Amazing what breed controversy nowadays. Cats is a Broadway show that has been around since before Thundercats was on television. I mean the original, so it’s been around at least since I’ve been a kid. The movie has brought about two bits of controversy. The first comes from people upset that the half-black woman (who is also half-white) who is playing the character of Victoria The White Cat was given all white fur, claiming it’s whitewashing for a white cat to be a white cat even if not played by a white woman. Despite everybody having fur that isn’t the color of the performer’s skin and the play the movie is based on probably being older than she is. This article goes into more detail.
Meanwhile, the other controversy is that a play known for really great make-up effects for a stage play has gone CG (although apparently there is some actual costume work here) for the movie and the problems that causes. The Corridor Crew did a video that includes the problems with the CG and the costumes plus some further VFX reactions. Since the article link above opens in a new window you can read that and watch this.
Why not just use the same makeup as the play? It always looked good in the ads. They look more like Thundercats than actual cats. And no, I don’t think a Thundercats movie would be a good idea given the current Hollywood mindset. It would be a terrible movie and a worse adaptation. History bares that out.
So a little extra this morning for you.
BW Media Spotlight 
The Cats movie certainly has a lot of big name celebrities in it. Despite the criticisms, the film will likely do very well financially due to the overabundance of big name actors, actresses, and singers in this. I never saw The Cats play, so I doubt that I will ever get around to watching this movie version. It doesn’t really interest me. Hey, I get to see the antics of a real calico cat every Sunday when I go to visit my parents. Thus, I have no interest in seeing people dressed as cats. One thing though, this video does give us an idea of what actors and actresses in a Thundercats movie could potentially look like. I would watch a live action Thundercats movie.
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I think you nailed the reason why they went with this look. “We have Taylor Swift, Judy Dench, and Ian McKellan and we want to make sure people actually know at a glance it’s them because the general public is too stupid to see a movie without star power if you can’t tell they’re the stars.” That’s why you can make out their faces and there is so little actual cat markings on them.
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I looked it up. Cats ran on Broadway from 1982 to 2000. Francesca Hayward, the actress who plays the white cat, was born in 1992. So the play did open ten years before she was born, but was still around when she was a little kid. Francesca was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to an English father and a Kenyan mother. She grew up mostly in England though with her English grandparents. Currently, she is a famous ballerina in Britain. This Cats film will make her well known now to an American audience.
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Given the moves we see in the trailer it doesn’t surprise me that she studied ballet. The choreography does look good.
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