Cats

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It’s been a while since a major Hollywood film has been so comprehensively canned by critics and audiences alike.

Makes it so much better that it was touted as award season bait. Sounds like a complete misfire.
 

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Basically have to see it now given the meltdown about it be certainly won’t be paying.

Netflix seems to get a hold of all the critically lambasted would-be blockbusters so pretty good chance that’s where it will turn up.
 

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This debacle made me think of a few things from the past:

1. It this the third high profile fiasco of an attempt to bring a well known work that involves cats or a cat character to the big screen. In 2003, there was 'The Cat In The Hat' live action adaptation starring Mike Meyers, which terrified many children who saw it (and this was the funny Mike Meyers not the scary one from horror films) and so angered Audrey Giesel (the widow of Dr. Seuss) that she called in her lawyers to prevent live action adaptations of any more of her late husband's works. Then in 2004 there was the infamous 'Catwoman', which saw star Halle Berry collect the Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actress just a year after getting the Academy Award for Best Actress.

2. In the sitcom 'The Nanny' that ran from 1993-1999 there was a running gag where the other characters would often remind producer Maxwell Sheffield that he had passed up the opportunity to produce Cats, much to his annoyance. It was finally eldest daughter Maggie who reminded her father one too many times about this failing, and he went on a hilarious rant about how it was a 'silly play about silly pussycats wearing silly costumes and singing silly songs that was also very expensive to produce'. I think Mr. Sheffield might feel more vindicated now 20 years on.

3. The quirky and sadly forgotten 1990s Australian crime comedy 'Good Guys Bad Guys' had an episode where a dysfunctional family squabble over an inheritance. With his share of the inheritance, one of the sons (who wasn't very bright) puts on a stage musical he wrote called 'Dogs' which he anticipates will be bigger than 'Cats'. It does not become bigger than Cats, it fails dismally.
 
How was this going to be anything but a humongous trainwreck
 
2006_Eagles said:
How was this going to be anything but a humongous trainwreck
Click to expand...

Cats is what is known as a 'sung through' musical, where all dialogue is singing, there are no spoken lines. Another sing through musical is Les Miserables and a film version of that was made a few years ago, although I have never seen it.

Bringing a 'sung through' musical to film would be much harder than making a film of a musical such as Grease, Singin' in the Rain, Mama Mia or Hairspray, where there is much spoken dialogue like a play along with musical numbers. Some stage musical adaptations do flop, such as 'Rock of Ages' in 2012. But while Rock of Ages simply lost money, received mixed critical reviews and sank away to obscurity, Cats seems to be condemned to lists and Youtube videos of terrible films, musicals and box office bombs for years to come.
 
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