When I was a sophomore in high school and in New York City dancing in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with my dance studio, my mom and I saw Cats on Broadway. A former dancer from So You Think You Can Dance was playing Mistoffelees, and I had heard that Cats was a classic Broadway play, so I had to see it. I didn’t really know what to expect – but it exceeded all my expectations x100!
Cats instantly became my favorite Broadway show and still is to this day. The dancing in Cats is the highest level of dance I’ve seen on Broadway, so of course, I loved it. As a dancer, I have a great appreciation for dance at that level, or really any art form at that level. Aside from that, Cats has amazing singing and a cool storyline.
When I heard that Cats was going to become a movie, I was so excited. However, this excitement was soon diminished by all of the negative reviews that the film received. I became scared to watch it because I didn’t want the movie to depreciate the appreciation I had for the Broadway show.
Despite my fears, I knew I had to see it. I went into the theater with the lowest expectations, fully expecting Cats to be terrible. I had already told myself that I wouldn’t let this movie alter how I viewed the Broadway show. To my surprise, Cats was amazing in movie form too. The dancing, singing, and acting were incredible – and I don’t know how anyone could argue with that. My favorite part was the tap routine, but there were so many other wonderful parts like the dance performances by Francesca Hayward and the singing of “Memory” by Jennifer Hudson.
Although I don’t like that so many people criticized a movie as good as Cats, I think I’ve figured out why they did. First of all, Cats is a movie for a specific audience – people that appreciate and enjoy watching really good dancing and singing. And although I wish everyone did enjoy those things, that’s not the case.
People who don’t appreciate watching top-level dancing and singing could get very bored in a movie that features just that. Especially if they just went to the movie to see one of their favorite celebrities, who might or might not have been in the film much. A lot of the really famous people in Cats didn’t play a very big role.
But just because someone gets bored watching a movie, that doesn’t mean they should trash it for being a terrible movie. A movie could be boring because it’s not your type of movie, which doesn’t make it a bad movie because it could be someone else’s type of movie. I don’t enjoy watching war movies, but I don’t trash them on the Internet because I know a lot of people do enjoy watching that kind of stuff.
So if you’re contemplating seeing Cats, but have hesitated because you’ve heard it was bad – definitely go see it (if it’s your type of movie)! And if you need more than my opinion to convince you, my mom and grandma went to see it with me and loved it too!
Want to keep up with HCBU? Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, check out our Pinterest board, and read our latest Tweets!