Chris and Alex return from their extended summer break with this discussion of the much-maligned musical Cats (Tom Hooper, 2019), a film whose reputation as a big-budget misjudgment has perhaps overwhelmed the intricacies of its uncanny constitution, and in particular how the narrative’s negotiation of its A-list performers speaks to the vexed question of actorly labour and agency in an age of heightened visual effects production. Listen as they wade through Cats’ unsettling feline character design and the integration of digital effects that build disconcerting bodies with multiple moving parts; theatricality and spontaneity in histories of the Hollywood musical; scale and the fantasy of space in director Tom Hooper’s execution of the film’s song-and-dance routines; editing choices and the presentation of blockbuster spectacle; and how the controversial digitised production of Cats taps into recent debates regarding the exploitation of the VFX sector and the many artists who build our CG-enhanced screen fantasies.
**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**
**As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts**
Footnote #47 - Aura
Toy Story (1995) (with Lucy Fife Donaldson)
Footnote #46 - Multiplanarity
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) (with Sarah Thomas)
Footnote #45 - The Disney Renaissance (with Peter Kunze)
Beauty and the Beast (1991) (with Peter Kunze)
Footnote #44 - Hanna-Barbera (with Jared Bahir Browsh)
The Flintstones (1960-1966) (with Jared Bahir Browsh)
Footnote #43 - Disney Princesses (with Robyn Muir)
Wish (2023) (with Robyn Muir)
Footnote #42 - Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Footnote #41 - Canons
Life, Animated (2016) (with Janet Harbord)
Footnote #40 - Puppetry
The Dark Crystal (1982) (with Tanya Kirk)
Arthur Christmas (2011)
Footnote #39 - Special Effects
Disney: A Tale of Technology and Innovation (Live at the British Film Institute) (with Chris McKenna)
Footnote #38 - Storybook Openings
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