Cats 1998 vs 2019 | Now & Again

Long before the infamous 2019 film, Cats the musical was entertaining audiences. But how does it hold up? And how do the two compare?
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[@pigglepix]

Bombalurina (Both versions) "🎵Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin 🎵" 2019 Macavity:

[@nosexd4572]

Macavity 2019: 🕴

[@shiningfennec2360]

"He was probably hard to work with because he shook the whole time" "...I think he's acting" "What?" Lmao

[@leechowning8728]

I love how even someone who has only seen the musical ONCE looks at the movie and goes "they totally screwed it up". I seriously wish someone had taken the director, the CGI team, the composer and ALL the stars, put them in a room, and made them watch the two back to back like this before releasing it. It would have become another of those movies that simply disappear "straight to VHS".

[@stuartmack7658]

You know I honestly don't think the movie was ALL that bad. In terms of making a cinematic story out of an (essentially) storyless stage production, I think it did okay. The biggest fuckup was using CGI instead of costumes. People hate CGI because the moment they see it, they know it's CGI, so the 'suspension of disbelief', critical to the art of cinema, is gone. I reckon if they had at least used costumes like the stage production, it wouldn't have been quite so bad. However, that doesn't excuse the other fuckups, like using enormous sets so the actors become lost in them, and the other visually awkward stuff, of which there were too many to mention here. Biggest mistake of all was the director's decision not to use anyone involved in the original stage musical. That was unforgivable. There was a wealth of talent and knowledge available that he could have dipped into to make it great, but instead he decided to make it his own. Little wonder he hasn't worked since.

[@leechowning8728]

@@stuartmack7658 Honestly, the first failure was not understanding how a musical worked... both the ones he made had extremely low audience reviews, no matter how happy the art critics were. Cutting away from a song is not forgivable in a musical sense, nor do jokes placed in the song disrupting it. The CGI simply took away one of the few things that may have saved it without the music.

[@Dali1107ou]

It's very entertaining to watch the two of you completely despair - I felt the same when I made the mistake of getting curious about how bad the 2019 movie actually was. Honestly, to me it felt like the movie was made by someone who hated the musical and all the characters and didn't understand why anyone would like it.

[@vanyadolly]

I'm not convinced he even likes cats!

[@cjsmith1402]

Fun fact: the Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer song you see in the 2019 version is actually the first version of the song that ALW wrote for Cats. I’m pretty sure you can hear it in the original London Cast Recording. They later changed it for the much more entertaining arrangement of the song you hear today on stage.

[@BettytheAnimalLover]

I really have to wonder if the 2019 version went back to the first version of that song because they didn't cast strong singers for the roles and needed the easier version.

[@ErikaCartet]

@@BettytheAnimalLoverthat doesn’t even make sense because they casted naoimh morgan as rumpleteazer, and she played that role in the 2018 international tour of cats. they basically gave her extra work making her learn a different version of the song she already knew and performed on stage. i heard that hooper had a recording of the songs from the original stage production that used the earlier version, and maybe decided to put that version in the film because it was the one he was familiar with growing up, but i haven’t seen an actual source for that. it sounds like one of those decisions that’s made out to be “paying homage to the original” or “staying true to the original vision” which would be incredibly stupid if it were the rational - the song was updated for a reason, ALW knew the second version worked better for the characters and he strongly preferred the arrangement. that’s why he changed it and never looked back. being the “original” doesn’t have any inherent value, especially if the artist changed it specifically because the new version fit their vision more.

[@DeathKitta]

1998: Oh that's weird :D 2019: Oh that's weird D:

[@Niobesnuppa]

The puns in the 2019 version are almost as painful as the visuals.

[@paragonflash8937]

Fun fact: the scene with the tiny cockroaches dancing. Their movement and tap dancing are off beat and are not in sync. If you really listen youll notice it.

[@gazepreyed]

Jellicle is a pun on the way T.S. Elliot parodies the rich people who have cats "Dear little cats" or "The little cats" said fast enough becomes "Jellicle cats"

[@spriken]

The reason for the stories of the older cats is they are stating their case for the chance to be reborn. In the 98' version, they don't start out with clothes, they are only shown with clothes as we get to know them because the clothes are meant to represent aspects of their personality. In the 19' version you mention the faces and CGI but one of the things that bothers me is their hands. In the 98' version, they hold their hands with their fingers together most of the time to represent paws unless they are making claws but the 2019 they just have hands all the time.

[@coatimundi69]

yes! people don't understand that the younger cats (tugger, skimbleshanks, mungojerrie and rumpleteazer, etc.) arent making their case to die the good death, theyre just there to lighten the mood and be silly cats.

[@ErikaCartet]

same with the feet! at least the performers of the stage play wore dance shoes that disguised their human feet. the 2019 have big obvious human feet and human ankles and you can see each and every human toe. it’s so jarring when victoria sticks her foot in rum tum tugger’s face and he’s caressing a whole as human foot, it looks like he’s about to pop her big toe into his mouth.

[@Ihazfunkitty]

@@ErikaCartettheyre super inconsistent with it too, sometimes when they dance they do have shoes. Movie skimbleshanks has shoes but it makes sense since hes clothed but all the other cats randomly get shoes too, they look extra naked

[@BettytheAnimalLover]

I didn't know I needed to see two guys get drunk, talk about how good the 1998 Cats is, and then dunk on the 2019 Cats, but oh my god I definitely did need this.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

cats 1998 is, "you had to be there" cats 2019 is, something special. In the same way The Room is special. It is bad, so gloriously bad!

[@DivaQuinzel]

Every time I see something from the movie I just feel so... disappointed.

[@SimonsRants]

Not mad… just disappointed

[@lucyla9947]

Technically the 2019 Mungojerrie & Rumpleteaser song is the same as original, however it was replaced a literal year later because they realized it was shit, so it was rewritten. There was two rewrites, the one in 98' movie was one of the rewrites, and was the one that became dominant (having become dominant prior to the 98' version's release).

[@lucyla9947]

Okay the original M&R number isn't that shit, it just didn't fit the characters

[@stuartmack7658]

This is funny and I totally get where you guys are coming from. On the word Jellicle - T.S. Eliot drew inspiration from writers like Lewis Caroll, who was known for his 'nonsense' poems using words made from a corrupted mixture of syllables from other English words. According to T.S. himself, the word 'Jellicle' is basically a portmenteau of 'Jolly' and 'little/ickle' (small). Similarly, the word 'Pollicle' from the 'Pekes and the Pollicles', is a corruption of 'poor little'. So, jolly little cats, poor little dogs - Jellicles and Pollicles. So there you go. Part of your video I like most however, are those priceless expressions at 25:04 - 25:08, which I think perfectly reflect most people's reaction to the 2019 movie.

[@DiscoTimelordASD]

I love the musical & the lore! And agreed - Tim Curry would have made an awesome Rum Tum Tugger. If they'd made the movie decades back it would have been better.

[@ComradeWW]

I would love to do this with my best friend some time lol. I'm a fan of musicals and one of my favorite movies from my childhood is the 1999 Cats, meanwhile my friend does not like musicals at all 😅. I also have a strong tolerance for cringe so I hate/love watching the 2019 Cats as a guilty pleasure lmao.

[@SimonsRants]

Do it! 😂

[@semvision]

To think we could have had a fully animated adaptation instead of... this.

[@jeffguenette6354]

I never saw the play, the filmed version of the play nor the recent film. Thank you for your suffering so I needn't ever have to.

[@SimonsRants]

🫡 at your service!

[@jeffguenette6354]

The way you both kinda did a Richard Dreyfuss ( when he was on Bill Maher) was priceless.@@SimonsRants

[@spacethoughts7819]

2019 Cats in one word: creepy.

[@josephrivera1370]

The 1998 cats film was better than the 2019 CGI cats film.

[@ifyouseekamy69]

obviously

[@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose]

I was only able to catch the first few minutes of this video & had to come back and finish it after Cats-tastrophe 2019 yesterday. I hadn't yet reached Rum Tum Tugger's moves at 8:00 and oh my God, I was kinda hoping it was just me getting the Frank N' Furter vibes from him due to the amount of Tim Curry content I've watched in the last year or so but nope, you guys saw it too! 😆 In reality though, I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised considering my recent realization that between his mad genius as Maestro Forte (BATB: The Enchanted Christmas) and his sympathetic tenderness as the Beast (BATB: The Tale of the Crimson Flower, the one I recommended on your Timeless Tales video), Tim Curry would've done very well as the Phantom, in nearly any movie version (except for Dario Argento's, but that's only because he deserves better than that dumpster fire). Trust me, Simon, watch CF, compare it to EC (or watch that as well if you haven't seen it either), and you'll get what I mean. 😊🌹

[@spaceli0n]

37:18 i mean they changed a few white characters to black, only fair they have judy dench.

[@coatimundi69]

deuteronomy isnt always black anyway, but the most confusing part is that they dont keep the coat colors. theyre cats. why did we make macavity and deuteronomy match the actors skin colors

[@ThePsho]

​@@coatimundi69lol exactly. It's clearly stated that Macavity is ginger, yet they made him look like George Costanza's velvet suit had a fever dream.

[@lucyla9947]

In the actual musical the design is barely changed when the race of the actor changes, the makeup might change a bit, but the overall design stays pretty much constant. So I see no reason they couldn't do that for the movie.

[@sherihale63]

I respectfully disagree. The 2019 movie had amazing dancers. Yes it’s different than the broadway musical but that’s ok. I actually enjoyed the movie more. I feel that many people decided that they didn’t like the movie before giving it a chance. I felt that it even had a story line- easier to follow than the broadway play. Just my opinion

[@SimonsRants]

Oof

[@ifyouseekamy69]

i beg you to watch sideways' video "why the music in cats 2019 is worse than you thought". it's an hour long, but you don't need to watch all of it, just the first 20-30 minutes, which is where he talks about the plot of the original stage version in comparison to the 2019 movie, focusing on the addition of victoria as a main character for the movie. i could explain why adding her was a terrible choice, but sideways does it better and more entertaining. the movie completely failed to keep cats as what it is: 3 hours of spectacle with a tiny bit of storybook-like plot in the background.