This week brought the roller coaster ride that was the existence of the “Butthole Cut” of Cats. Jack Waz, a writer in Hollywood and Twitter personality, revealed he heard third hand of the existence of a version of the film that featured “CGI buttholes that had been inserted.” Waz revealed that a friend-of-a-friend had been hired to remove said buttholes months ahead of the release of the film. Naturally, whether heard third hand or not, this news spread fast with the likes of Rian Johnson and Seth Rogen calling for the release of the “Butthole Cut.” The existence of this alternate version was seemingly debunked by someone else that worked on the series, and now Univesal Pictures has officially commented on the matter.
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When asked about the existence of the butthole cut of Cats, a representative for Universal told Vanity Fair that the inquiry about this cut was their “favorite email of ALL TIME,” saying they couldn’t comment on any rumors but hoped that their denial would “add to the magic and mythical nature of the cinematic treasure.”
Fans are not entirely deterred from the idea of seeing The Butthole Cut of Cats though as there is some truth to the online rumor. Noted internet prankster Ben Mekler, whose tweets about Cats spawned the revelation of the “butthole cut,” shared an update from someone that worked in VFX on the film revealing that the fur technology on the film created instances where “the skin and fur sim was groomed or just folded in a way that really REALLY looked like very furry lady genitals and buttholes by accident.”
“The task (as typical with heavy cg shows) fell on 2D to paint out the offending articles where it was brought up and spotted,” the source said. “Daily reviews were constant awkward discussions of people plucking up the courage to point things like this out; ‘does that look like a fanny to you?’”
Much like the fabled “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, it is perhaps unlikely that we’ll ever see the complete version of this cut of Cats because a complete version of the film with these errors in the CG probably doesn’t exist as a whole. Visual effects shots are often completed by different houses and screened in segments, so a complete version of the film likely doesn’t exist. The advantage that The Snyder Cut of Justice League has over The Butthole Cut of Cats is that elements of it have made it out into the wild, with Snyder still releasing photos to this day. We can only hope that Oscar winner Tom Hooper, the director of the notorious box office bomb, will join social media to offer similar posts.
