Jill Gibson

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A tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life; writed by: Lee Hall; duration: 1 h 50Min; Release Date: 2019; Actor: Jennifer Hudson; 20744 Vote. Official website.

I have seen the stage production "cats' twice before seeing this movie. Once about 25 years ago and once as recent as earlier this year. In both cases, I did not like the show despite normally being fond of musicals. There appears to be no plot and the show seems to be just a series of mostly nonsensical songs about cats. I was so puzzled why it is such a popular musical - the fourth longest running on Braodway, sixth longest running on West End, an international success through it's traveling production, and winning 7 Tony awards including best musical - that I felt I was missing something. My research revealed that there is indeed not much of a plot, but that spectators love the catchy music, the impressive dancing and the remarkable costumes. I also found out that the musical is based on a poetry collection, Old Possum's book of Practical Cats" by TS Eliot and is therefore less about the storyline as it is about the individual poems brought to live in the music.

It is with that backdrop that I went to see the movie, expecting not to like it. It did not help that I have been reading horrible reviews of the movie especially criticizing the lack of a plotline, the humanoid cats and the poor CGI. I was very pleasantly surprised by the movie. I did not expect much of a plot, but it was much better than in the show as I could better understand the singing, there was some additional dialogue and an additional subplot that added more context and more of a story line. I feel like I now finally understand the show. I actually liked the humanoid cats as I thought it brings out the best of both worlds: the dancing is really good and preserving the human body as much as possible helps to bring that out. On the other hand, adding the fur, the cat ears and the tails adds an extra dimension with a nice blend between the cats that are being portrayed and the human movements. I did also mostly like the CGI as it gave the director more creativity on how to use the environment. Despite all the negative reviews, I actually really liked the movie and may go see it again. The music and singing is catchy, the dancing and choreography amazing, the acting excellent, especially from some of the less known actors such as Francesca Hayward and Laura Davidson, and the plotline much clearer than in the show. The movie made me appreciate the stage production more. Some things that did bring the rating down for me include the weak plotline, which seems unavoidable considering the source material, and the sometimes poorly implemented CGI, especially if you pay closer attention to the details. There were so many problems with the CGI that the studio released a new version within the first week of the show having hit the theatre to fix a number of them, something I never heard of being done in the past. The lyrics of one of the songs in the movie says it well: All that I wanted, was to be wanted. This movie wants to be appealing to a broad audience, similar to the stage production, but somehow is perceived as not good for the same reason I struggled with in the stage production - a poor plot.

I really don't understand all the negative commentary on this movie. It's entertaining to watch with a dose of good humor and captivating performances by Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Judi Dench and Jason Derulo. I especially loved the ending (no spoilers here though.

To all who hate this movie: tame those feral Cats.

Rated 8.5/10 based on 549 customer reviews