My father and I dont have much in common when it comes to our careers.
Meanwhile, I write not-as-important things on the internet about movies and TV.
His reply is usually something like: Very cool!
Universal Pictures
As a bonus, he also knows a decent amount about musical theater.
(The man is a sucker for a movie about a World War.)
Afterward, we sat down for a conversation about all things feline.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Lets start with the original musical.
Obviously, I read the T.S.
So it feels like its been a family thing for a while now.
So, the movie.
What are your initial thoughts?It still has all the good music.
Somehow it seems like stage makeup was more appropriate than what it actually turned out to be.
To actually take a stab at morph humans into cats via CGI is just kind of terrifying.
What felt the most bizarre to you?The faces.
Cat faces, they can be expressive, but theyre extremely subtle.
Theyll give the tiniest little twitch of whiskers or ears, but they are so impassive.
They dont let on a lot of what theyre feeling, whereas people are not nearly so subtle.
Seeing cats make all these exaggerated faces was kind of horrifying.
Most cats, they do care, but theyre never going toshowyou that they care.
Theyre always going to act like they dont.
Cats dont emote very well, except for anger.
They will show that.
But beyond that, they tend to be much more passive and so much more subtle.
Its not to say they dont have a tremendous range of emotion!
But they dont put it out there for anyone to evaluate or judge.
And even if you do judge, they dont care.
How did you feel about the cats hands and feet?
Thats about the only way they tend to use their feet expressively or to scratch you.
I kind of wish there were some polydactyl cats in this movie.
They definitely do that.
The other thing I think they did get right is that they respect cats for what they are.
They respect cats for being independent, and they give a shot to celebrate what they are.
They didnt always portray it very well, but at least they tried.
They communicate far more with body position, tail position, orientation of how they approach.
There are so many really subtle things that they use to communicate.
Bursting into song is not one of them.
That struck me as very catlike.
The other one wasJames Cordenas Bustopher Jones.
Falling in a trash can to try and get more food?
I do have some patients like that.
Rebel WilsonsJennyanydots teaches a lot of cockroaches how to tap dance, and then she eats them.
So that is entirely plausible.
Like the cat version of Bob Fosse.
Taylor Swifts cat, Bombalurina, incapacitates a bunch of the cats by dumping catnip on them.
How do most cats really react to catnip?It runs the gamut.
There are some who literally fling themselves on the floor and scoot about upside down.
There are others who basically sniff it and walk away.
So theyre not all universally affected by it, thats for sure.
Are there any movies that do a good job of depicting cats?
What were your thoughts onGooseinCaptain Marvel?Hes a very good cat.
Ive had a few patients over the years who wouldve liked to have done that to me.
