It’s been a couple of months since Cats first graced our local cinemas, but I cannot stop thinking about it. It’s been the butt of almost every joke since it debuted, and even the actors are just having to cop it and make fun of the film themselves, or else be laughed at even harder for taking it seriously. The artists behind the special effects aren’t laughing though, and they’re over being blamed for making Cats a dumpster fire.
You might have seen the moment at the Oscars where James Corden and Rebel Wilson waltzed out onto the stage in bad cat costumes to present the award for best visual effects. Opening with “As cast members of the movie Cats, nobody more than us understands the importance of good visual effects.”
It got a laugh from the audience, but it absolutely didn’t go over well with the artists who had actually put in the effort to make the film look the way it did.
First we saw this Tweet from Yves McCrae, one of the VFX Artists who worked on Cats.
And if that wasn’t spicy enough, the 4000 strong Visual Effects Society then put out a statement about the jokes.
“Last night, in presenting the Academy Award for outstanding visual effects, the producers chose to make visual effects the punchline, and suggested that bad VFX were to blame for the poor performance of the movie Cats.”
“The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly. The Visual Effects Society is focused on recognising, advancing and honouring visual effects as an art form – and ensuring that the men and women working in VFX are properly valued.”
The visual effects artists had no creative control over this film, and the fact that it turned out as wild as it did isn’t really on them. Using them as a scapegoat isn’t fair, and they deserve whatever credit the film deserves.
I still find it terrifying, though.
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