Featuring a number of well known celebrities and breakout star Francesca Hayward, the movie adaptation of the broadway musical Cats came out on Christmas day 2019.
All of the characters in this film are humans being edited to look like cats, mice and bugs. . .walking on two legs.
The story follows Victoria the cat (Hayward) as she arrives in a new town and is introduced to all the cats through musical numbers.
Cats in this town compete every year in a musical competition. At the end of this competition their leader, Old Deuteronomy, makes the “jellicle choice,” sending one cat to the “heaviside layer” to gain a “new life.”
The opening musical number is “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats.” It introduces the made up word “jellicle,” which is used to describe cats who are practical cats, dramatical cats, pragmatical cats and fanatical cats.
The Cats musical premiered in the 1980’s and was a success. The 2019 film, however, didn’t translate this well on the big screen. The CGI effects made the actors look cat-like, but also exceedingly creepy.
For the most part musical performances were strong vocally, but they also included actors hissing like cats and interacting awkwardly.
The lead actress, Hayward, however, impressed throughout the film. Even though it was her debut role, she had a solid soprano voice and showed tremendous dance and performance skills through the film.
Although it is apparent that many members of the cast have dance experience, they often appeared uncomfortable while acting like cats, which outweighed their performances.
Overall, Francesca Hayward was the strongest singer and dancer and did an impressive job. However, her performance wasn’t enough to compensate for the awkward hissing, mediocre CGI and uncomfortable performance of her cast members.
