The Saddest Rhino posted:

https://twitter.com/PaladinAmber/status/1213391731938357248

goodog posted:

Has there been any concept art or storyboards of what the cats were supposed to look like?

Bogus Adventure posted:

Isn't Victoria supposed to be eternally pondering that third name?

caligulamprey posted:

I am in desperate need of a 25-pound hardcover coffee table book that costs $80 and is called something like CATS: FROM STAGE TO SCREEN.

The Little Death posted:

Victoria is a non speaking part in the stage version. In the play, the naming of cats is directed at the audience. The framing shift does make it a little weird because it make Victoria into a short of ingenue to make her the protagonist, so I guess you could interpret it b like that.


I'm thinking about this too much.

gschmidl posted:

Sailor Viy posted:

Having thought about it for a while, here is my interpretation of the film.

- The cats are in a purgatory realm waiting to be reborn. As evidenced by the lack of any humans and the cat-themed advertisements at the beginning, this is not the real world. The human who dumps Victoria at the start is a psychopomp, equivalent to Charon the ferryman.

- Since cats have nine lives, this is where they go between lives - the bardo of Tibetan Buddhism - but these cats are trapped because they have proven themselves mediocre according to cat standards. To be reborn they must prove their worth as cats, hence why they make such a literal song and dance about it.

- The heaviside layer is the living world. 'Jellicle' is 'evangelical' e.g. they are literally seeking to be born again. Basically the whole film is to cats what 'The Waste Land' is to humans. "I had not thought death had undone so many", etc

- A lot of these cats have been here a long time, as evidenced by the line about them being alive when the Pharaoh built the sphinx, serving the pied piper, and so on

- the term 'heaviside layer' implies there are other layers - purgatory is one, but below it is also a lower layer for truly evil cats. The Inferno of Dante or the naraka realm of Buddhism.

- Macavity comes from this hell layer. He has probably tricked his way into purgatory and is now trying to do the same thing to get back to the living world. Like Satan in the Bible, he can't really harm anyone, only tempt or terrorise them (I'm not 100% sure but I think it is always Growltiger who actually threatens the other cats with violence.)

- Mr. Mistopheles is a demon from the hell layer as well (Mistopheles = Mephistopheles). But he is seeking redemption the correct way, through humility. We can infer that in this world only demons can use magic, which would fit with the medieval Christian worldview.

- Old Deuteronomy is a bodhisattva, an enlightened soul who has sworn not to leave the cycle of rebirth until all other souls have been enlightened also. Or in Cats terms, she will not leave Purgatory until everyone else has. This explains why she has lived 99 lives instead of the normal 9.

Sailor Viy posted:

- The cats are in a purgatory realm waiting to be reborn. As evidenced by the lack of any humans and the cat-themed advertisements at the beginning, this is not the real world. The human who dumps Victoria at the start is a psychopomp, equivalent to Charon the ferryman.

Sailor Viy posted:

'heaviside layer'

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

the heaviside layer is the boundary in the atmosphere that shortwave radio bounces off which is just named after a guy named mr heaviside. And it's the sort of thing someone in the 1930s when practical cats was written and people talked about shortwave radios a lot would know and someone nearly a century later would think of as a weird mysterious word.

angerbeet posted:

Vicious is good as hell

quote:

Hundreds of people told The Post their stories about seeing “Cats” while high — some on marijuana, others on psilocybin mushrooms, LSD and other mind-altering substances.

Here are their reviews:

“The most incredible cinematic experience of my life.”

“The most terrifying experience of my life. I swear to God my soul escaped me.”

“Cried both times. Planning on going two more times.”

“Vomited four times but ultimately understood the film on a deep level.”

“Had a panic attack in the middle of it . . . right after Taylor Swift sang ‘Macavity.’ ”

“When Judi Dench turned and looked me directly in the eyes to let me know that a cat is not a dog, I was terrified.”

It was unclear, on balance, whether getting high made “Cats” better, or much, much worse.

Asgerd posted:

I still have no idea why Skimbleshanks wanted to be reborn, since his life seemed pretty much perfect already. Dude loves his job, everybody loves him, and unlike Gus or Grizabella he's still young, healthy, and at the top of his game. What was he planning to do if he was chosen, just keep being a railway cat, but... even moreso?

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

the heaviside layer is the boundary in the atmosphere that shortwave radio bounces off which is just named after a guy named mr heaviside. And it's the sort of thing someone in the 1930s when practical cats was written and people talked about shortwave radios a lot would know and someone nearly a century later would think of as a weird mysterious word.

Brazilianpeanutwar posted:

“I vomited four times”. gently caress off no you didn’t,hate that poo poo.

The Saddest Rhino posted:

Train cat was the Tom bombadil of cats

wyoming posted:

Before being magicked off by Macavity, Skimbleshanks was well on his way to twirling to the Heaviside layer, showing that he doesn't need the ritual to ascend, he was just there to have a good time.