There’s a new eagle in town…a Regal Eagle, so we thought to make it easier, we’d share our review and some Regal Eagle Smokehouse Do’s and Don’t’s. Actually, the eagle’s not new, but his BBQ place is. Last June when Disney announced a new barbecue restaurant would be replacing the original-to-EPCOT-Center Liberty Inn, we were all pretty excited and hopeful for this new experience.
Disney Dining for Everyone
Being a vegetarian for the past 3 years and vegan for the past 6 months, I wasn’t worried at all, because I knew Disney’s new plant-based initiative would ensure there was something for everyone at this new spot.
As sad as I was at losing an original piece of EPCOT Center in the Liberty Inn, barbecue does seem disctinctly American, so it seemed like a good fit. Disney has slowly been replacing its “fast-casual” dining locations with less burgers/nuggets/hot dogs and fries, and more healthy options, or at least more unique and more culinarily adventurous.
Now most places will offer a wrap or a unique salad vs. a plain old burger. With more and more folks eating more plant-based entrees, Disney really is making sure there is at least ONE thing that vegans, vegetarians, and usually gluten-free folks can try. More on that as you keep reading.
The Muppet Connection
Back in January, Disney then announced the the new bbq eatery would feature Sam Eagle of the Muppets. Of course everyone knows him from the original Muppet Show, but also Disney parks fans love to quote his line from Muppet Vision 3-D of “A salute to all nations but mostly America” which was supposed to be a “glorious 3 hour finale” (he only got a minute and a half). Disney has spun that quote and turned the motto of Regal Eagle Smokehouse to be “A salute to all cook-offs, but mostly barbecue.”
Reaction online was mixed, with some thinking the Muppets (and Intellectual Property [IP] in general) should be left out of the World Showcase’s representation of our home country of the United States of America. Others thought Sam Eagle was a perfect fit to represent our country with his swelling patriotism. The irony is that Sam was sort of a spoof himself, created for the original Muppet Show when the bicentennial of America was happening and brought out many over-the-top patriotic zealots. Whatever the backstory, he became very loveable character for his set-in-his-ways sensibilities and love of country.
Whatever your views on patriotism, it’s important to note that at the end of the day, he’s a Muppet. Part of what made the Muppets so relatable was that they poked fun at all sorts of different views, ideals, and preconceived notions.
Personally, I LOVE as in L O V E the American Adventure in this pavilion. Others think it’s boring and skippable or a place to take a nap. Still others think it leaves out huge portions of history and doesn’t do a great job of representation. From a purely fan-of-Disney-Imagineering perspective, it is one of my favorites, for its displays, its music, and its place in EPCOT Center history. So I understood feeling protective of this original concept and space and not wanting any IP seeping in. That said, I hold the Muppets to a different standard and am pretty much okay with Muppets being added any and everywhere. Double standard? Perhaps. But the Muppets deserve our love and appreciation whenever possible.
ALL of that said, after visiting the Regal Eagle yesterday, the Muppet representation, or Muppetation if you will, is really minimal. There is a small Sam Eagle in the sign logo, and 4 framed drawings of a different Muppet at each of the 4 types of barbecue represented inside the restaurant. To the left of the registers there is a sillhouette portrait of Sam Eagle and Gonzo. That was really all I saw. The rest of the decor is all early-American art and informational posters of meat cuts etc. So much more “bbq” themed than Muppets.
What struck me was the weird juxtaposition of the original colonial columns and more Georgian architecture from Liberty Inn now contrasted with brick work and very casual bbq-joint type decor, mixed with old Americana kitchen accoutrements like pot-bellied stoves and old kitchen furniture. So it’s kind of an odd space visually speaking, but I know they had to work with what they had and the bones of the existing Liberty Inn. It certainly didn’t affect our experience, just something I noticed while sitting there.
Regal Eagle Food
Back to the food options! So you may have heard about or seen the giant smoker that was installed outside the Regal Eagle, as a showpiece/centerpiece. It’s a huge double smoker and we were there on day two and the smoker was still not working. We asked at the bar outside and they said it is a functional smoker but as of now is not being used yet. So I’m not sure if they are planning to set it up soon, if it will always just be a display thing, or if they will perhaps just pipe in a smoker scented smellitzer and some smoke machine effects?
So that said, they are not smoking the bbq meats you can order outside in that smoker. As far as the meats they offered, Christian enjoyed his brisket, and the photos and reviews I’ve seen of the other options all seem to be favorable. I ordered the BBQ Jackfruit Burger, which is made with a Beyond Burger, topped with bbq’d jackfruit, the plant-based replacement for a “pulled pork/chicken” type of bbq. The best part for me was that it was served on Texas Toast. Garlic bread may perhaps be my downfall as a human, and it really added to the burger rather than a plain bun. I’m not a huge jackfruit fan, it’s a texture thing for me, but the flavor was good. The beyond burger was a beyond burger.
While I appreciate the availability and the way that this burger helps meat eaters try something plant-based, a beyond burger has a very distinctive flavor that really overpowers everything it touches. Again, I’m grateful we have an option, but I’d love if Disney chefs started creating their own veggie burgers with natural ingredients as a choice for vegetarians and vegans who are interested in a good burger, not necessarily a meat replacement. But I digress.
We ordered:
Sliced Texas Beef Brisket Sandwich Rubbed with our secret Brisket Rub then Slow-smoked and smothered in Spicy Mop Sauce, and placed between Garlic Toast and served with your choice of side.
BBQ Jackfruit Burger Plant-based Burger on Garlic Toast topped with BBQ Jackfruit served with your choice of side.
As well as a few side items and deserts (Hint, pickles may have been present). (Click on photos to view larger size)
BBQ Jackfruit with fries and pickles
BBQ Brisket with fries
Regal Eagle BBQ Sauces
BBQ Jackfruit with fries and pickles
Regal Eagle S’mores brownie
BBQ Jackfruit with fries and pickles
One of the two bbq sauce/ketchup stations
Regal Eagle Kids Menu and Drinks Menu
Regal Eagle Menu with Desserts
Sauces:
The BBQ sauces were nothing really stand out, but as a fast-casual option, they need to appeal to the masses. The “Cook-off” theme comes in to play here with the different sauces being regional representations of bbq styles. A classic pit bbq sauce, a vinegar based sauce, a sweet-but-spicy choice, and a sweet mustard sauce. Those sauce types are the same represented on the walls as you walk in. A Muppet is displaced as the winner of each cook-off style. That’s about it for the cook-off theming so I feel like the slogan of “A Salute to all cook-offs but mostly barbecue” is a bit of a misnomer. They do have the side items of house made pickles, mac and cheese, beans with burnt ends, cole slaw, and seasoned fries. However I view a “cook-off” as many more options.
Side Items:
Speaking of sides, as noted in our video, there’s a bit of a discrepancy with value of sides. You get one side with an entree. Certainly a side of pickles is not in the same range as the fries, mac and cheese, or single slice of garlic bread. Same with the desserts. There is the S’mores Brownie, the Banana Pudding, and for vegans or those wanting a healthy option, cut up watermelon.
My order of watermelon was the extreme rind end of things. Very pale pink and almost too hard to bite into. That was disappointing for $5, the same price as the brownie or pudding.
Final Thoughts before the Regal Eagle Smokehouse Do’s and Don’t’s:
So overall, my thoughts on Regal Eagle is that it’s a fun addition to the America pavilion. If you are a bbq fan, you’ll enjoy it here. If you are a bbq connoisseur, you’d find more authentic styles at Polite Pig or off property altogether. From the looks of Christian’s S’mores brownie, that’s worth a visit. As are the seasoned fries and pickles in my opinion. I’d like to give the salad a try with the chicken on the side for my husband haha.
Craft Drafts Outdoor Bar
The official name of this restaurant is Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts and Barbecue. So if you’re here for the craft drafts, you will enjoy the new outdoor bar windows. There are a few options inside, but even more outside, including some frozen mixed drinks as well. I’m not a big beer drinker (as mentioned on our City Works review) but even I am intrigued by the cider on tap, and may have to try that out next visit. In any event, it’s a fun addition that I’m sure many will enjoy. This whole new addition is really just like a permanent location for the Epcot International Flower and Garden and Food and Wine Festival offerings for the American Pavilion, so I’m sure they will be immensely popular.
Regal Eagle Craft Drafts Outdoor Bar
Regal Eagle Smokehouse Do’s and Don’t’s
Do’s
Definitely the atmosphere, the seating indoor and out is fun and functional.
Drink Stations and sauce stations, a plus.
House Made Pickles, I loved them, maybe not for $4.99 tho.
Garlic Texas Toast, yes please.
Outdoor bar – a win!
Dont’s
Side of Garlic Bread. Be aware that not all sides are created equal. $4.99 for 1 slice of store-bought garlic bread? No thanks.
Watermelon, $4.99 for unripe/rind ends of watermelon is a no from me.
Sauces – don’t go in expecting to find hand-crafted artisinal bbq sauces. These are just standard food supply sauces as you would expect at a quick-serve/counter service/fast-casual location.
Are you planning a visit to the Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Draft and Barbecue? Let me know what you’re most looking forward to trying, of if you’ve been, what you enjoyed or didn’t!
Here’s our vlog from our visit if you’d like so see what it’s like to experience Regal Eagle BBQ:
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It may be bold of me to say, but in my opinion, Pixar has somewhat of a rough track record. I think they succeed pretty well at making entertaining films. But only a few have been notably exceptional. Onward is in an interesting position to review. I’m still not entirely sure whether I liked all of it or not.
THE QUEST BEGINS..
I had absolutely no expectations of this movie before watching it. I enjoy Tom Holland and Chris Pratt on their own well enough, but I hadn’t really even been following much of the promotion for the movie. Some of the art looked fun, and I really enjoyed the music choice for the trailer – which is honestly enough to sell me most of the time (and why I plan on seeing F9).
I knew I would inevitably see Onward anyway because the trailer starts with 5 letters and a little lamp jumping on screen. That’s what begins the issues with Onward for me, conceptually.
The past couple Pixar releases have felt off, personally. I still haven’t seen the Good Dinosaur, I missed Finding Dory until 3 years later, Cars 3 was bad, and Toy Story 4 just felt like a tech demo for their animation interns to work on that they accidentally released.
And even though I did actually like Finding Dory, Incredibles 2, and Coco, they did still feel a bit lazy. Pixar definitely has a particular format they like to stick to – I won’t blame them, it seems to work commercially every time. But Onward is the 22nd film in their collection of releases, and honestly feels exactly the same as 98% of them.
Onward seems like it missed the mark on quite a few subjects to me. The art style feels weird, to be blunt. In a world with actual magic and fantasy characters, I don’t see the need to give every character an odd humanoid face, even if they have only one absurdly large eye.
It all looks a little odd, and I wish they would’ve done something a bit more creative. The main character of the film even looks like a recolor of Linguini from Ratatouille, which is something that I would think they could avoid.
But my disagreements with the world don’t stop there. Something about the atmosphere just feels kind of cheesy and almost lame. For all intents and purposes, the setting of the film is really doing the same job as that of Shrek, which somehow seems to pull it off more convincingly. That’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d be able to write.
What I did manage to like from the atmosphere of Onward is honestly just because I enjoy the fantasy genre as a whole. It could’ve been anything on screen but if they were doing magic with wizards and pulling out D&D terms I would be on board. There is certainly a bit of charm that comes along with the Pixar touch, but I don’t think this is something that had to try incredibly hard to pull off.
And that’s my biggest issue of all – it felt pretty easy. The art style was incredibly similar to things they’ve done before (even to things the Director had made before with the studio). The score was safe and almost nonexistent in some parts.
The things the “Inclusion Team” allegedly insured were in the movie were really bare minimum and easily modifiable for foreign markets that still don’t accept characters being openly gay. All of this making it all feel very unnecessary and almost as if they were forced to include them but were graded on completion, not accuracy.
ANCIENT HISTORY
So what’s the issue, really? Well, co-star of our Up the Waterfall podcast, Scott Otis, pointed out to me that Pixar has had a couple years in the past with two releases: The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out, Cars 3 and Coco, and now Onward and Soul. So statistically, maybe I’m just not a fan of Onward so that I can be a fan of Soul.
But in all seriousness, I didn’t hate everything about Onward. There were some funny moments, and I think even Pixar’s worst is always an entertaining time. There are definitely people who will like this. But for me, it just feels like another tired attempt for Pixar to play it safe and stick to their patented Pixar-style punch-you-in-the-gut emotional coming of age stories based on half-baked “What if?” ideas.
I would love to see them do something different, and take a massive risk. With the massive budget and solid teamwork they now have, I’m surprised they’ve stuck to this format for so long. The Pixar Sparkshorts on Disney+ are an interesting first attempt at this, but none have really stood out to me on their own, and they definitely feel like something that a small team makes every month or so on their lunch breaks.
Pixar used to be known for pushing the medium of animation forward with compelling new takes. Their films were a fun break from the typical cliches of family animation. Now they’re essentially pushing out Disney’s B-stories that don’t get the bigger spotlight. And sequels.
So is Pixar truly taking a step backward with Onward? It depends on how much you’re able to relate to all of their stories – for me, not a whole lot. Or how much an emotional ending is enough to convince you you liked the movie on your way out of the theater. Again, not much here for me. Maybe it just depends on how much you’re able to enjoy a kids’ movie without thinking about it too much. And clearly I can’t.
Join us for another fun vlog as we review the new City Works Eatery at Disney Springs. This is the newest restaurant at Disney Springs, located next to the new NBA Experience. With over 90 craft beers on tap, City Works Eatery and Pour House makes for a fun addition of American sports-bar style flair to your vacation.
City Works currently has nine locations across the country in cities and towns including Fort Worth, Tex.; Frisco, Tex.; King of Prussia, Pa.; Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Schaumburg, Ill.; Tysons, Va.; Wheeling, Ill.; and Vernon Hills, Ill. With 90 local and global beers on tap, the restaurant offers a wide range of rare and unique craft selections. All locations are open for brunch, lunch and dinner, and prices range from $13-$20 for lunch and $15-$28 for dinner.
City Works will have 30-40% of its draft beer taps dedicated to local breweries and eight wines on draft. It will also offer a seasonally changing cocktail menu and a fully stocked bar, plus a whiskey list. Guests can enjoy Happy Hour specials, including $2 off well drinks, local craft beers and glasses of wine, and $7 bar bites Monday through Thursday 3-6 p.m. Drink specials also are available 10 p.m.-midnight.
The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Thursday 11 a.m.-midnight, Friday 11 a.m.-1 a.m., Saturday 10:30 a.m.-1 a.m. and Sunday 10:30 a.m.-midnight. It also offers brunch dishes on the weekends 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
There’s a new great romantic classic to watch on Valentine’s Day this year. The Photograph is one I’m excited to review.
Regardless of me being graciously invited to this screening, I would have no doubt made plans to see this film on my own. The Photograph features Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield, two stars whose work has never been shy of amazing in my eyes. That fact alone was enough to sell me on it.
Luckily there was so much more in store.
A NEW ROMANCE
If you’ve seen any trailers for The Photograph, then you’ll know the basic plot – a reporter profiling a man in Louisiana finds there’s more to the story than he initially thought.
I’ll cut right to the chase, The Photograph isn’t anything incredibly groundbreaking. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be. For someone who’s always enjoyed this type of movie, The Photograph really worked. It’s the kind of movie that helps you remember what’s important, what’s worth committing to, and what’s worth sometimes leaving behind.
The romance genre is ready for another powerhouse like The Notebook, and I think The Photograph could fill that position. If nothing else, I at least appreciate the growing list of romantic films named after everyday items.
Of course it wouldn’t be a review by me if I didn’t mention the soundtrack, and this one was nice. There’s not very much in the way of a score (though what was there I did enjoy), but the actual songs used throughout really add to the overall mood. It’s something to get you in the mood that you can just vibe to, and felt very natural.
A GRAND PERFORMANCE
As I hinted at before, I’ll see literally anything with LaKeith Stanfield. And I’m a big Issa Rae fan too. Their performances in this were top notch.
The connection they had was genuine, and you felt as if they had actually been through this, and were experiencing this in real time. I honestly would not have been surprised if I had walked out of the theater, opened twitter, and saw they were actually dating. They felt that real.
And they weren’t the only ones! Rob Morgan and Chanté Adams have great chemistry too. Their characters add a surprising amount of depth that I didn’t anticipate, but certainly appreciated.
To top it off, when the movie was funny, it was funny. The whole cast felt like they had experience in comedic roles for the stage – that is to say, the pacing of the comedic moments felt really great, which is something that usually I can’t say for mainstream comedy.
THE PHOTOGRAPH
Overall, expect to laugh, expect to cry, and expect to enjoy it. There are some movies I see where I just get to enjoy them, and writing a review for The Photograph was one of those times. January is always a fun time at the theaters because it’s right after the heavy awards season, and movies can just be movies for fun. And this one was certainly fun.
The Seven Seas Food Festival will begin soon at SeaWorld Orlando!
Coming this spring, guests will be able to experience a festival of fun, food, and music at SeaWorld Orlando. Every weekend during the event, concerts will be held at 6pm at the Bayside Stadium.
THE LINEUP!
· March 7 – AJR
· March 8 – Dylan Scott
· March 14 – Hunter Hayes
· March 15 – Joe Nichols
· March 21 – YES and Alan Parsons Live Project
· March 22 – Edwin McCain
· March 28 – Gin Blossoms
· March 29 – Village People
· April 4 – Jesse McCartney
· April 5 – Gretchen Wilson
· April 11 – Scotty McCreery
· April 12 – Jeremy Camp
· April 18 – Everclear
· April 19 – Grand Funk Railroad and BLUE ÖYSTER CULT
· April 25 – Vanilla Ice and C&C Music Factory
· April 26 – Chris Janson
· May 2 – Billy Ray Cyrus
· May 3 – Sean Paul
All of these performances are included with the price of admission! But for the most exclusive experiences, reserved seating can be purchased online. Additionally, there’ll be a plethora of fun new food items at the event, and the full menu can be viewed on SeaWorld’s website.
The SeaWorld Orlando Seven Seas Food Festival begins February 7th, and lasts Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through May 3rd.
Of course, be sure to keep an eye out for the new ICEBREAKER attraction coming this year as well!
Now you may be asking yourself, “Disney’s Sangria University, what’s that?!” First of all, your reaction would be totally understandable because I didn’t know the answer to that myself until a few days ago!
EDIT 2/22/21: Disney just announced that Sangria University is reopened! The experience had been closed due to the pandemic, but it is now again available for guests to book. To find out more, email WDW.Sangria.University@disney.com to request a reservation or set up a private session. Continue reading for what the experience was like when we tried it last year!
You can also watch our accompanying video of Sangria University below, to see just what it’s like to attend this fabulous Disney recreational activity!
Since I hadn’t heard of Sangria University before, I wanted to tell you all about it. Keep reading to learn where to find this experience, and if it’s worth spending your time and money on! Now let’s get right to the facts and figures!
4 different sangria samples you get to enjoy!
What is Sangria University?
Sangria University is a separately booked experience where you get to sample four different sangria types and then make your own sangria! You’ll hear some fun info from your bartender/class leader and receive a certificate at the end! Each session holds 14-15 people.
What’s included in Sangria University?
When you arrive, you are seated with 4 glasses of sangria to sample (these are a good size too) and then create your own sangria in one of the gorgeous balloon glasses from the Dahlia Lounge and Toledo.
You also get an appetizer sample to enjoy during the class. The Lentil Hummus appetizer, which has a harissa topping and pepitas on top. It is normally served with pita triangles, but since I’m vegan, it came with sliced cucumber and carrot sticks to enjoy the hummus with.
Finally, you are presented with a personalized Certificate of Mastery too!
Tinto Sangria
Sparkling Sangria made with Cava
Rosado Sangria made with Rose wine
Blanco Sangria made with white wine
Three Bridges Lentil Hummus vegan version with cucumbers and carrots
The create your own Sangria ingredients
Recipe and info cards from Sangria University
Where is Sangria University?
You’ll attend this interactive activity at the Three Bridges Bar and Grill, at Villa del Lago, which is right in the middle of Lago Dorado, the lake at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. Three Bridges has been open for a little while now and is a wonderful addition to the already amazing dining and lounge choices at Coronado Springs. This would be a perfect mid-day pick-me-up before a dinner at Toledo in Gran Destino Tower, or you could just pop back over for dinner at Three Bridges too!
When is Sangria University?
The sessions currently take place on Saturdays from 2:30-3:30pm. If this offering becomes really popular, that time could change or more times/days could be added, so check back to see if there have been any updates. Edited to add: We just heard from the Proprietor of Three Bridges Bar and Grill and they have committed to adding Sundays to the Sangria University Schedule, so you can reserve Sundays from 2:30-3:30pm as well now!
How Much is Sangria University?
$45 per person inclusive of tax. For that price, you get all of the drinks mentioned above, the appetizer, and the personalized certificate at the end.
You can also add additional liquors to your sangria creation, which at the time of posting were $4 each.
There are currently no discounts accepted for Sangria University (so no Tables in Wonderland, Annual Pass, DVC, or Cast discounts).
Salud!
How Do I Book Sangria University?
At this time, you cannot book on the My Disney Experience or on the Disney Dining line or WaltDisneyWorld.com. But, all you have to do to book Sangria University is call the Coronado Springs Resort Recreation line at 407-939-1004 to make the reservation. You can also email Three Bridges Bar & Grill directly at WDW.Sangria.University@disney.com to request a reservation or set up a private session. They also will accept walk-ups if you happen to be at Coronado Springs around that time, if they have any space for the current class.
Can I book a private party for Sangria University?
YES! If you want to book this fun experience for a bridal or engagement shower, a team building event with your company, a birthday party, or just a fun private party with a group of your friends, you can set up a special time and day to experience Sangria University! See above for the email address to set that up.
So there you have it, all the facts! I really enjoyed this experience, and would definitely recommend it for a unique activity to enjoy with the beautiful surroundings of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, learn a little bit, and enjoy some delicious sangria and hummus too.
It’s definitely more of a fun and low-key session, not super heavy on the traditions of sangria or history. In fact, all of the sangria that you sample are created by the Three Bridges, so they aren’t tied to any one traditional blend. It’s a great way to enjoy 4 very different ways to experience sangria, and even more exciting that you get to try your hand at blending your own flavors!
Special Thanks to Athena from Three Bridges Bar & Grill for inviting my friend Amanda from VeganDisneyFood out to experience this, and to Amanda for asking me to join her! We were provided with a complimentary session, however, my thoughts and opinions are, as always, my own!
Have you experienced Sangria University?
What did you think? What about any other unique resort offerings?
Let us know in the comments below if you have, or plan to be, a graduate soon!
We explore what it takes to become a true Disney villain – even though that may just consist of riding a few rides and eating a hotdog or two. Look, there’s only so much we can do, this villainy thing is hard work.
Disclosure: Disney hosted us for this event, but these opinions are our own!
We take a look at some of the exciting new things coming to 2020 Epcot for the Festival of the Arts, and see special appearances by Gavin Lee and Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald!
Disclosure: Disney hosted us for this event, but these opinions are our own!
I feel like there are a few things I should preface before this review. I am into theater, and really like musicals (I even liked the Tom Hooper version of Les Miserables), so I had already obviously been aware of Cats 2019. When the trailer came out, I think people reacted poorly because the characters look like people – not cats – but that’s what the original is, so it didn’t bother me at all.
But this is about where my knowledge ends. Other than the ‘Memory’ song, and the general idea that there wasn’t really much of a plot in the stage show, I had no prior impressions.
That being said, as the days counted down to my viewing of this movie, I found myself getting more and more excited about the prospect of seeing it. Let me be clear, in the four days before this movie, I watched all 10 previous Star Wars movies, and then attended a showing of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and somehow was *still* more blindly excited for Cats. I was prepared for it to be a trainwreck that was funny in how bad it was, and mostly laughable because of the absurdity of it all. Surprisingly this was not the case.
Cats 2019 lives in a weird place in my head, because unlike all other things I’ve properly reviewed, I don’t necessarily ‘like it’ or ‘not like it’. There are a few movies like this for me – when you see 60+ new releases in the year, it happens. But I didn’t think Cats would be one of them.
Jellicle Cats
There are certainly a few things that really bothered me, but there were more than a few things that I did really enjoy. When this movie works, it really works. I think Tom Hooper did an excellent job in transferring this adaptation to the screen, and more so, Andy Blankenbuehler did an incredible job in modernizing the performances – but I’ll elaborate on that later.
So, let me begin with the few things that bothered me. One of the more annoying ones is hard to describe. I’m inclined to say ‘the cast,’ but I don’t know that having anyone different could’ve fixed the issue.
If you’ve seen any of the trailers you’ll be very aware of the star-power of this movie. Dame Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba, James Corden, the list goes on. Most of these celebrities play really very minor roles in the movie, and are more used to get people to come see it – as in, “Come see Cats starring Rebel Wilson” rather than, “Come see Cats, with the strange singing CGI animals.” But even with these minor roles, characters like Rebel Wilson-cat and James Corden-cat still manage to feel annoying and unnecessary. None of their one-liner “funny” banter occurred in any of the songs, and as a result felt like more of an obligation from the producers than an actual moment from the director.
The single thing that bothered me the most, though, was the scale. That is, the sizing of objects in relation to the cats, or even in relation to other objects. It’s one thing if a stage production of Cats the Musical has props that aren’t all directly proportionate to the cats themselves or the set around them, but when the $95M budget film version does it, it comes off as absurd.
It sounds like a minor gripe, but it really was very noticeable in some parts of the movie. It’s very hard to describe in text alone, but even if you’re not looking for it, I think you’ll definitely see it when you watch the movie. It’s even visible in some shots of the trailer – look at the surrounding objects and scenery during the Rebel Wilson shots.
Musical Cats
The last thing I wasn’t the biggest fan of, was the new original song. For the soundtrack of this version, they actually stayed mostly true to the 80s-synth-style backing tracks of the original, which I think made it a lot more fun and exciting. It certainly worked with the visual look they were trying to go for. But, as is the case with movie musicals, they added a new song that was not in the original. This track, ‘Beautiful Ghosts,’ was co-written by Taylor Swift and original composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, and it’s very easy to tell who wrote which parts.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a very big Taylor Swift fan, but when this very stylized neon-dreamscape musical experience turns into a Taylor Swift music video halfway through, it feels very out of place. The same could be said about Swift’s take on the ‘Macavity’ track from the original. I like her songs, but she doesn’t have a very theatrical voice, and as a result, that otherwise totally fine scene feels like Taylor Swift running around in a cat outfit.
Conversely, as I started to say, I really enjoyed nearly all of the rest of the songs. Jason Derulo and Jennifer Hudson are the major players here, and they really make it worth their while. James Corden obviously entertains. But this starts to touch on another issue I had, the lack of spotlight for the rest of its cast.
Theatrical Cats
The ‘main character’ of the movie is played by Francesca Hayward, a principal ballerina at the Royal Ballet, but she isn’t shown very often. I’m okay with this because she’s actually the most uninteresting of all of the cats – her character isn’t in the original, she just plays the role of the audience, to whom many of the songs are directly sung in the original. But I think the best performances come from Robbie Fairchild and Laurie Davidson. They have gotten absolutely zero public press, but are far and away the most entertaining members of the cast.
Visually this movie is a treat, if you can look past the scaling issue. With Andy Blankenbuehler – of Hamilton and In the Heights fame – it’s no surprise the choreography was amazing. Even the simple addition of tail-choreography (something not possible in the stage version), works so well. I noticed too that the director was very successful in making the audience aware of the position of each independent cat at all times, a sure challenge with such a large ensemble that’s always on screen. This made it feel like a stage production that was just filmed, rather than a movie version of a musical.
Fantastical Cats
I thought the experience, as a whole, was fun. It has its lows, which every production does, but it never stopped being entertaining. That’s what makes it so conflicting to rank amongst other movies this year. Was it bad? Aspects, yes. I didn’t even touch on the objectively off-putting CGI, but that’s because during some parts of the movie it’s not even noticeable because of how fun the numbers are. But it wasn’t terrible by any means.
I think if you don’t like musicals, you won’t like Cats, because the barrier to entry is pretty unforgiving, even for the stage version. But if you do, you’re likely already able to look past all of its shortcomings to appreciate the parts you will like even more.
Maybe the real cat was the friends we made along the way.
