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Rallers

More animated movie scares.

I've searched through 20 pages and I haven't seen a match, so...

Ahem.

I found this interview linked on Animated-News about the little known "Sealed with a Kiss", an animated seal-take on Romeo and Juliet, with the maker of the movie. I don't know why I bothered to skim through, but...I ended up seeing an image of one of the Cats soundtracks. So that stopped me and I took a better look through the rambling.

Um. Did we ever get wind of a Cats animated movie officially being announced? I remember there being speculations, but I don't know about us hearing of an announcement. If it is "currently canceled"...the 'currently' frightens me very, very much, since that means it's possible they pick it up again...I'm quite worried about the list of who's working on it.

Quote:
"Over the years, animator-director Phil Nibbelink has gained a noticeable reputation within the animation community. During his time at Disney, he helped design and animate characters for such films as The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron (1985), The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Later, Nibbelink served as director for the features An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (1993), in addition to acting as animation director for Casper (1995).

It was after his experience with the currently-cancelled Cats that Nibbelink chose to create his own production company. With his own animation enterprise, he helmed and animated the features Boogie Woogie Whale Sing-Along (1997), Puss in Boots (1999) and Leif Ericson, Discoverer of North America (2000)."


Quote:
"AV: And then you moved on to working for Universal and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin?

PN: I ended up joining the group that went to England to do Roger Rabbit. There, I got to work with Richard Williams and Steven Spielberg. After that, Steven asked Simon Wells and I to co-direct An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

We formed Amblimation, which was Spielberg’s animation company in London. We did quite a few pictures. I spent another ten years then in London, working with Spielberg. We did Fievel Goes West, We’re Back and Balto. We developed Cats forever and ever and ever. Unfortunately, that got shelved.

Ultimately, the whole production got moved to L.A., where it became DreamWorks. So the core staff at DreamWorks hails from those days in London.

AV: What can you tell us about that production of Cats?

PN: Well, it was originally a London production by Andrew Loyd Webber. I was attached to that for - gosh, I don’t know - six years or something. We developed and developed and developed, and we must have gone through about six or seven different scripts.

I think it probably would have gone forward had it not been for Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney, joining Amblin and creating DreamWorks. During all of that big ruckus. Cats kind of got spun out the back door, during the process. I think if that hadn’t happened, we probably would have made Cats. It never got made, unfortunately. But I worked long and hard on it.

We never got as far as nailing a cast down. It was always in storyboard development. We had many meeting with Steven Spielberg and Andrew Loyd Webber, and it was a lot of fun. But it just never quite took off.

In fact, I got separated from DreamWorks to continue working on Cats for Universal. But then, there was the big buyout from Matsushita. We had new management then. The old guard was kicked out. In typical style, when a new guard comes into a studio, they tend to want to bring their own projects and lose the old projects. So I was considered an old project, and out of the door we went. That was the end of Cats. We’d love for it to be started up again. But I don’t know, if it’s possible.

AV: Why did you decide you start Phil Nibbelink Productions?

PN: I think probably Cats had something to do with that. [laughs] You know, after you work on something for six years and finally have it shelved, it’s kind of frustrating. I thought, ‘Well, you know, I could have made my own film.’ I could have animated Cats six times by myself with the time and money that was spent on development.



http://www.hollywood.com/movie/Cats/370619

So, did we ever hear of this officially being announced before? Confused

...I'm very, very frightened that they would pick this thing up again. o_o; The production team seems to be cause for fear for the fandom if they do. Brick wall (Only thing I saw, ONLY, that lightened my spirits, was that the "directors" worked on Don Bluth's "All Dogs Go To Heaven", which has a style and story that is VERY unlike the typical Disney style we're afraid Cats would be made victim of and is very coarse and overall kickassery. I'd actually love to see sketches of the Cats characters in the style...but only sketches...not production ones. D: )
Alonza0

Quote:
We developed and developed and developed, and we must have gone through about six or seven different scripts.


Six or seven... oh my. I hesitate to ask what they needed six or seven for... *resists urge to throw up*

I'm imagining Tugger trecking through a blizzard to bring his human child medicine, Skimble voiced by Antonio Banderas and Munkustrap solving the kidnapping of Jemima's father with Asparagus as the bumbling sidekick......
Moongewl

If it never got past storyboards, it was not nearly ready to be officially announced. I remember, way back when I joined the fandom, I found a page that listed the project as being in limbo, with occasional updates on what was happening with it. The final update said the projects was "dead in the water" because of the live-action film version. I can't find that page, but this page gives the "start date" for the work as 1994 so the product's been batted around for a long time.
This isn't a Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy or a Simpsons movie situation--Webber has no ties to the studio now, and the video(which replaced the animated projects) is still fairly recent in terms of how often Webber/RUG puts out video versions of his shows. Also, from the sound of it, the video replaced the animated movie entirely. So while we may hear buzz about it from time to time, this project won't be resurrected and I don't expect we'll see another film version of Cats for at least another decade.

I did a search for the project which came up with this.
It's got some conceptual drawings for the set, but no costume ideas.
Akeyla

*stares*
I so could not imagine CATS as an animation... sorry... nope never.
Think alone how we eyeball different costume designs, how much more for different stiles of setting the figures themselves? CATS works because we know its human actors in it. Human actors in an animation with costume.. it just wont work. Especially if the story (and that is a fact) is to weak or not as visible as with other animations. It would be an "OMG what is that?" movie.
If he takes real cats, you know, Aristocats (sp?) -like, hand or paw on your heart, would that still be CATS for you?
Furry (were forms, cathumans so to say) , I dont see that working either.
And if I only think what other productions he made before. of course there is a possibility that something cool turns out, but mainly I feel like shouting at him "leave your fingers off it!". Ok, he did. Thank godness.
CATS has its magic on stage, its a completly other world compared to the movie world. You cannot render that into television (ok, the video worked because its a 1:1).
Of course I could be fully wrong and maybe they had one very wonderful idea along with the six dumped ones. But I'd not support the idea. Even if its my very favourit musical. Even if they make Munkustrap the hero.... wait.... hmmm.. that could be an argument for persuasion of moi.

nice link Moongewl. I must admit that even if I am not liking the idea I am very very very very very curious what is existing on plot ideas, concepts cetera and co. curiosity killed the cat Smile


greets

Aky
Flitterbug

I'd actually like to see it done, if only out of sheer perverse curiosity. ^_^ I will admit that Disneyifying it would probably not go well, but it would certainly be a curiosity. In any case it's bound to be better than some of the bad fanfics I've read (or, er, started reading and then given up on in sheer frustration when suddenly, for example only, Bombalurina seems to have morphed into a simpering, lovesick prepubescent).

And just imagine the extra creativity it might spawn. (*cough* Of course, considering some of the rather interesting things people do to animated characters in fiction you might not want to...) The new soundtrack full of curiosities like "Tale as old as Dueteronomy" or "Can you feel the moon tonight". The CGI animation that makes them all look like bobble-headed weasels.

(Oh my God I am so tired I'm just not talking sense.)

And believe it or not, none of that was sarcasm. *grin*
Akeyla

can you gals stop spawning such ideas before they do come true? you know, speak of the devil...
You'll never know if this speaking may create a new CATS movue with a scene of Tugger carrying a medicine sledge through the snow whilest singing "Can you Feel the Moon tonight" ....
you just killed my eyes and ears! AUGH!
*g*

Aky
Alonza0

So I'm going to blame this one on you guys - I fell asleep watching TV in the wee hours of the morning (never a good beginning to a story) and had this crazy dream that I was watching the Cats video, except Tim Burton had directed it. It was... wierd... and very, very, very scary...
But I guess that's what you get for going on MdN and for Cats and Sweeney Todd before you go to bed.
Flitterbug

O.o If there ever was an animated version of Cats, I would want Tim Burton to direct it.
Roller Boy

I clearly recall, (when I worked at Disney) while I was listening to the St. the Animation librarian told me of a time when the poems of TS Elliot were going to be the inspiration for an animated "cats" animated feature, using ALW's musical as further inspiration.

Elliots wife shot the project down cold, stating that "her husband never wanted them to be fluffy pussy cats"

Lated an anthro version of Oliver twist was done instead.

...I was sure this was talked about on MDN before....
Moongewl

Roller Boy wrote:
I clearly recall, (when I worked at Disney) while I was listening to the St. the Animation librarian told me of a time when the poems of TS Elliot were going to be the inspiration for an animated "cats" animated feature, using ALW's musical as further inspiration.

Elliots wife shot the project down cold, stating that "her husband never wanted them to be fluffy pussy cats"

Lated an anthro version of Oliver twist was done instead.

...I was sure this was talked about on MDN before....


Most Cats fans who've been kicking around the fandom for awhile will agree that we were never in danger of a Disney flick. There have been too many statements and discussions about Eliot's anti-Disney sentiments to expect a Disney movie based on Eliot's poems while they're still under copyright. (I believe that copyright expires 50 years after his death, which would be 2015, but even after that I think RUG could find ways to keep them from infringing on their own work, and the lack of enthusiasm for Cats these days would also be a deterrent.)
This project was with Amblimation and then Dreamworks.
Carbucketty

If it's in the will, it's not really copyright law that's preventing an animated version. It's Val Eliot as the manager of the estate.

Quote:
Today, she continues to guard his letters, restricts access to the Eliot papers at universities and refuses permission to quote his work. Scholars are tremulous in dealing with the Eliot estate.


http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1400997,00.html

I remember hearing a story on NPR back in 2004 that the rights to some famous book of children's stories (that I'd never heard of) were finally released because heir of the long-dead author had passed away and the current managers of the estate were open to films.
Pounce

If an animated feature is inevitable, let Pixar do it with Brad Bird directing. It might possibly interest them because Pixar has not done a dance musical let alone a musical.
Moongewl

Pixar, maybe. But look at what Brad Bird's directed: The Incredibles, The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, and a couple episodes of the Simpsons. None of those are anything like Cats.
Flitterbug

Why should it have to be anything like Cats as we know it?
Moongewl

It doesn't have to be exactly like Cats as we know it, but I don't think Cats would work as a comedy, which is all he's done in the past(excepting The Iron Giant, which I haven't seen and can't comment on).
Roller Boy

Mr. Green

you should see Iron Giant. It's very well written, extreamly well drawn. The characters are believable, and the 3d and 2d integration is seamless.
Lepitot

If Brad Bird DID ever direct Cats, you have no reason to ever worry. He takes his films incredibly seriously. He makes sure that the story is as good as it can be. (He may decide to make the storyline more obvious--I saw Cats and was utterly clueless. I've been told there IS a story though.)

The Iron Giant is one of the greatest animated movies (or just movie period) in history. The animation is incredible, the characters are real. The Incredibles is just as good, in my opinion. The animation is once again spectacular, the characters are lovable and believable with their emotions. Ratatouille is also an incredible film, for the same reasons (although the rat using his hair to make him move was a little too much, other than that it was amazing.)

And, if Disney did do it, I think it really depends upon the director. Granted they change things, but sometimes change is good.

(I didn't enter the Cats forum looking to say I hate it. I saw the "hot threads" column and this was on there, so I thought I'd add my two cents) Razz
Belle

Flitterbug wrote:
Why should it have to be anything like Cats as we know it?


Well, Cats as we know it is what we all love, and that's what's brought us here... if it's not anything like the existing show, it may well lose its genius! I don't love Cats just because it's called Cats. It's all the various aspects of the live performance that I love. If the majority of those aren't there (characters, costumes, dancing, music, background interaction) then I won't be interested. And I assume the things that make me interested are generally the same things that everyone is interested in, and are the things that made Cats the success it is. If they cut out the successful elements, they're gonna have to work real hard in replacing them with something even better to make it a success.
Flitterbug

But that's the fear, isn't it? That they'll take what we love about the show and ruin it by trying to replicate it when, I'm pretty certain, it's already been established that the musical is not what animators want to do. An animation with some of the core characters in a similar setting, with perhaps similar elements of plot would not be "cutting out the successful elements", it would just be changing the underlying idea to become something that translates well onto film.

I dont even think it would be called CATS, to be honest. Why should it be, when it's not a bunch of stupid singing, dancing, bobble-headed CGI 'weasels'?
The disinterest of loyal fans is a major deterrent, and how! Nobody likes originality anymore. It's all good, so long as it keeps exactly the way we want it to.

Because, y'know, so long as they made an animated movie that had:
1. All the characters in their exact incarnation, only animated
2. All the same songs with no improvements, add ons, or cut outs
3. The exact same plotline and structure as the stage show
4. And kept the atmosphere of a "live stage show"

Then I'm sure it would be a total success.
Moongewl

You know, if they wanted to take the poems of Old Possum's Book and turn it into an animated movie, I'm all for that. As long as they don't call it "Cats."
It's one thing to rejuvenate the musical, and another to put the musical's name on something that is in no way similar to that musical. I think that's one reason ALw/RUG abandoned the animated movie: they realized that half the appeal of Cats is that it's HUMANS acting like cats. They're supposed to be "like us," showing the human side of cats. An animated movie would completely lose that.
Also, dancing in animated movies is not particularly appealing--I'm not impressed by CG characters dancing. Without the dancing, you just have humans dressed as cats singing. Without the people, you just have anthro-cats singing. And like I said, I wouldn't be against something like that, as long as they didn't call it "Cats." They could add in a substantial plot and dialogue to tie the songs together, invent entirely new personalities for characters like Munkustrap or Bombalurina, and add or remove other characters. But that ain't "Cats, the stage musical turned animated movie." That's "Cats: the Movie(based on a book by TS Eliot)." Or "Cats: the Movie(featuring songs from the musical Cats)."
Lady Jemima

I am....well, let's just say very against animating CATS.


Quote:
Ultimately, the whole production got moved to L.A., where it became DreamWorks. So the core staff at DreamWorks hails from those days in London.


Sooo...DreamWorks essentially came from CATS? Pretty wicked.

Quote:
PN: Well, it was originally a London production by Andrew Loyd Webber. I was attached to that for - gosh, I don’t know - six years or something.


Yeah, what a fan. Let's animate it.

Quote:
We developed and developed and developed, and we must have gone through about six or seven different scripts.


Hmmm, wonder why. Wait....maybe...just maybe....CATS shouldn't be animated. I can see it now...

"Oh, Skimble dear! I've brought home a fresh rat for dinner! I hope that you're hung--what the-- Who is this? Why you dirty rotten cheating ***!"

"But sweetheart...she's just a friend of Tugger...." [nervous laughter]



Quote:
I think it probably would have gone forward had it not been for Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney, joining Amblin and creating DreamWorks. During all of that big ruckus. Cats kind of got spun out the back door, during the process. I think if that hadn’t happened, we probably would have made Cats. It never got made, unfortunately. But I worked long and hard on it.


I think we all owe Jeffery Katzenberg a group thank-you note.

Quote:
Elliots wife shot the project down cold, stating that "her husband never wanted them to be fluffy pussy cats"


Yes, this is true. Yaay, Ms. Eliot. Applause

Quote:
you should see Iron Giant. It's very well written, extreamly well drawn. The characters are believable, and the 3d and 2d integration is seamless.


OT, but I agree. I never cared for the storyline but I can watch the entire thing just for the animation. It's incredibly drawn.
Alonza0

Flitterbug wrote:
Why should it have to be anything like Cats as we know it?


Because if it's not, we'll have massive amounts of people swarming in on the fandom thinking that they know everything about the musical just because they've seen the movie. They'll bring with them their fictions, their fan art, and their crushes and they'll be very obnoxious. It's what happens with every musical movie (especially the POTO movie, as an example). If an animated movie was not like the Cats we know, we'd get those same obnoxious movie fans who treat the movie as their Bible and won't hear anything otherwise. God, I hate those people.

Also, we'd get massive amounts of child fans. All animated movies do. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's not a good thing either to have everyone associate your fandom with a five year old.
Flitterbug

Poppet, we already have massive amounts of crappy art, stories, and other such nonsense. We also already have tons of what I'd call "child fans" - people aged between nine and thirteen who find the musical totally irresistable. There are also tons of people with silly crushes who act irrationally whenever you suggest something about their favourite character that they dont like. Fans in general are very obnoxious, especially if your opinions differ to theirs. (Hell, I'm obnoxious, in case nobody has noticed.)

Putting the musical on DVD made the musical accessible to all manner of obnoxious, silly, clueless children. Most of which lose interest within a short period of time, the rest of which grow up into the long-term fans that we know.
Using the fans an animated movie will attract as an excuse is not a very good argument.

I know people who would do animated shorts based on the musical if they had the time to design the characters properly in their digital arts software. Someday at least one animation will get done. When it is, I will be posting a link to it here just to see all the comments about how awful it was and how it's a prime example of why CATS should never be animated.
Roller Boy

Alonza0 wrote:
it's not a good thing either to have everyone associate your fandom with a five year old.


O.O

I'm five at heart.....
Moongewl

Flitterbug wrote:
Putting the musical on DVD made the musical accessible to all manner of obnoxious, silly, clueless children.

*waves hello*
That was me when I entered the fandom. I got better. The rest leave when they realize Jacob Brent and Michael Gruber won't answer forum posts. So I agree that "the good of the fandom" is not a reason to avoid the animated movie.
In this case, I think an animated movie based on Cats would be a bad idea because there's not enough to the musical if you take away the "humans dancing" element. You wind up with a bastardized version of Cats that either doesn't resemble Cats at all(in which case, why call it Cats?), or a crappy animated movie that looks like Cats but can not be sustained without the human element(because dancing CGI isn't nearly as impressive as dancing humans).
Now, a Cats movie that was good but didn't resemble Cats would bring in the problem of people who associated the fandom with something that you didn't necessarily care for...that would be annoying, but bearable. The thing is, it's not often that you see a good adaptation that is good either in spite of, or because of, its differences from the original. I can tell you right now, I've only seen one or two adaptations that were better BECAUSE they were changed. Set against that are thousands of terrible movies that bastardized their roots: Ella Enchanted, Stardust, and most of the Harry Potter movies come to mind(I know these are all in the fantasy category, because that's what I pay attention to, but there are countless examples in all categories). Neil Gaiman has turned down all his opportunities to turn his novel Anansi Boys(so named because the main character is the son of the African god Anansi) into a movie because everyone who offered wanted to either make all the characters white, or remove the African god element entirely. Clearly, the people making the offers don't care about the original; they just see something popular and try to attach themselves to it.
Adaptations these days are a dime a dozen. 95% of the time, they're done just to make a quick buck without trying to make the product original or particularly good. They just want to get fans of the original into the theater. And I'd rather have no adaptation than a crappy one that eliminates chances of any future movies. That goes for Cats, and for everything else I appreciate.
Rumblepurr

An Opinion

I have been following the discussion of this thread, and agree mostly that an animated film of CATS would be a disaster, and mostly unworkable.

However...

I truly think it could be done. Like Tugger says, "Listen to me, and don't scoff..." The storyboard would start off in the junkyard setting, but not play to a human audience. Instead, the characters are introspective of what makes them so unique in the world. Instead of singing "Jellicle Songs" to the audience, they are singing to each other. When a character is singled out (such as Jennyanydots and Tugger), they merely become the center of attention and a few friends help them out with a skit. The presence of Grizabella, however, would have to be played up a little so the present plotline will become stronger and more visible. Macavity and even his presence would have to be played up as well. Like most animated films, Memory would be the "hit song" and maybe brought out even more than it is... And the Choice for the Heavyside Layer would have to have a definite mystical look (please, anything other than the Saucer). Things like Misto's magic, Macavity's mystic qualities, Grizabella's ascent into the Heavyside Layer, and even the fight scene between Munkus and Maccie could be portrayed rather than inferred on stage. I would dearly love to see this type of film, even if much of the dancing were removed...

But...

One of the things that I can see troubling such a project lies in an argument we had in the threads at one time: What precisely IS a Jellicle Cat? Animators would have to get past Valerie Eliot first is portraying the Jellicle Cat, but even the fans cannot agree on what they are. Are they actually Cats, small felinoids (cat-human but not more than two feet tall), humanoid sized with cat-like features, or what? And then, there is the question of why humans have been ignorant of them all this time... And do not even think about which costume colors to use on which cat...

And the Time Factor: Most animated films stay under the two-hour mark because of the work it takes to produce them. If the film is geared for children, two hours is awfully long for them. A production of CATS is about 2h40m without the intermission, and about 3 hours with one... Depending upon what stays in and was is cut (plan on P&P and Growltiger again), an animated CATS would be badly mangled. Moongewl's comment about Harry Potter films suffering from editing would apply here as well...

And then there is the rating of the film... We feature death in CATS - even if we gold-leaf the concept by using the old "Stairway to Heaven" trick. An animated film could still get around that. Grizabella's possible prostitution past? Hmmmm... How about Macavity's fight scene? Unlike a actual catfight, which is mostly growling and posturing, and then possibly one or the other showing submission or running away, Munkus and Maccie really go at it with blows and claws. That would be fairly graphic... especially if we add blood to it... I can see an animated CATS barely maintaining a PG rating and drifting more into the PG15 level. And let us not even think what the "Courtship of Victoria" would do to the level...

Just by using the critical analysis process, all the beautiful possibilities are overshadowed by the negativities of such a venture. The amount of infighting just to produce a good storyboard would be monumental, the choice of animators and character style would be critical, and then there would be the approval of both Valerie Eliot and ALW. And all this must hinge later on the approval of the fans and the original creative team...

I would love to see such a film, but I seriously doubt it will ever become a reality.

Respectfully submitted,
Rumblepurr Cool
The Writer Cat.
Pounce

I'd be worried that it would be filled with exposition. As said in Urinetown, "nothing can kill a show like too much exposition". Razz
Rumblepurr

That is Correct...

Precisely...

Animating CATS, even without its choreography, would require transition scenes, background scenes to explain items like Grizabella's journey back to the Tribe, and panoramas during the musical numbers. There would be a lot of "extras" that would be required to make the film work... Each one of these would lengthen the film, and I would expect it to be close to 3 hours in length.

Nice call, Pounce.

Cool Rumblepurr
The Writer Cat.
Flitterbug

Three hours in length assuming that it isn't turned into a story rather than a musical. It would be a lot easier to cut down the time if there weren't so many songs.
Alonza0

In response to the silly obsessive fan-girl stuff, yes, I am very aware of them. I was one. *points to username* Which is partly why I hate them. But yes, I know we have them and always have, but what I was trying (and failing miserably) to say was that an animated Cats movie would sweep in parents who think that just because it's animated it'll be great for their tots to see. And we'll all be associated with a children's movie, which I personnally would hate. I just would hate to see Cats become something like Finding Nemo or the Incredibles, which are both great movies if you actually watch them but are associated and swamped with five-year-old children. <--By the way, that's not an arguement. I'm just trying to explain myself a little better.
Drumdraper

To paraphrase John Laster of Pixar, "Story is the most important part of a movie. Without a story you don't have anything." This reinforces the comments made about how Cats's storyline would need to be revamped and/or buffed up to make an animated movie version successful. Rumblepurr and Moongewl already go into this, so I won't reiterate what they wrote.

Let me say this about the fandom though that Alonza0 mentioned concerning Finding Nemo and other Pixar movies. These movies are the pinnicale acheivement in story, animation, characters, special effects, etc for the time when they were made. They made a landmark in entertainment/animation history, showing that cartoons are not just entertainment for kids. Adults enjoy these movies too. In Finding Nemo we have death in Marlon's wife Coral and Nemowho is threatened to go belly up in the dentist office's tank, we have the theme to accept everyone depsite their differences in Nemo-an under developed fin- that is not gushed over to the point it screams PBS kids show (Sesame Street discluded in that comment), there is adventure-sharks with razor sharp teeth and getting eaten by a whale, and characters that aren't cookie cutter replicas of so many other animated movies. True, there are many of screaming kids who shot"Nemo! It's Nemo!" at aquariums world wide even though there isn't a clown fish in sight. It can be annoying, but the important thing is that the story is enjoyed and not forgotten. An impression was made on these kids and adults who enjoyed the movie and keep the fandom living on. A successful movie is always going to have the screaming fangirls and annoying merchandising (though I wouldn't mind some decent Cats dolls), but that does not destroy the fact that a good movie was made.

How does this relate back to Cats? Well, if an animated movie is made the story is important, but in order to recreate the magic we see on stage the format is almost as important. Story must always come first, then the medium. Cats could be done in rendered CGI with dancing, only if a company like Pixar or Dreamworks were behind it. These companies pay attention to detail to make their stories' worlds as real as possible without losing the phantasmagorical sense of animation. I have the guility confession that I have seen every last Barbie movie from Barbie in the Nutcracker to Fairytopia. These movies are a prime example of cheap CGI churned out to feed to hungry hordes of little girls in pink glittery tutus. Heck, one feature of the Fairytopia DVD was a catalog of dolls who could "be your friend" if you went to the store to purchase them. (Mainframe Entertainment, the company that makes the Barbie videos, has done better work though: Reboot.) Another thing is that in many of Barbie's movies she dances. There are several minutes of animation dedicated to mannequin characters dancing across the screen. The dances are very cut and dry, bent at all the proper angles with perfect alignment, but the dancing is stoic and lacks all human emotion. This is not what Cats should become should it get animated. It does prove that dancing can be captured in CGI and traditional animation (the hula number from the opening scene in Lilo and Stitch comes to mind), but it needs to become more than lines of code.

But what if an American animation company didn't animated Cats? We keep talking about animation, but no one has mentioned anime yet. Anime has entered mainstream America now and the anime fans more involved understand that Japanese anime has proven cartoons are not just for children. People can argue that anime is all about Pokemon, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Digimon, Tokyo MewMew, mostly kid anime shows (DBZ and Naruto do crack the mold). But you have to admit that is most of those shows there is a level of sophisticatin not seen in American cartoons, that even though many plots are regurgitated in the millions of anime genres, there is something different. Anime has opened the channel for more meaty cartoons to come to our TVs like Avatar the Last Airbender and Samurai Jack. Shows like Cats would be a new challenge to a Japanese animation studio, but not something that is impossible to do. Millennium Actress is a movie that blurs the line between reality and fantasy as an old actress is interviewed about her successful movie career. Tokyo Godfathers has a transvestite as a leading character and deals with immigration, kidnapping, death, and the mafia. Then there is Hayao Miyazaki who created Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away which won an academy award. Those movies pushed the envelope on traditional Ameircan animated films, but that did not stop them from being successful. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli would be my first choice to do an animated feature of Cats if it was to be done with traditional animation. Miyazaki is an animator who puts in the small idiosyncrasies of everyday life (in Castle in the Sky he spends nearly 2-3 minutes on a flock of birds flying and in Spirited Away there is a scene where Chihiro, the heroine, puts on her shoes and taps them on the ground to make sure they're tight, like a regular little girl). Perhaps we should look East if we want an animated movie of Cats.

As for how the characters portrayal, what if anthro-cats were done, but there were unmistably human parts to them. Like human feet and hands, but with claws or a human face with all features except feline-idfied.

It's all a matter of how to make Cats into an animated movie: How to make the story thin musical incorporate a plot to draw all audiences?, How to portray the movie through what animation?, How big of a budget would be allotted to this project?, and How would it attract the attention of the studios who have the capability to make it work?

If not then we would be stuck with a lovely Faeries version of Cats that combines the horrible use of a thin plot, predictable characters, a big name in the voice cast, crude backlot CGI (literally, half the shots were live action back lot backgrounds thrown with cheap computer graphics), and hopes to cash in on the fantasy genre made by using the old spelling of the fairfolk for the title and coming out when Harry Potter and all things magical are popular: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233691/

If so, may the Heavyside Layer have pity on us all.
ultra_lilac

Re: An Opinion

Rumblepurr wrote:
One of the things that I can see troubling such a project lies in an argument we had in the threads at one time: What precisely IS a Jellicle Cat? Animators would have to get past Valerie Eliot first is portraying the Jellicle Cat, but even the fans cannot agree on what they are. Are they actually Cats, small felinoids (cat-human but not more than two feet tall), humanoid sized with cat-like features, or what? And then, there is the question of why humans have been ignorant of them all this time... And do not even think about which costume colors to use on which cat...


I think that's something an animated version could explore really well actually. The way I see it (and I know a load of people won't agree) is that they would look like regular cats to us, but see each other as the "humanoid" cats we know from the show. Hence the part with the boot in 'Jellicle songs'- the cats see themselves as singing beautifully, but to a human it sounds like a load of yowling.
It would be cool to see them all leaving their homes and haunts from a human perspective- looking like regular cats, and then reaching the Junkyard and the whole thing suddenly switching to a Cat's eye point of view, where we see them as they see themselves in humanoid style.

That's not to say I think an animated film is a good idea, but it could do some things that the musical doesn't.
The best part of the musical for me will always be the dance though, and that's something that I have no interest in seeing as an animation.
Rallers

If they don't take the route of the humanoid cats, I'd like to see them done similar to how All Dogs Go to Heaven did with the dog characters. They walked around naturally (as the kittens in the show tend to crawl around more when they aren't dancing) but stand, walk, dance, etc and look surprisingly natural doing it. I'd be extremely disappointed if it took the take some Cats doujinshis have, with them looking just like people but with fluffier hair, ears, and tails and claws. :\ Whatever they do with the characters, I want them to be cats: the actors on stage look like humanoid cats- that's probably what the take on them is fandom-wide (and as I see them, though I just find the ADGTH-like style to be a different take that wouldn't kill us all), and they're still extremely feline.

Quite frankly, I'd take a regular housecat-styled character over a "nekomimi" ANY day.


---

Edit: Again, this is if fate turned incredibly cruel and decided to really allow a shot to be made for this. I don't really want an "official" movie, though I'd love to see fan takes on some animated clips in their own styles on how they'd want it. If it's a fan thing, that'd be awesome.
Jemibub

All I can say ((and yes, for those who remember me, I'm back/alive lol)) is a rotoscoped [think A SCANNER DARKLEY] version of movie.
Lady Jemima

My concern is that it wouldn't have music, or, if it did, that it would be changed/altered. Unless I'm mistaken, there was no mentioned of it being a musical piece of work. And I agree with Rumblepurr about the direction the animation would take...children? Adult? Probably geared towards kids, which is usually a disaster unless you have a witty script like Nemo or Incredibles....and CATS doesn't really have a script, which is a major part of the problem. I don't think rating would be an issue....look at Atlantis and Treasure Planet...they've got a fair amount of skin and violence and still managed to fly in under the PG radar. I think if a battle is bloodless (i.e. Narnia) and the sexuality more implied and/or sensual than the MPAA pretty much gives it a PG.
VictoriaTWC

First off, let me set the record straight.

I WAS THERE AT THE TIME CATS WAS IN PRODUCTION. In fact I wanted to work on it so badly, but it got canceled and I had to apply for a job with Disney instead of Dreamworks.

I was at Cal Arts, Character Animation at the time, '93'-'94. CATS was in limbo at Amblimation.

The cold hard fact were that a bunch of guy animators didn't WANT to work on the project, they were bitching about it, and saying it was a complete "****hole* of a project, and they didn't want to animate "pussies carvorting around a junkyard." So the project was canceled.

I have a LOT of stuff from the animated movie, designs and all, artwork that I will never release to the CATS fandom. It's too personal for me. It was something that I really wanted to work on, as a lover of animation, and as a fan, and I was crushed that they didn't keep the project. I had tons of character design sketches and my portfolio reflected this. Amblimation heads wanted to even hire me but told me that the project was Fin a few weeks later after they saw my stuff. So I had to explore other options. I even have the trades advertising job offerings at Amblimation. It moved to Dreamworks and then katzenberg canceled it due to the animators screams of protest.

Truly, it was the animators themselves who brought the project down. I talked with a lot of them and they told me it was the matter of making a story fuse with the large amount of songs that was holding them up.
They kept crying that the project was too long, too boring, and they wanted to get started up into computer animation at that time which was the "wave of the future."

So CATS got shelved. It was a combination of several different factors that caused it's demise. ALW was determined to have the show filmed in some way, so that's why he went with the video route. CATS doesen't have the "draw" like his others shows have like "Phantom," and such, it has such a small fan base that they were afraid of having a huge bomb on their hands, they scrapped it.

It was awesome seeing and being able to collect a lot of the work they did on the project though! Got to be friends with a few of the animators and they wanted me in on Storyboards and Character Design. They would have hired me in a heartbeat if I had been at Cal Arts just one year earlier. But I came in a year too late.

Sooo...thats the behind the scenes story of the CATS film. In short.

Purrs,
VTWC
Flitterbug

I like how your story comes with proof. Very watertight.
Belle

You see proof? external references? I see anecdotes...
Flitterbug

Sarcasm... *Moderator Edit - section deleted* In future, I will remember to be more over the top.
Drumdraper

What if there was a Cats the animated series? I wonder how that would work...
darkmage

I think there was. It was called Heathcliff and it was on in the early to mid '80's. Ok, it wasn't ACTUALLY Cats--The Series, but Riff Raff's girlfriend, Cleo, reminded me more than a *bit* of Victoria. And the Catillac Cats all lived in a junkyard, so...

Season 1 is out as a box set. I bought it the day it came out. Wink
Drumdraper

It was on in the early 90s too. Cleo also used to wear pink leg warmers all the time and lived in a music shop.
darkmage

The early 90's incarnation was just the reruns from five years before. I remember it in the original run when I used to bust home after school to catch it on TV in the afternoons. And not only did Cleo live in a music shop, she lived with that idiot dog, too.

*note to self--must make a Heathcliff icon or two
Spanish_Rumple

I know who you're talking about!!!!!!!

Hehe!! My fav cartoon cat!! in Spain he's called Isidoro and his white girlfriend is called Sonia. I don't remember however the name of that pair of cats who live in a cadillac... Isidoro reminds me a lot of Mungojerrie and the blond haired white queen, of Victoria. The rather short cat with a hat could be a comical version of Macavity!!! Mr. Green (or Tugger... who knows).

Here's the Spanish version of the song "Isidoro es genial!" (Heathcliff's great!). Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_2f-EuHSGs
darkmage

Yeah, in the US version Heathcliff's girlfriend is Sonja, she's the white Persian cat. Riff-raff is the one with the golf hat and the cane, his gf (the Victoria look-alike) is Cleo. As for the cats that live in the car, the Siamese smartass is Hector (probably one of my fave characters EVER), the white annoying one on the skates is Wordsworth (I've wanted to shoot him, or at least duct-tape his mouth shut, since I was a child), and the big grey dumb one is Mungo. I can definitely see Heathcliff being a Mungojerrie type. RiffRaff I dunno about as he's a plotter, but basically a decent guy unlike Macavity.

I was watching it one night with a friend of mine, and my friend pointed out that Riffraff and Cleo were a lot like our friend Dave Strand and his ex-gf Brittany, esp. because Dave is all of 5'2 and Brittany's about 5'7. And the personalities were/are eerily similar. Confused But enough about the Phoenix Goth scene...

The theme song in Spanish was awesome! Thanx for sharing!

One thing that always baffled me about this cartoon though--it was a joint France/Canada production, so why does everyone sound like they come from Chicago or NYC? Neutral
Drumdraper

By chance did Heathcliff and Riffraff ever meet in the cartoon?
darkmage

I don't think they ever did IIRC. Odd, since they were voiced by different actors, but sometimes the show had the feel of two completely different series pasted together to fill 30 minutes.
VictoriaTWC

I love it how you trash me without personal reason, just so you can Flitterbug and Belle.

In future posts I too will note with "sarcasm" how you love to embellish all that you write about too!

Applause

VTWC
Rumblepurr

Second Growl...

I am asking everyone to maintain the subject of the thread, and please discontinue personal attacks. I am asking nicely... this time...

Rumblepurr
CATS Forum Moderator.
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