Tom Hooper’s Cats commentary raises more questions than it answers
Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of Cats left many viewers baffled upon its release in December - and a new director’s commentary does very little to clear up the movie’s many mysteries.
Branded “nearly as obscene as The Human Centipede” by the Standard’s film critic, the movie struggled at the box office and was maligned for its uncanny CGI work, which transformed actors including Idris Elba, Judi Dench and James Corden into humanoid cats.
Recorded for the home entertainment release of Cats, which is based upon Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical, the commentary sees Hooper attempt to shed some light upon some of the film’s more bizarre creative choices.
However, viewers seeking clarity will most likely be left wanting - albeit slightly intrigued - by the director’s insights, which often raise more questions than they answer.
Addressing one memorable scene which sees Rebel Wilson’s cat unzip a layer of her own fur to reveal a brand new fur outfit beneath, Hooper said: “This gag is kind of my own tongue-in-cheek way of referencing that I’m using digital fur as clothing because Rebel actually unzips her digital fur to reveal it as clothing.
“But then the joke is that underneath she has more real fur, which of course is not real fur.”
He also explains that another haunting moment, in which Wilson’s cat terrorises a group of tiny mice with children's faces superimposed onto them, was in fact the actress’s idea.
In reference to a psychedelic dance sequence featuring hordes of dancing cockroaches imagined as glamorous women, Hooper merely notes that the dancers’ "only unusual trait is that they have an extra pair of arms, in homage to the cockroach number of limbs.”
Elsewhere, Hooper defends his much-discussed use of ‘digital fur technology’ to transform his actors into anthropomorphised cats, claiming that it allowed him to “capture live dance” while also preserving the facially expressive elements of his stars’ performance.
“From the beginning, I always wanted humans to play cats - partly because it’s a dance musical, so I wanted to capture live dance,” he said.
“But also if I was lucky enough to capture lightning in a bottle with a great performance I wanted to be able to be in full contact with that in the face.
“I wanted to kind of create, I suppose, a covering of fur that was better than what a costume could do. But still be one-to-one with the real bodies, so that the way we captured the dance was utterly faithful to the way they did the dance, or in the case, Rebel’s physical comedy.”
Hooper also gave a potential insight into his creative process for the film, revealing: “I must admit I’ve actually tried bowing down to a cat and saying ‘Oh cat’ just in the slight hope that it might unleash the cat to talk to me.
“It hasn’t yet worked, but I will continue trying.”
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