Inexplicably, “Cats” is finally out, and the world will never be the same. The reactions are already out and they are not super positive. Among the many, many questions people have about this weird little musical, there is one that not even the film’s director, Tom Hooper, can answer: why do the cats have human feet?
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Much has been said about the “digital fur technology” that enables the movie to turn its stellar cast into weird human/cat mutants. Where the original Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name used a punk rock aesthetic for the costumes and cat ears that the stage cast would wear, Hooper’s movie version gives the cast a real furry look. They have furry bodies, strange tails and everything. But when asked in an interview with Vulture, Tom Hooper offered no explanation to the feet in “Cats”: “It’ll be hard for me to sort of explain that.” the director said. “I suppose, for dancing, it was never an option for me to kind of not have real feet. Because then the reality of dance would get lost. So that was a key thing. The idea that some cats were clothed, and some not, really came from the musical. Because in the musical, the characters with songs, the practical cats, are defined by some element.”
Hooper also explains his decision to go with the digital fur instead of some traditional prosthetics, and it explains about as much as what he says about the feet. “I actually did start by going through a physical prosthetics route because, during my first conversations, visual effects seemed to be so expensive.” Of course, in recent years, visual effects have become cheaper, opening the window to the human/cat monstrosities. “Two years ago, it was like, “It’s possible, but it’s insanely expensive.” And then a year and a bit ago, it’s like, “It’s just about affordable for your budget, and it’s just about possible.” And so the window opened up to do it.”