Cats continues to be the gift that keeps on giving as every day seems to bring another oddity about the film with it. Now, some details about how the visual effects for the film really started to fall apart. The Hollywood Reporter collected some details about the troubled production and the findings paint a pretty dire picture. According to the outlet, the production began in December of 2018 and wrapped by April of 2019. Response to that extremely creepy trailer resulted in some initial tweaks to avoid even more controversy. Stunningly, the movie ended up being finished less than 48 hours before the London premiere. All of this is a lot to handle, but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Cats. The viewer accounts of the film are nothing short of staggering. Reading them on Twitter near the release of the film was a definite moment. Each one became even more silly than the last. But, the report does a great job of telling people just how strange this whole thing has been.
THR’s report says that Hooper continued to adjust the effects even as the time constraints began to loom larger. “There were no content changes, I don’t think,” their source begins to describe the changes. “refining, mostly small things. … refining the amount of the actor’s performance you might see, refining lighting, refining integration.”
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Hooper’s account to Variety makes the context even more apparent. “I finished it at 8 a.m. yesterday after 36 hours in a row. I just put the finishing touches on. So, I’m very happy to be here with it fully finished. The premiere should be the first time people get to see it, and this is genuinely a premiere.”
ComicBook.com’s Charlie Ridgely says in his spoiler-free review that Cats may be a train wreck, but it’s one worth revisiting.
“Cats is a special kind of terrible, though. No matter how ridiculous it gets, the cast never once backs down. Every single one of them is all-in at every moment,” Ridgely typed. “It’s a train wreck from start to finish, but the sort of train wreck that captures your attention with its audacity and never lets you go. It’s gripping in the most delightfully horrible way and easily one of the worst movies of the decade, by leaps and bounds. It’s such a unique and confident brand of awful, you’ll probably want to watch it again.”
Cats stars Taylor Swift as Bombalurina, Idris Elba as Macavity, Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella, James Corden as Bustopher Jones, Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots, Jason Derulo as Rum Tum Tugger, Ian McKellen as Gus the Theatre Cat, and Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy. The film is directed by Tom Hooper, who helmed Les Miserables back in 2012.
