1:26:47 So I was rewatching the Sideways Cats video and I have know realized that I took this line right from his video and I didn't even realize it. I literally talked about how he's been plagiarized before and here I am plagiarizing him...fuck!

Also to everyone asking, the body totem pole is from Hannibal and I'm referring to the musical based on the movie when I mention Legally Blond. I know it's based on a movie.

If you kicked the movie version of macavity he would run away but if you kicked the play version of macavity he would eat your foot off

Tugger singing Misto's song is so good because he's a performer, he's a rockstar, and he's looking at this less confident cat and being like "I will hype this guy UP!" and it works so well! I don't think anyone else singing it would work.

it was actually Steven McRae's idea to add tap dancing to the Skimbleshanks number. I guess Skimble really wont let anything go wrong.

Odd that with Mistofolees Tom saw the word 'shy' and made that his whole personality, and didn't read the rest of the words in the damn lyric.
"His manner is vague and aloof
And you would THINK there was nobody shyer
But his voice has been heard on the roof
While he was curled up by the fire"
It's there in the lyric, that he only appears shy. He's quiet and mysterious cos it's part of his magic personality.

Rum Tum Tugger singing Mr Mistoffelees' song is literally that "If I had a lame-ass boyfriend I would hype him up so much I'd make him wait outside and be like ok here comes the specialest boy ever if you don't cheer & clap for him imma burn this whole building down" tumblr post.

Ill be honest, Bustofer Jones, I also interpreted/headcannoned him having relatively rich owners, but also that he's one of those cats that has several different owners/homes that feed him, and also regularly gets table scraps from restaurants and such.
Still a shame how the 2019 movie did him dirty. (He also is not my favorite or anything, but like! A fat character from an older piece of media being more respectfully treated than the modern version is.... Something. Hey! Tommy! James! Your bias is showing!)

It makes so much sense why Tugger would sing about Misto, because Tugger is so confident and charismatic that he has the ability to really rope you in. If Tugger is so excited about this magical cat, then surely he must be a big deal! Let's find out if this magical cat has what it takes!- is what the vibe is, to me, because when Tugger takes to the stage, /all/ the other cats watch him.
That's why that number works for me, on top of the chemistry there

They did the musical so dirty with the movie, honestly. The touch at the end of Memory is one of the sweetest, most poigniant moments in the show because the kitten that sings with Grizabella is the youngest. She's the baby. And Victoria is supposed to be a debutante, having just reached the age of finding a mate (the cat who dances with her during her solo) AND she's the pure white cat touching the "dirty old has-been". It is literally breaking a cycle of generational trauma and fear. It has to be the new generation showing the old generation the way.

I always headcanon-ed that all the Jellicles have owners because they all have collars except for Grizabella, and it's said that her coat is torn and stained, so I interpreted that as her having mange, which is why some of the cats are more scared than angry at her. They don't want to catch what she has, but touch is how real-life cats mark someone as safe.


Also, my poor boy Mr. Mistofeles is supposed to be a showy, flashy, almost arrogant young magician, not... the anxious mess he was in this film. And yeah, like you said, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteaser are mischievous, but not evil, and they're more teasingly flirty than outright seductive.

The Jellicles: Our leader has been kidnapped, and the majority of us are badly injured.
RTT: Yeah, but have I ever told you all how cool my boyfriend is?

I feel like any time Tom Hooper approaches a musical there should be an in-built reflex of like spraying him with a water bottle and screaming "NO! BAD TOM! NO! NO MUSICAL ADAPTIONS FOR YOU!"

Every time I’m in a local play or musical, the actors get creative and come up with some crazy backstory for their characters, even if they’re canon fodder. And I feel like CATS made that into an art form.

I also really dislike Victoria's plot about being abandoned, because this implies all the Jellicles are strays, even though the lyrics imply that at least some of the cats do in fact have owners- like Skimble living at a train station, Jenny relaxing throughout the day in a house, or Tugger being mentioned to sleep in furniture.

You know, there SHOULD be a video essay about the inherent queerness in the Stage Show of Cats. That would be great.

I legitimately, not once, even realized that Cassandra was even in the 2019 movie until your video. I cannot tell the cats apart in that movie other than maybe 5 or 6. I even confused Victoria with other cats constantly.

I was never a fan of Cats, but I am a fan of Les Miserables, and now knowing that the guy who did the terrible Les Miz movie also did Cats makes a lot of sense for why fans of Cats hated the film, lol. Stop giving this man access to well-known, well-liked, and well-respected musicals!

...the social dynamics of Grizabella being RTT and Munk's mom who abandoned them gives so much to chew on and im gonna rewatch 1998 with that lens

Another thing about the skin-colored cats: brown cats are INCREDIBLY rare. It's not even that they're trying to show a realistic array of fur patterns, those fur patterns are actively unrealistic to be that prevalent.

I remember thinking that Macavity, Tugger and Munkustrap were all brothers because they made like a ... bad/good gradient, with Macavity the bad boy, Tugger the silly "bad" boy and Munkustrap the responsible guy. I had no basis for this beyond my sense that Tugger and Munkustrap were definitely brothers and just slotted Macavity into that. Purely based on my eight billion rewatches of the VHS where I exhaustively slotted everyone into family trees.

I think a multi animator project set to the musical done by a bunch of warrior cats fans would be a much more enjoyable movie