Consequence of Sound: Cats didn’t just ruin its own visual effects; it ruined the art form for the people who actually make visual effects. After a gag about Cats introduced the Oscars’ Outstanding Visual Effects category, the Visual Effects Society is angry that such a catastrophic failure of CGI was tapped to represent them on the industry’s biggest night.
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I’m really glad that the Visual Effects Society put forth a statement to defend their hardworking creators. As funny as I initially thought the Cats gag was, I do understand the blow to the vfx industry. Yes, we all know that Cats wasn’t very well received by critics and the general public, and that a lot of the criticism was on the visual effects (particularly the animation of the cat characters), but it’s important to step back and think about the situation: was it really the decisions of the animators? Was it led by the director? the producers? In those cases, the vfx artists were doing what they were contracted to do. Quite honestly, the visuals were actually beautiful, especially the scenery and all of that, the thing that makes the film disturbing is the choice to make such realistic humanistic cat characters. Anyways, I agree that it was a poor decision made by the producers to use this failure to get a laugh from the audience, especially an audience who most likely don’t understand the intricacies of the work done by these visual effects artists. The producers were aiming to get laughs and some publicity, but at the cost of the integrity of hardworking vfx artists all throughout the industry? Good on the Visual Effects Society for calling out this decision, and calling for continued respect of their creators. They’re right—you can’t pin a scapegoat, especially on this situation.
I agree with this article when it says that the joke that Rebel Wilson and James Corden made on the Oscars were hilarious. It was easily one of the funniest jokes of the night. But I do understand that the gag kind of ruined the big night for other people working in visual effects. I feel as thought the joke raised awareness for how much work they are doing, rather than diminishing it, which is what this article seems to think was accomplished. I totally respect the work of visual effects artists, and there's no way I could od any better, but I feel as though Cats was a terrible execution of those skills, so it is valid that it was made fun of on the oscars. In order for art to improve, I think it is important that we recognize past failures, and Cats simply was one. I think that it overall was a mistake of a movie and kinda deserved what it got in terms of ridicule.
Yeah, so the problem with Cats wasn't the visual effects. A lot of people worked incredibly hard on the visual effects and I think it was super disrespectful of the Oscars writers to write these jokes. The people to blame for the negative critical reception are definitely not the visual effects team and I think especially James Corden and Rebel Wilson should reflect on that and why they feel the need to bully those who worked incredibly hard on this project. I didn't enjoy Cats, but I think that it's just rude to make fun of people who worked on such a weird project that the definitely weren't passionate about for you. Maybe I'm being to harsh, but it just seems unnecessary and mean coming from the Oscars writers and Rebel Wilson and James Corden.
I think the outrage that the Visual Effects Society is expressing over the presentation of the Academy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects is very well deserved. As amusing as I find the misguided creative choices made in the Cats movie, including the unfinished computer generated effects, this joke feels very disrespectful to both the artists who worked on the film and the artists who were given the award for outstanding visual effects. As unfortunate as the Cats movie turned out, it seems unlikely that the issues surrounding the performance were due solely to the visual effects. Like the statement says, it is bad storytelling in this case that deters audiences from seeing this movie and making light of that and placing the blame on the artists who spent lots of time working on it, including additional time to revisit some effects for a theatrical replacement of the original film a week after it opened.
This is a really interesting article. When I watched the Oscars, I truly thought this bit was one of the funniest. But this article does change my point of view. I never thought of the insult that this would be to those who work in that field, and my mind has been very changed. The Visual Effects artists in film do really incredible work, and the article points out that the Cats film was an incredible example of why films need to value their visual effects teams more. I think too often, productions only value the traditional roles, like the directors, production designers, and other roles that have existed since the beginning of film. But the modern film industry is very different, and audiences want more digital magic that is only provided by a team of visual artists. They are already an underrepresented group, so proper representation is really important to their industry and the film industry as a whole.
I was rather disgusted with this segment of the Oscars, not really because I understood the ramifications it had on the visual effects workers all around, but because Cats really was just a disgusting movie. I just wanted Corden and Wilson to get off the stage as soon as possible. The outrage expressed by the Visual Effects Society is just. Truly an exemplar of a horrible idea, good execution. Cats may have had bad visual effects, but it was not bad in the sense that they were shoddily made or that the artists lacked the necessary skills, it was that the direction given to the artists was, simply, a really bad idea. The visual effects practitioners on Cats were just doing their job, and for the premise they were given, I think they did fantastic work. VFX was not the reason Cats flopped. Honestly, it was pretty horrific as far as visuals go, so whosever idea it was to make the cats look like That, they're the one to blame.
Good! I’m glad that the Visual Effects Society called them out. Here’s the thing: I did think the joke was pretty funny but more at the expense of Cats rather than the people behind the visual effects. It’s no secret that those designs look awful, but there is always a reason behind it besides just “there was no skill”. Almost all the time, animators are underpaid for their work and are unable to take their work to a more polished look due to a lack of funds. Cats is flawed way beyond just their CGI. It feels a bit dirty that the team is being bashed at the awards they are going to recieve for respect. I think it’s obvious that the joke was not aimed to tear them down and to make fun of the awful film, but the effects of a joke should be taken into consideration. The Visual Effects Society addressed it and hopefully the Oscars will be more aware, but honestly you never know with the Academy.
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