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Post by anita on Jul 19, 2019 9:08:47 GMT
I think they look creepy - especially Dame Judy but I will still go & see it.
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Post by Dave25 on Jul 19, 2019 9:28:03 GMT
I think Tom Hooper stepped into the pitfall of too realistic choices once again and while he might think that something like Cats would prove the opposite, it does not.
This art form is all about fantasy, sung thoughts and a non-literal world per definition.
Sung sequences should never be treated as literal (Les Mis) but more like Moulin Rouge, Rocketman, Chicago, Evita etc. Scenes with humans work beautifully that way, because it takes you on a journey in the character's mind, experience and emotions. The scenes have no limits because anything can happen in a character's mind and it is often bigger than real life. For example in Rocketman, where young Elton dreams of conducting a big orchestra and suddenly it happens. The swimming pool scene, the bar scene where the people float, all beautiful sung thoughts. The definition of this art form. The music is an actor. Or in Evita, the whole "The lady's got potential" scene, fantastic storytelling and sung thoughts. When they make a Miss Saigon film in the future, I truly hope they understand this, so that Last night of the world is romantic, bigger than life, warm, because that is how it was in their minds, and not in a cold, empty concrete room with a crate of beer and a spiders web. Same goes for "This is the hour", they should not be afraid to show Kim in a big black space with a choir of ghosts after she shoots Thuy, because her world ends in that moment, instead of her standing between a clothes line and a bin and looking for the photo-realism.
Cats is not about humans, but about cats. So the only way this works on feature film is to go all the way in. Create a fantasy world, more like animation, but definitely not photo realistic animation (so no real looking cats), but also definitely not characters that look like humans in a suit. And they chose the latter. In many scenes it looks like the suits of the characters in a theme park. It might be cgi, but it looks like a human face and body in a suit, dressed up.
The 2 biggest pitfalls here were either too realistically animated animals, because then it would be very silly if they speak like humans and dance (lion king) or too realistically looking humans who look like they are dressed up in cat suits. (Which they chose). And I don't think the public is going to buy it.
I feel that "Cats" in general was a terrible thing to choose. Especially for Tom Hooper. I knew his urge for too realistic animals or too realistic humans looking dressed up as cats would be too high.
Fact is, in this art form on film, realistic emotions lie in other things.
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Post by johartuk on Jul 19, 2019 9:29:43 GMT
The faces are just the actors' faces on cat heads. There are no feline features. I think that's why they look creepy.
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Post by Dave25 on Jul 19, 2019 9:33:00 GMT
The faces are just the actors' faces on cat heads. There are no feline features. I think that's why they look creepy. Yes, that's what I was trying to say, human faces and bodies looking like they are dressed up as cats. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 9:39:53 GMT
So with almost universal dislike for the trailer will Universal do a Sonic the Hedgehog, put the film back several months and go back to the drawing board somewhat or will they do an Aladdin, and stick with their guns knowing it ain’t as bad as what the people fear?
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Post by Jon on Jul 19, 2019 10:11:15 GMT
So with almost universal dislike for the trailer will Universal do a Sonic the Hedgehog, put the film back several months and go back to the drawing board somewhat or will they do an Aladdin, and stick with their guns knowing it ain’t as bad as what the people fear? Universal probably want the Christmas money so it’s unlikely to be delayed and I suspect it would cost more to design lots of Cats than one Sonic |
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Post by anthony40 on Jul 19, 2019 11:42:54 GMT
It seems as though the whole junkyard setting has been dropped
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Post by latefortheoverture on Jul 19, 2019 11:44:46 GMT
I'm gonna give it a chance. I've never seen it on stage, so don't know the story.
The names in the cast are surely enough to make this a big money spinner?
The sets and the shots do look incredible, but the cats do look quite scary! The sizing of them is completely off- maybe they're all dwarf cats? Why is Taylor Swift Cat wearing high heels? Why do the lady cats has 'citties' (cat titties)? It's a lot to take in, but will be ok in the end I think.
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Post by d'James on Jul 19, 2019 11:47:54 GMT
Bizarre. I knew Jennifer Hudson would ruin that song with her CATerwauling.
I liked the sets. Hmmm. The animals (I mean they’re not cats) were ‘interesting’ shall we say.
I wish there were more musical directors out there rather than Tom Hooper or Rob Marshall.
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Post by squidward on Jul 19, 2019 12:06:46 GMT
‘You will believe’. I ALREADY believe that this is going to be the biggest ( presumably unintentional) comedy smash of ‘the holiday season’.
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Post by mindy0monster on Jul 19, 2019 12:27:56 GMT
I was nearly sold on the idea on Wednesday night- having seen Ian McKellen reading 'Gus, the Theatre Cat'. However, that trailer has managed to completely put me off again. Like others have said, I think if they'd made the facial features more feline, it wouldn't look so plain weird....
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7,061 posts
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Post by Jon on Jul 19, 2019 12:34:21 GMT
It seems as though the whole junkyard setting has been dropped I think it’s a great that they’ve decided the number of areas. The junkyard set while good can’t really translate on film |
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Post by ceebee on Jul 19, 2019 12:34:58 GMT
It's Cats. It'll sell by the bucketload. A $500m box office success looms. It comes out the day after the new Star Wars so I imagine it will struggle to make $50! I'd happily bet on it being a huge success. Never watched Star Wars, never will. |
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Post by ceebee on Jul 19, 2019 12:37:54 GMT
Start Wars is arguably gonna be the biggest film of this year (obviously Avengers came out too). Both are kids films and it’s JUST before Xmas so can’t see parents taking kids to both. Also Star Wars movie is literally the end of a saga. Which matters if you're a Star Wars fan, obviously. My life has been poorer for not seeing any if the films, I'm sure, but I'd rather see Cats... and I NEVER imagined saying that EVER! |
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Post by ceebee on Jul 19, 2019 12:44:20 GMT
Somebody mentioned Sonic - I think that's just spin... Remember when Cats first came out the idea was ridiculed. Then the merchandise kicked off. Then it ran, and ran, and ran. I think this film will make a ton of money.
Also, I had no idea there are so many CGI experts/producers/art directors on this forum. It's humbling to breathe the same ether.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 19, 2019 12:44:29 GMT
It seems as though the whole junkyard setting has been dropped Good. time to move on and give it a new lease of life |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 13:08:10 GMT
Also, I had no idea there are so many CGI experts/producers/art directors on this forum. It's humbling to breathe the same ether. No need to be rude dear, just because some people DO take an interest in those things and DO have a little knowledge, it doesn’t call for you to be like that |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 13:49:19 GMT
I think everyone who goes to see this should take a cat. It would be awesome.
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Post by spendleb on Jul 19, 2019 13:56:52 GMT
I'm gonna give it a chance. I've never seen it on stage, so don't know the story. The names in the cast are surely enough to make this a big money spinner? The sets and the shots do look incredible, but the cats do look quite scary! The sizing of them is completely off- maybe they're all dwarf cats? Why is Taylor Swift Cat wearing high heels? Why do the lady cats has 'citties' (cat titties)? It's a lot to take in, but will be ok in the end I think. There is no story really, it's one hell of a weird show, I loved the dancing but that's about it. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 14:05:10 GMT
I'm gonna give it a chance. I've never seen it on stage, so don't know the story. The names in the cast are surely enough to make this a big money spinner? The sets and the shots do look incredible, but the cats do look quite scary! The sizing of them is completely off- maybe they're all dwarf cats? Why is Taylor Swift Cat wearing high heels? Why do the lady cats has 'citties' (cat titties)? It's a lot to take in, but will be ok in the end I think. There is no story really, it's one hell of a weird show, I loved the dancing but that's about it. Isn’t it just cat after cat that comes on, sings a song about itself, does a jig and then Judi Dench kills Elaine Paige and takes her to Heaven (the nightclub, not god’s place)? |
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Post by ceebee on Jul 19, 2019 14:10:36 GMT
Also, I had no idea there are so many CGI experts/producers/art directors on this forum. It's humbling to breathe the same ether. No need to be rude dear, just because some people DO take an interest in those things and DO have a little knowledge, it doesn’t call for you to be like that Wasn't being rude at all. As somebody who worked in very early 3D animation production, I find the views refreshing. |
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Post by spendleb on Jul 19, 2019 14:11:00 GMT
There is no story really, it's one hell of a weird show, I loved the dancing but that's about it. Isn’t it just cat after cat that comes on, sings a song about itself, does a jig and then Judi Dench kills Elaine Paige and takes her to Heaven (the nightclub, not god’s place)? That's it exactly!!! |
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Post by alece10 on Jul 19, 2019 14:31:45 GMT
I think everyone who goes to see this should take a cat. It would be awesome. I can lend anyone a cat for the film. I'm currently feeding 7 stray cats and I'm sure they keep telling their friends there is a mad cat man down the road dishing out free Whiskers. |
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Post by alece10 on Jul 19, 2019 14:35:06 GMT
I only saw Cats once just after the war with the original cast. I cant remember there being any story at all. Just lots of dancing cats and nice songs and Paul Nicholas sitting on my knee.
Those were the days.
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Post by djp on Jul 19, 2019 14:35:25 GMT
‘You will believe’. I ALREADY believe that this is going to be the biggest ( presumably unintentional) comedy smash of ‘the holiday season’. I think at some point bad takes you beyond laughably bad, to just bad.
This may be the ultimate in name casting . Throw a lot of big established, older stars together, throw in some modern dancers with a youtube following , throw in a top ballet dancer to make someone look good at dancing. End up with fat cats in faux fur,that look less like cats than the actors painted up in the MT version, and come without such expressive faces. Add singers who can't act or dance well enough, and dancers who can't act well enough. Add some dialogue so the dumbed down audience can follow it, and move it to another setting because the audience won't recognize a junk yard, and the cats look too fat to be on survival rations. It would be far better if they just used the last UK MT cast, and added a couple of big names to get a bit of name recognition.
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