Cats has gathered a cult status as of late, the movie is not good by any stretch of the imagination. The movie, based on the long-running play, has gained criticism for being, well, a hard movie to watch. From the odd choices in editing to the nightmare faces CGI into a cat body. Cats was even nominated for 9 Razzie Awards, the fun parody awards honoring the worst of the year. With such a bad reputation and pretty much becoming the laughing stock of the media, Cats never expected to pop up in the Oscars.
However, during the 2020 Academy Awards, Rebel Wilson and James Corden arrive wearing full cats outfits harkening back to the hilarious/ awkward moment during the 2010 Oscars, where Ben Stiller announced the winner for best makeup dress as a Navi from the film Avatar. In a fun jab as the visual disaster that was Cats Rebel Wilson and James Corden announce the winner for Best Visual Effects. The joke was not meant to offend anyone. However, one group did take offense, The Visual Effect Society. In a statement made about the award show this is what they said:
“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 Visual Effects Society statement reads. “The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.”
It continues, “On a night that is all about honoring the work of talented artists, it is immensely disappointing that the Academy made visual effects the butt of a joke. It demeaned the global community of expert VFX practitioners doing outstanding, challenging, and visually stunning work to achieve the filmmakers’ vision.”
It is no secret that the making of Cats was a nightmare for everyone involved, even the director Tom Hooper admitted that the movie was finished a day before it premiered. Cats was reported to be so unfinished that the movie started to recive ‘a patch,’ for later release hoping to fix many of its issues.
MPC (Motion Picture Co.), the studio that worked on film shut down its Vancouver studio, laying off more than 300 VFX workers. Before the shutdown, the studio had also contributed to Ad Astra, Life of Pi, Disney’s CGI remake of The Lion King, and the redesign of Sonic the Hedgehog for the upcoming movie. Yves McCrae a visual artist who worked on the also tweeted out his displeasure.
Hey guys I haven't watched all of the Oscars but I assume these two were really classy and thanked me for working 80 hour weeks right up until I was laid off and the studio closed, right? https://t.co/dolAwK2xbr
— Auto Erotic Exfoliation (@YvesTM) February 11, 2020
It is important to point out that the winner of Best Visual Effect was 1917 directed by Sam Mendes with visual effects credited to Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, and Dominic Tuohy.