Cats the Movie - film review

Old Possum’s Film of CGI Cats…

As a child I read and enjoyed TS Eliot’s poems in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. I even learned to perform one for some school show or other. I have no further memory of that show but I can still recite most of Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat to anyone who cares to listen - mostly they don't, care I mean.

"There's a whisper down the line 

at eleven thirty-nine

when the night-mail is ready to depart,

saying Skimble where is Skimble

Has he gone to hunt the thimble?

we must find him or the train can't start..."

As an adult I went, twice, to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats the theatre musical, first in its early days in the West End, then when it arrived in Manchester on tour. I took various junior family members and enjoyed it both times, so did they.

Today I went with some senior – one very senior – family members to see Cats the film, sorry movie. And having read several extremely negative reviews of this by film critics, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Having seen it, my questions to those critics, who are presumably steeped in movies (but seem to know little about musical theatre), is what the hell did you expect? Haven’t you the seen the stage show? Don’t you know it’s basically a song and dance piece with humans dressed up as cats?

Ok, the CGI was a bit weird to begin with but you soon got used to it. If an almost 92-year-old (my Mum) with dementia could cope with it happily, what's wrong with you critics? I liked the expressive cat ears and tails, was less keen on the whiskers which should have been expressive but weren’t. The music was as expected, the dancing was excellent, the acting pretty good and Ian McKellan as Gus, the Theatre Cat the acting highlight.  Australian ballet dancer Steven Macrae as Skimbleshanks and Francesca Hayward as Victoria the white cat were my favourites among the dancers.

The film’s main problem was the length, it dragged in places. That’s because they’ve strived to create a much more elaborate storyline than the stage musical had. It revolves around a new character, Victoria the white cat, who is dumped in a bag, by an unseen human, in central London and adopted by the Jellicle cats. This means additional dialogue (there is very little dialogue in the original theatre script) and extra songs. It worked, kind of, but a lot of it was probably unnecessary.

However Cats the Movie is entertaining enough, a bit of comedy, good music and excellent dancing so I suggest you ignore the critics. Go to your cinema of choice, relax and enjoy the film for what it is - a musical theatre adaptation with CGI. Then you can decide for yourselves.