Move is 'unheard of'... but it's unlikely to save this box office catastrophe.
The Cats movie opened on 20 Dec, and to say it did not go down well would be an incredible understatement. However, within tsunami of criticism were comments on the unfinished-looking special effects – it aimed to join the ranks of the best 3D movie effects in 2019 and missed, badly. So egregious were the errors, that on the day of release, Universal notified thousands of cinemas that it would be sending out a new version of the film with updated CGI, in a move that is 'unheard of' for a film that's already been released.
The news comes via a memo obtained by the The Hollywood Reporter, which detailed: "The updated movie will be available to download Sunday via a satellite server, while exhibitors who don't have access to the server will receive a hard drive by Tuesday, per Universal's note. The studio is asking that theaters replace the current print of Cats as soon as possible." Ouch.
That hand doesn't look very cat-like, Judi (Image credit: Universal via @jenelleriley)
Since the story broke, movie-goers have been taking to social media to share some of the VFX clunkers that made it into the original film (see our roundup of the worst CGI fails for more awkward errors). Jenelle Riley tweeted the image above with the comment: "This isn’t a joke: CATS was rushed into theaters before being finished so a new version is being sent to theaters with updated effects. How do you know if you have the old version? Look for Judi Dench’s human hand, wedding ring and all."
"[It's] just not finished... I witnessed an entire man, knit cap and coat, just standing in a scene among a gathering of cats. I saw a terrifying grey statue looming over a character, only for it to blink and realise it’s a woman who is a cat, but they coloured her and then forgot to add fur," reported Gizmodo.
Another Twitter user shared a screengrab – taken from the official trailer, nonetheless – that shows Rebel Wilson's Jennyanydots with a similarly un-cat-like hand-in-sleeve situation (read our take on the Cats trailers here).
Another suspiciously human hand makes it on screen (Image credit: Universal via @sugarjoeproblms)
Cats Tom Hooper has been open about the last-minute rush to get all the effects finished in time. At the movie's premiere he announced he'd finished just hours beforehand, following a 36-hour final push.
It's not the first CGI scandal of 2019, either. Earlier in the year, the huge backlash prompted by the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer prompted Paramount to go back to the drawing board and redesign the titular character in double-quick time, which may or may not have contributed to the VFX studio behind the film having to close its doors.
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And while it seems, from the almost unanimous critical mauling Cats is getting, that unfinished VFX isn't the sum of this movie's problems, it does seem another clear sign that if you're going to make a movie where CG plays such a pivotal role, it's vital to afford the team the time and resources to develop and complete that element properly.
Ruth spent a couple of years as Deputy Editor of Creative Bloq, and has also either worked on or written for almost all of the site's former and current design print titles, from Computer Arts to ImagineFX. She now spends her days reviewing small appliances as the Homes Editor at TechRadar, but still occasionally writes about design on a freelance basis in her spare time.
