whole is far down my list of favorites. Maybe bottom 10 or so. Memories on the other hand is a great song, and a few others are a lot of fun.
I'm old enough to remember when original Cats cast member Betty Buckley (the teacher in "Carrie") was making the rounds singing memory back in the early 1980's, and hate to say it, but her version of Memory blew Jennifer Hudson's out of the water.
You know what I enjoy more thing about 2010 cats? This reaction, and lindsey elis videos on cats
If you haven't seen Sideways' video about it, you're missing out. Amazing musical theory rant. It's a fun re-watch now & then just to remind the universe how much they screwed up with this movie.
This movie is the best acid trip since the Beatles “Revolver” album
If they just had Francesca Hayward without CGI, I would've sat through this movie eight times, easy.
You dabbling in some cosmic horror today, aren't we? Because that's what this movie is, some real Eldritch terrors stuff, some of the close ups on faces are horrifying, this couldn't be unintentional, someone knew how this would come off to audiences. Perhaps if the script had played into the cosmic horror, the movie would have been more interesting?
At least they listened to people being horrified by the initial ads and removed the... holes.
I am a huge fan of the stage play and the original book of poetry it was based upon, T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" and I don't know anyone who is a CATS fan who liked this movie, it was an absolute trainwreck, not to mention they completely ruined the plot in making Macavity some big bad villain of the entire movie, so they didn't have to pay their big name artists to stick around after their single musical number.
To be clear, Macavity DOES kidnap Old Deuteronomy, but he (Old Deuteronomy was as I recall male in the play) was the only one and does so during the Macavity song (which for the record, he doesn't sing, it's told about him, not by him.)
I've never bothered to watch this version but I remember being a fan of the 1998 recording at least, after it was the school play when I was in like the 4th grade and even went to see it in a big auditorium in my city a few years later. While that experience was certainly uncanny at first I ended up liking the songs quite a bit, in particular "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" which has always seemed to be one of the underrated ones, and "Growltiger's Last Stand" which ended up cut from that recording for some reason and gets singled out by some ignorant folk because it has "nAuGhTy LaNgUaGe" 🙄. I'm not sure what Lloyd Webber's deal is beyond being vaguely aware that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd also hates his guts (funnily, I also ended up getting some free tickets for a screening that Roger Waters was presenting in my city after I agreed to take a volunteer interpreter gig once); personally as someone who got the book of poems back during those days (and went through quite a bit of effort to do so as I live in a non-anglophone country and those were times before amazon or any kind of online shopping was really big) in the long run I ended up taking more of an issue with TS Eliot and the modernist poets in general; the years I spent in uni studying literature made me immensely disillusioned with modern academia, but my beef with that movement in particular was how not only inherently inconsistent but also utterly boring the symbolism they used is. The actual poems that the musical is based on were literally used 1:1 as the song lyrics in most cases, so you can decide whether they'd be worthwhile based on that information. Something about this version that a friend of mine took issue with was Macavity's portrayal as a sun tanned black cat when the poem very plainly describes him as a ginger cat; something else that strikes me as really weird and unnecessary was how they tried to force it to have an overarching "plot" rather than have it essentially be a series of vignettes and added a bunch of non-sung "book" dialogue; the old versions had neither because these things quite simply aren't needed.
I like how the characters looking like hellspawns is the last of the glaring flaws in this version that comes to mind.
Very brave choice of movie to watch as it was slated in the reviews
I'm begging you to watch Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom 😂🙏
Little Shop of Horrors would be a GREAT musical to react to
I saw this in theaters KNOWING how bad it is. I had a great time laughing with my best friend. I was even going to go to a rowdy screening of it until it got canceled by the start of the pandemic. I like some of the songs at least as well as the train scene and that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. Actually, you guys should react to Evita. That's my favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of all time.
11:00 I am desentisized, but there is a lot of touching in the stage musical as well, but not *only* the sexual kind. That type of vibe is actually barely there XD
You know how cats rub against your leg? The stage version plays with that in a sense that groups of cats who belong together, will sit together, rub hands etc.
It's even a part of the climax of the story. Young kittens aren't allowed to touch the outcast (Grizabella), until one does, the group accepts them. Like if they were humans they would basically be shaking hands or hugging (in the friendship way) all the time.
😺Stella!!! 😺 😺Hayley!!!😺 You've gone to the dark side and to where no Reactor has dared to go!!! Go Girls!!! I do love 'cats' but I couldn't stomach this... Better off watching "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture" (1986) not as good as the actual original ballet - and yes I saw it - but very close and very good.
You didn’t have to react to this for our sake lol
This movie is what I can only assume exists because of money laundry.
Such courage watching this.... umm, whatever the hell it is and keeping your sanity girls. I'm not a big musical fan but this thing is so chaotic I felt like it suck 5 years of my life away just listening to it.
Bless your souls for this. You didn't have to suffer for our entertainment like this.
Please watch an actually good musical next to cleanse your souls.
Hell, I’d even be ok with Rent after this!🤣
Definitely watch Xanadu! It's bad but in a much more awesome, fun, enjoyable way.
It's also *not* ALW (in fact the soundtrack is incredible and went platinum) but ELO (Jeff Lynne) and John Farrar.
Ah, yes. Truly the content the world needed. So glad to see this reaction.
I love you ladies so much, I watched this whole reaction. Absolutely horrifying film
I've avoided this movie until now, but I mean I gotta watch it with y'all lol
I know it's gonna be a good reaction when you're already embarrassed to even announce what you're reacting to and haven't even started the film yet! I'll have to check this film out myself just to experience what the hype is about with this!
For context, Sonic the Hedgehog which came out a few months later, at around the start and early stages of the pandemic, had the same budget as this film and made around over four times the box office gross profit than Cats did! That's very very telling, despite having such a handicap! Sonic was flawed but was still a fine fun film.
Xanadu, thankfully, is NOT Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s still pretty cringey - don’t get me wrong I LOVE XANADU - but it’s cringey in a dated 80s way, not a fever dream acid trip way. I appreciate you ladies taking one for the team on this one.
Big fan of Xanadu here as well. Of course, I may be somewhat biased, because-like many young boys my age at the time-I had a massive early-teen crush on Olivia Newton-John.
@@SteveMND understandable, she was a beautiful lady. For me, it was the roller skating as a pre-teen girl 😂 as an adult, I appreciate the music more.
Came here to save Xanadu's reputation as well! It may be very silly and melodramatic, but it is NOT an ALW joint. ❤
I heard the soundtrack long before seeing the film, and I was sooo disappointed as I loved the soundtrack. To me, the film has some really nice ingredients that don't work properly when put together. It might've worked better if 'Andy Gibb' had been cast as planned.
@@TheNightBadger the soundtrack is great. I agree, Sonny might have been more likeable if Andy Gibb had been involved. But I love Gene Kelly and I thought he and Olivia were as good as the script allows. I’m kind of still hoping for a remake - the story could be great if they had today’s writers.
NO ! This is not the version of Cats to watch . There is a 2000 IRC version which was filmed in a theatre over a couple of days with the cast of the stage play , its awesome
Sorry, james, but there’s no right version of Cats to watch, I’m afraid..
James - you are correct, sir.
"can this movie still shock me?"
Oh my sweet summer child. Strap in.
Yes. It has almost zero story. But I feel like the appeal of the play (not this movie, oh, goodness) is being able to point at it and be like "Oh! that's my cat" or "I know a cat like that". Because if you listen to the lyrics most of them are stuff that cats just do. The fat one that gets food from everyone, the one that makes things 'disappear', the ones that break everything, the one that makes friends with the mice instead of killing them, the one that never knows what it wants. A thing that they do in the play that they don't do in the movie, that certainly removes one entertainment value is that they are in an alley with a ton of the trash and they USE the trash in entertaining ways to tell their stories. Like when the railway cat comes on they take bicycle tires and a trash can to 'make' a train as he is singing his song. Or when Jenny is singing about mice the other cats make little mouse costumes out of the garbage to pretend to be the mice. It's entertaining to watch them use the 'environment' to tell their story.
You should do a reaction to Spielberg's "West Side Story"! I felt like he finally brought the musical to its cinematic potential, freeing the camera to dance among the performers and bringing us into the thrilling energy of the world, moreso than any previous movie musical ever made.
Also, absolutely agree with Stella's take on ALW. A lot of his songs are etched into my heart but I recognize that he is not on the level of Sondheim or JRB in musical or lyrical sophistication.
Regarding Dame Judi, this is awful of course but she was cast as the original Grizabella in 1981 so it wasn't a surprise that she was approached. She had to pull out of the original performance as she tore her Achilles Tendon.
I saw this in the cinema and regretted it. So glad I have the 1998 version of it on DVD. In future, you guys should watch the 1998 version of Cats. It a lot better than this one (in my opinion anyway)
I am so sorry. The broadway musical is so much better and not an uncanny valley fever dream.
depends on the production/cast you see. I remember seeing the show as a kid and it was really well done and absolute fun, the choreography was great and the singing was amazing. Then i saw it again as an adult, new cast/production and the quality was very meh with okayish vocals, a fun night but not great. Still a hundred times better than this dumpster fire of a movie. Also the Uncanny Valley CGI for Cats movie was done by the same production company that did that creepy humanoid muscular model of Sonic in the first Sonic the Hedghog movie.
Will Nerdy Prudes Must Die be coming to UA-cam?
Musicals and horror. Get some Repo and Little Shop in. Else I have never watched a live reprise of this. I grew up young on opera and was groomed as a singer so I saw it all. Certain ones never appealed past that to me. Like The Barber of Seville for example. I felt sated by the opera experience and did not feel enticed to see a live version of it. Normally any attraction to a film musical is that it appears to provide something special that the in house experience did not. Moulin Rouge! 2001 is an example of a film that provides a unique experience.
And I am aware this is a self inflicted cognitive bias yet it just is. Also I normally do not check reactions to things I haven't seen but in this case I sort of do not intend to and more am just around to see you two react. And it is nice to see you two still on YT doing it. We have to do something about boosting you in the algos here.
Steeeeeerike!! w...why? Seriously, WHY? Lol! Actually, you weren't mean ENOUGH!! 🤣
You two enjoy the rest of your days as well.
Like Ricky Gervais said "it's the worse thing to happen to cats since dogs "
Repo Man: The Genetic Opera would be a good musical if you can find it anywhere.
I'm so sorry. I watched this movie with friends expecting it to be "so bad, it's good", in a make-fun-of-it kind of way, but... it ended up just making me sad and angry, lol. I couldn't believe how bad it was.
Just another example of someone who hates musicals making a musical. Thanks Hooper. Les Miz was sort of saved by its cast, but even that was an extreme disappointment.
Regarding Cats specifically, I can't really defend it as I do not like the Stage Version very much either, but at least it's a cohesive show. What's it about? As Andrew Lloyd Weber said, "Cats. It's just about Cats." And that's it. Any deeper dive into the story is silly as it's just meant to be a silly over the top dance extravaganza with the cast as Cats for style. hahaha.
But yeah, Lindsey Ellis and Sideways have the best videos analyzing what happened here. Lindsey's vid more from the Hollywood perspective and Sideways from the musical perspective. Because they BUTCHERED the music. I especially recommend Sideways if you are interested in music on any level as that vid is damn near perfect.
Omg I mourn for the time you will never get back on this one!
I like Hayley and Stella more than I hate Cats, turns out. I have negative interest in Cats, would remove it from my memory if I could, but I watched the video anyway
You guys should see a video by a youtuber called "sideways" about this movie. Its amazing
I want to give y’all a view, but this movie makes me incredibly unjellicle. I’ll try to let it run while I go take a shower or something, lol.
I agree with Stella, I don’t really dig the songs, so it’s just got nothing going for it, really.
this is the film that started covid .
Cats, much like 'Starlight Express', to me, is a 'concept' musical which was meant to be seen live for the interactive aspects. I only liked one or two songs from both and care nothing for the concepts, so they were always 'meh' to me. I preferred Jesus Christ and Evita, Phantom was ok too. Lloyd Webber doesn't write lyrics by the way - just the music.
_"Is that Napoleon, ironically?"_ - I weep.
_"He's not Stephen Sondheim"_ - How dare you! Wait, it's literally true...
'Xanadu' wasn't him either...
I like how you guys uploaded a reaction to The Thing and the reactions to this are similar
when i first saw the trailer for this movie i thought it was a pandora commercial
I didn't watch your reaction because I tried to watch this movie once and couldn't see it through but thumbs up to you for doing it.
Stephen King's Cats
My favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber musical movie is Donny Osmond in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
@41:41 They ruined the music too!! Watch Sideways' video in it, he has a great breakdown on it :)
I don't like this musical nor the movie either. It's a fun watch to do it while drunk haha but two things that I like for sure are Jennifer Hudson's performance and the Beautiful Ghosts song (but the credits version)
Consider viewing the 1998 film version of Cats. It was a recording of the actual stage play that inspired this face plant. 1998's version was way better.
Anxiously waiting for you guys to react to Moulin Rouge if you haven't watched it already
That would have been leaps and bounds a much better choice 😅😂
I remember seeing this with my friend when it was in theaters and we both agreed that this movie would be fun to act in with all the cat mannerisms but not to watch
you two win a ticket to go see "Eye of the Cat" and a poster of 'Batman Returns". For just sitting through the whole thing. Fir a good cat movie may I suggest "Cat People"
A weird and weirdly misconstrued and misguided version CGI version of a rather dull musical about a cat suicide cult must surely be a hit with everyone? Right? :D
Oh wow, this was….hrmmph 🥴
I think the only thing that saved this reaction was Stella’s adorable Jersey accent and Hailey’s catchphrase when she’s grossed out, “Oh my god, what?….No! Ew!” 😂 Otherwise yeah, Cats is a painful movie to sit through but you girls made it worth it.
Y’all should totally do a reaction once a month sit down and watch a random horrible flop of a movie nobody’s ever heard of and then rip all over it that’d be super fun to watch - kinda like a mystery science theater kind of thing but with you gals hosting it 😁 that’d be fun to watch
WHY? just why? oh god WHYYYY?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I honestly bursted out laughing at the costumes. Like really? These are your cats? They don’t even look convincing, either. They look like they’re getting ready for trick or treating.
13:13 Yeah, over here we were waaaaay ahead of you.
Ive managed to stay away from this movie, mostly because I want to avoid nightmares. Its time to watch it though....through your reaction. Its the only way Ill do it lol
Edit: Just finished the movie part of the reaction.....oh boy. I almost gave up minutes in. How did people sit through this in the theater?
This film basically encapsulates everything wrong with musical adaptations and the reason for people who hate musicals
Growing up I was never a fan of musicals at all. I think Into The Woods was the first time I actually enjoyed one. And then I discovered Starkid. That’s when I realized ya ok there are some pretty great musicals out there after all 😂
But ya, never been a fan of Cats either.
No good of a movie but the reaction was entertaining. Who could blame both Hayley and Stella? I don't blame them even one bit. Love the reaction. But not the movie.
Fr😂
This movie is the worst to happens to cats, after dogs!
T.S. Eliot is probably rolling in his grave
Oh ladies, ladies. I'm cringing hard and I haven't even started watching your reaction.