Assignment 17- Ellis Padgett- Taylor Swift Drugs Cast With Catnip

Over the break, I saw Cats (willingly). And I am going to compare it to another musical drama: Les Miserables (the movie).
I'll preface my thoughts with this- Cats wasn't bad! I mean, should they have made it into a movie? No. But now that they did, I'll try and give it fair judgement against Les Miserables.

Both Cats and Les Miserables include the stories of characters originally shunned by society who in the end peacefully ascend to heaven. But the simplicity of Cats hardly compares to the complexity of Les Mis. Each movie holds the ability to invoke the emotional capacity of humans (Les Mis tells the tale of love, war, and forgiveness; Cats similarly speaks of the pain of living with and without positive memories). But Les Miserables pulls ahead as it intertwines many main characters, each with their own struggle that makes them appealing.
On the contrary, only two characters truly receive that same depth and development in Cats. The first is Grizabella, who is so trapped in her memories of being loved that she sinks into a lonely depression (you can guess which song she sings). The second is the main character, Victoria, who unlike Grizabella has never had a loving home to remember and finds her home with the ally cats. Yet Victoria's character development falls short, allowing Les Miserables to take the lead with the emotional value and understanding given to the viewer. Victoria sings about her previously mentioned woe; but not once does she cry, struggle, or seem to not fit in with the cats around her. If not fitting in/never being loved was her problem, why did the issue only show up once in a 4 minute song?

Cats also felt like a very straightforward film. While Les Miserables has multiple sets, conflicts, and facets to characters, Cats was overall very predictable. In Les Mis, even the "bad guy" has songs where he portrays inner conflict, and the viewer gets to see this clash and understand him more as a character. Not only does the villain in Cats fail to get that moment- barely anyone does. Cats follows a simple formula: introduction to the fact that there are cats... and then introduction to a cat, another introduction to a cat, another- and so on. Literally half the movie is another cat appearing on screen and then singing a song about themselves. Taylor Swift, who apparently aids the bad guy, appears near the end with no previous introduction only to act sexy and drug everyone with Catnip. And poof! That's pretty much the only thing her character does.

What I do appreciate about Cats the movie is that it brought a Broadway musical to a larger audience. Without this movie, I never would have seen it. And I do think it's worth knowing. If I could put it simply- which I can't- I would say that Cats and Les Mis translated very differently to the big screen. Both are impressive musicals with intriguing concepts and scores. Les Miserables probably always had a better chance as a movie because, well, it didn't involve human-like, talking cats.