Audiences often harp on Hollywood for taking beloved properties and haphazardly adapting them for the big screen. Studios alter things, miss major points or force changes that abandon the heart and soul of the source material.
Well, that sure as shit isn’t happening with Cats! Tom Hooper’s upcoming adaptation of the famous Broadway play is most definitely a faithful adaptation. I’m no Cats expert, mostly because I am not a mid-western family visiting the Big Apple in the 1990s, but even I can tell that Hooper is expertly translating the work from stage to screen. Just look at this thing. It’s actors — dressed as cats! Doing cat things!
I am not going to spend this time hating on Cats like everyone else will. Yes, it looks absurdly silly and cringe-worthy and just…odd. But what did you expect? And what did Hooper and Universal expect? They knew full well going into this production that people were going to snicker and make fun of the film. That just goes with the territory. You know that will be the outcome when you are making a movie that features Academy Award-winning legend Judi Dench dancing around in feline fur. But Hooper and Universal are ready for the backlash and ridicule because they believe in this thing. Good for them!
Me, on the other hand, probably will take a pass on Cats. It’s just most literally Not My Shit. But I have a feeling that this movie could be a hit. It will be released next month during a time when families go out in droves to seemingly watch just about anything. And Cats is definitely the type of movie an entire family could enjoy. Plus it has music. It has spectacle. It has Taylor Swift. And it has a certain curiosity factor. People are really, really curious about this bizarre musical. You could say that people are as curious as…
Nevermind, I can’t even finish that joke.
Cats strolls into theaters on December 20th.
