REVIEW: “Cats” should have stayed a musical

PHOTO: “Cats” leaves Davis theaters on Dec. 27 but will continue to show in theaters around Yolo County.

By Emily Chapman,

BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–

Although the vocalists in the 2019 musical film “Cats,” directed by Tom Hooper, were beyond exceptional, the lack of creativity and cinematography fell short of making the movie of the same caliber as the Broadway-hit musical.

With famous celebrities like Rebel Wilson, Taylor Swift and James Corden, the movie was charmed with high-quality acting, singing and humor which gave flow to the peculiar plot.

Celebrity Jennifer Hudson sang the musical’s most famous song, “Memory,” executing the technical piece with a rustic and powerful tone, which delightfully highlighted the song’s climactic key change.

Past that, however, the movie lost the opportunity to add a substantial amount of creative liberty as it tried too hard to replicate the original 1980 musical.

Rather than modifying the physical movements of the cats from the musical, the movie portrayed the felines with both cat and human actions like walking on two feet and purring against one another.

The movie could have put its own spin on the theatrical piece by using computer-generated imagery (CGI), having the cats walk on all fours and resemble the mammals even more than the musical could.

The movie received a low score of 17 percent on the review website Rotten Tomatoes, as well as several lackluster reviews from critics worldwide, according to a Kittytalent.com blog post.

Overall, the purpose of the musical being crafted into a movie was to add more creativity and animation, which Hooper and the screenwriters lost sight of resulting in a failed digital rendition.