Cats Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Cats Blu-ray Movie Review

Les Misérables.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 12, 2020

With apologies to a certain Bard named William Shakespeare and one of his more iconic monologues from Julius Caesar, “friends, musical lovers, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Cats, not to praise it.” And just so we're clear, I'm talking about the original stage version as well as this misconceived film adaptation. Some of my best musical loving friends, several of whom actually manage to make their livings in musical theater (or at least used to until current events intervened), have known for years to steer far and wide of me in most any discussion about Andrew Lloyd Webber, since he has frankly never been among my favorite theater composers. That said, I have always held unabashed and unapologetic praise for his work in Jesus Christ Superstar, and I similarly have frequently admired his particular craft even if it hasn't always viscerally affected me the way some other writers' works have. In fact, in terms of one of my favorite musical theater composers, I’ve long joked that I stopped believing in astrology the moment I found out Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim were born on the same day (and I know that’s not the way astrology “works”, despite “daily horoscopes” in newspapers that would suggest otherwise, for those taking umbrage). I shared a probably un-PC joke I told about Mr. Webber in the closing comments of my recent Cats Blu-ray review (of the "international cast" in a filmed stage performance), which I'll leave for enterprising readers to ferret out as a summation of my general thoughts about some of his post-JCS work, but as I also stated in that review, it frankly doesn't matter what I or any critic may think of either the source material or in fact this generally lambasted film adaptation, since the overwhelming global success of Cats in at least those stage versions (the film tanked pretty spectacularly at the box office) proves as well as anything how much the show has delighted audiences for decades.

There is some archival video on that “other” Cats Blu-ray linked to above that features Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gillian Lynne on various talk shows discussing the show when it was still in its nascent stages, and it’s hard not to see that both of them seem to be sharing a kind of “inside joke” that they’re planning a show about a group of felines (there's a particularly funny moment where Webber at the piano jokingly opines that all dogs are pollicle dogs, while not all cats are pellicle cats, as if he were intoning about something very serious). Unfortunately, very little of that perceived playfulness has made it into this overblown film adaptation, and even the film’s occasional stabs at feeling can seem a little shopworn, including the supposed high point of Grizabella (Jennifer Hudson) singing “Memory”. The film is often flashy, and the production design is relatively engaging, but the weirdness of seeing a horde of recognizable actors “transformed” into cats via at times kind of wonky looking CGI actually can make a lot of Cats play like unintended comedy.

Another thing I mentioned briefly in my comments on the Cats "video" is how the creators often referred to it as a "dance musical" in early discussions about it, and in that regard, while her acting performance may be a little underwhelming, newcomer Francesca Hayward as Victoria has an incredibly lithe set of movements (she's a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet) and many of the dance moments with her are quite striking. Other "dance" moves, as in what must have been some wire work on stage, can just look silly at times, but it may be in the dance aspect generally speaking that this Cats puts its best foot (paw?) forward.

With a film that has engendered the near outrage that this one has, it's perhaps difficult to see that it does at least offer a few things for those willing to tolerate the overall affair. Among these I'd mention a sumptuous production design (even if scale seems to be somewhat random a lot of the time) and some evocative cinematography. I was also struck with some of the rethinking that went into the orchestrations, and the coloring of the accompaniments is typically ebullient and propulsive. Performances are often quite energetic, and while I wasn't especially fond of the closing song she wrote with Sir Andrew (in what was probably an attempt to wrest a Best Song nomination from the Academy Awards, which of course didn't happen), Taylor Swift is very appealing in what amounts to a glorified cameo in the latter part of the film. Still, this is just one of those efforts many will probably walk away from wondering, "What in [insert your own favorite expletive here] could they have been thinking?"

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf may have liked Cats just a bit more than I did. Brian also mentions some of the other characters and some of the (minimal) plot mechanics in his review, which can be read here.

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cats is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Shot with Arri Alexas and finished at a 2K DI (both datapoints courtesy of the IMDb), this is a rather striking looking presentation a lot of the time, if you can get past the patently bizarre looking CGI aspect with regard to the performers and even some of the surrounding environments. It's interesting to note that one of the first planned adaptations of Cats was for an animated version, and some of the backgrounds almost have a cartoon-ish aspect to them, with what I'm assuming was an intentionally soft aspect that can keep fine detail levels at bay. Certain textures, as in some of the cobblestone streets that are occasionally on display, and even some of the fur rendering on the cats themselves, can be expressive, but many of the environments just struck me as unrealistic looking. That said, what might be termed the visual overkill of this film in general at least provides an eyeful, especially with regard to some of the deep tones that saturate the frame on many occasions, including some vivid purples and yellows.

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cats features a Dolby Atmos track that offers really good surround activity in the "traditional" side and rear channels, but which isn't the most aggressive Atmos mix I've encountered from the sole criterion of how much overhead activity it offers. The score can tend to waft above the listener, but I didn't really notice a ton of discrete effects in the Atmos channels. That said, the track is nicely immersive, with music populating the surround channels and good directionality when singers move across the soundstage.

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• 9 Lives: The Cast of Cats (1080p; 7:40) is really a generalist overview, though it does focus on some of the characters and the performers portraying them.


• Singing Live (1080p; 2:20) talks about the film's use of live singing.


• Making Macavity (1080p; 5:18) features Taylor Swift talking about the show and her part.


• A Director's Journey (1080p; 1:31) features Tom Hooper, who first saw the show on stage when he was 10.


• Making Music (1080p; 4:37) offers a fun chat between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift.


• The Art of Dance (1080p; 4:54) looks at the choreography.


• Scaling Up (1080p; 4:16) focuses on production design.


• A Little Magic (1080p; 3:06) offers some of the early VFX work Hooper used to help pitch the film.


• The Dancers features profiles of the following performers:

  Francesca Hayward (Victoria) and Robbie Fairchild (Munkustrap) (1080p; 3:33)

  
  

  Les Twins (Plato and Socrates) (1080p; 2:36)

  
  

  Mette Towley (Cassandra) (1080p; 2:03)

  
  

  Naoimh Morgan (Rumpleteazer) and Danny Collins (Mungojerrie) (1080p; 2:48)

• Cat School (1080p; 2:43) looks at the actors attending "cat school".


• Feature Commentary with Tom Hooper

Cats Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Director Tom Hooper fared a good deal better in my personal estimation with his film version of another huge musical, Les Misérables, perhaps due at least in part to the fact that he wasn't saddled with such endless amounts of CGI, and the patently bizarre sight of the "human-cat" hybrid creatures that populate this film in what some curmudgeons might claim is an all singing, all dancing version of The Island of Dr. Moreau (Dr. Meow?). Lovers of the original stage play may at least appreciate some of the music, but my hunch is even many of them would ultimately opt just to see the show on stage again over watching this version. Technical merits are solid and the supplemental package nicely appointed, for those considering a purchase.