Cats Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Cats Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 11, 2020

While it’s no doubt heartening to filmmakers to read raves for their pieces, let’s face it, for at least some of us ordinary, everyday film fans there’s probably nothing quite like the thrill granted by reading a ranting pan, with some fans perhaps thinking that the nastier the review, the better. In that regard, it’s hard to come up with another recent film that may have provided more “pleasure” for that kind of fan than Cats , an offering that has already entered the annals of all time disasters, and which has led to a surprisingly large number of internet memes based on various elements of that perceived catastrophe. There are actually whole “indexes” of bad reviews for the film that some internet wags have assembled, but the disparagement hasn’t ended with the printed word, as anyone who heard Ricky Gervais’ opening monologue on the recent broadcast of the Golden Globes may remember, even if some of Gervais’ obviously scabrous joking was censored. If the film version of Cats has made history of an unfortunate kind, the West End and then later Broadway stage sensation that gave birth to it was certainly history making in its own regard, and in a considerably more (but not entirely) positive way. It's perhaps salient to note that while Cats became (for a time anyway) the longest running musical in both London and New York, something that is a testament to how much the show appealed to the so-called "public at large", there were some critical grumblings, at least on this side of the pond, about the musical's lack of narrative and what some New York reviewers saw as a pretty massive emphasis on style over substance (to which some other critics might respond, " You try making something of substance out of a musical about cats."). The niggling qualms of critics (who do they think they are, anyway?) obviously meant little to the lasting success of the show, and this 1998 direct to video release may generate some excitement among the show's fans who crave to see at least some of the most prominent cast members who have played in the show, notably Elaine Paige, strut their (furry?) stuff in now iconic roles.

Perhaps some indication of how popular the original stage incarnation of Cats was with younger musical theater lovers in the early 1980s may be gleaned from this anecdote from my own history. I was hired to conduct a production of Godspell in what must have been 1982, just shortly after Barbra Streisand's version of "Memory" from Cats had become a pretty substantial hit, though of course this was after the Original London Cast recording had been released and Elaine Paige's memorable rendition had no doubt been listened to by diehard musical aficionados globally. I had probably over twenty young sopranos audition for various roles in Godspell, and to my knowledge none of them were acquainted with each other, with all of them arriving separately over the course of two long days, and yet -- each and every one of them auditioned with "Memory". It got to the point that I started wondering whether or not I was being filmed for some hidden camera show. That initial overwhelming response as exemplified by so many younger performers choosing the same song with which to audition may have arguably lessened somewhat in intervening years, but the fact that both the original West End and Broadway versions of Cats each lasted for around an astounding two decades (London actually topped 20 years, with New York falling just a bit short at 18), and the fact that both locations have hosted successful revivals, certainly gives credence to the idea that the show touched something in audiences.

Unfortunately, the recent feature film adaptation may sully some, well, memory of the original stage version, and for those who have seen Cats on stage, this set of performances filmed at the Adelphi Theater should at least give a passing approximation of that experience, though a number of tweaks have been made, probably to allow for a convenient broadcast version fitting into an allotted time slot. There are also a few directorial flourishes from director David Mallet which may annoy those wanting to see Gillian Lynne's choreography (it's interesting to note that the making of featurette included on this disc as a bonus feature has some fun archival video during the show's pre-production and ultimate staging in London where the creative staff keeps referring to it as "a dance musical").

Note: I encountered some strange authoring on this disc in my standalone players, though it did better in my Blu-ray drive on my PC for some reason. There's no Main Menu, and instead the film just starts after the introductory FBI warnings and Universal masthead (both of which are chapter skippable, itself kind of unusual for a Universal release). That's all well and good, except on my standalone player for some reason the disc automatically "stopped" at the end of the film, which led to problems when trying to access the special features (see below). Pressing the Pop Up Menu during the film playback allowed access to the supplements, but after a supplement played, the disc auto stopped again , meaning I had to reboot the disc and start all over to access other supplements. Kind of strangely, everything worked better in my PC drive, where things properly reverted to the film (which continued playing) after a Bonus item was selected. The disc was what I call a "grinder" in both my standalone players and my Blu-ray drive, with a noticeable low rumbling "hum" when it was playing.

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cats is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.73:1. I'd love to know the provenance of the master utilized for this transfer, but the fact that Cats was given Blu-ray releases by Universal in England and a number of other countries way back in 2013 suggests to me this is an older master (call me cynical, but I can't imagine Universal springing for a new master for something with this limited appeal, but if anyone has authoritative data to the contrary, private message me and I will happily update the review). While this set of performances was originally filmed, and there is something approaching clumpy, noisy looking grain that can easily be spotted in many of the screenshots I've uploaded to this review, there's also what looks to me like upscaled video and combing artifacts at times, which suggests to me that at some point there was a video intermediate of some kind (a poster on our Forum suggests some of the effects work was SD in 480i, which may account for some of this, but to my eyes it occurs in some non-effects moments as well, for what that's worth). As such this is a pretty variable looking release. In close-ups when the singers are relatively static, there are actually nice detail and fine detail levels evident, and the palette is vibrant, though often skewed toward blue. A lot of the dancing can be pretty blurry looking, and some of the shots attempting to capture the entire proscenium can be downright fuzzy. I've tried to offer an array of some of the better and worse looking moments in the twenty screenshots here (because there's no Main Menu, you actually get an "extra" screenshot from the film itself in position 20), so I highly recommend looking through everything if you're considering a purchase of this release.

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cats features a robust sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, though the fact that everything was evidently pre-recorded leads to what I'm assuming is some inartful lip synching at times. The cover of this release states there was a 70 piece orchestra, while some other online sources place the orchestral numbers at closer to 100 (I kind of waggishly wondered if 80 or so of them were playing synthesizers and/or other keyboards), but one way or the other, there's a nicely full bodied sound here that uses the surround channels decently well for the accompaniments, while tending to keep vocals front and center.

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Cats (1080i; 29:33) is a really fun piece that has a ton of archival video, including some hilarious interviews with Webber and Lynne, where even they seem to see the humor others may feel in the basic premise of the show.


• Interviews with the Original Creative Team of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh, Trevor Nunn, Gillian Lynne, John Napier and Gerry Schoenfeld (1080i; 1:42:16) is another really appealing aggregation of sit down moments which gets into a glut of production data.


• Character Makeup Featurette with Karen Dawson Harding (1080i; 3:59)

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have a friend who is a relative of a guy I thought was an executive with the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization, and when I saw the Hammerstein kids (or maybe grandkids) taking to social media to complain about some aspects of the most recent revival of Oklahoma!, I asked my friend to ask his relative what he thought about that. My friend responded that his relative no longer worked for Rodgers and Hammerstein but was now in the employ of Cameron Mackintosh, and because I have a completely unapologetically politically incorrect sense of humor, I immediately countered that new information with, "Okay, then, ask him what happened to Andrew Lloyd Webber after Jesus Christ Superstar," a request which was thankfully greeted with appreciative laughter. That admittedly snarky follow up question on my part may point out as well as anything that Cats, along with several other latter day Webber musicals, has not ever really captured my particular cat fancy (sorry), though I'm certainly aware of the professionalism and craft the production displays. But to restate a sentiment from above, who do critics think they are? There are obviously huge hordes of fans out there who adore this show and they may want to stick to this filming of an international cast rather than the lambasted feature film, despite some of the technical limitations of the video presentation offered on this disc.