Songs for Saturday: Following "Cats" Down the Rabbit Hole

It will come as no surprise to anyone who's been following this blog for a while that I have a weakness for rabbit holes. These often involve either a series of YouTube videos or a Wikipedia dive, and the deepest usually include both. So when the the 1998 movie version of "Cats" was streamed last Sunday to mark the musical's 40th anniversary, well...

It's provided me with an entire week's worth of rabbit holes and earworms.

If my memory serves me (it often doesn't, so...) "Cats" was the first, and perhaps only, Broadway show that Colleen and I actually saw live on Broadway. The details surrounding it don't appear to have been memorable, but the show certainly was, and when the DVD finally came out in 1998, I bought it.

I have mixed feelings about the movie version. On the one hand, it wasn't recorded at a live performance -- there were scenes and parts of scenes missing (Growltiger's Last Stand was the one I noticed), and there were close-up shots where you couldn't see what was happening on the rest of the stage. There were special effects, notably the appearance of Firefrorfiddle and the magical tricks in "Mr. Mistoffelees". On the other hand, the close-ups showed details that I couldn't possibly have seen from the nosebleed seats on the balcony, and the special effects were on the whole a nice addition. And of course being a DVD I can watch it any time I want, for free.

I still want a video of a live performance. There ought to be one. It's not likely that I'll see a live performance any time soon. Or maybe ever.

Anyway, rabbit hole. Mostly chasing links from the Wikipedia articles on the musical and the movie. That also led me to the 'Cats' Musical Wiki on fandom.com, and Cats the Musical Behind the Scenes on YouTube. The characters' detailed descriptions and back-stories are endlessly fascinating.

It also led me to T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, of course, and to the... unfortunate... 2019 film version, which is on the list of the worst films ever made for a variety of reasons. That's one DVD I don't intend to waste money on.

I won't waste too many words on it either; I'll just point you at Cats (musical) 1998 vs. 2019 Comparison and Why the Music in Cats (2019) is Worse than you Thought both on YouTube. And the Wikipedia article on the uncanny valley, which its CGI-over-motion-capture characters place it squarely in the middle of.

And now if you'll excuse me I'm going to watch the (1998) DVD again, because I'm all out of brain bleach.