The Story Behind the CATS 'Butthole Cut' Revealed, as Well as the Negative Experience Working With the Director

This past December, the movie version of the long-running Broadway musical Cats came to the screen. It did terribly in the box office, but the people who did see it had some choice words to say about it. “Fever dream,” “Terrible,” and “What did I just watch?” were phrases that graced many reviews for the film. It went on to unsurprisingly sweep the Razzie Awards, and in a super weird twist, it was recently reported that before the final cut of the film, there was a cut which included buttholes on many of the cats. In true internet fashion, people went crazy for that idea, and #releasethebuttholecut started trending on Twitter.

So while we don’t have that cut for you to watch (because honestly, why?), we have some info about how the cut came to be, what happened to make it go away, and the tumultuous time the crew had working with the director of the film, Tom Hooper, who has directed some incredible movies like The King’s Speech, Les Miserables, and The Danish Girl. Despite his being a solid director in previous films though, this one didn’t turn out as well, and it sounds like he had a real disconnect with his crew.

In a recent report from TheDailyBeast, a source who worked on the film’s visual effects recalled that the movie was halfway done before the buttholes became apparent. They said:

“When we were looking at the playbacks, we were like, ‘What the hell? You guys see that?!’ We paused it. We went to call our supervisor, and we’re like, ‘There’s a fucking asshole in there! There’s buttholes!’ It wasn’t prominent but you saw it… And you [were] just like, ‘What the hell is that?... There’s a fucking butthole in there.’ It wasn’t in your face—but at the same time, too, if you’re looking, you’ll see it.”

They went on to explain:

“There was nobody that said, ‘We want buttholes.’ It was one of those things that just happened and slipped through.”

Well, that’s a relief? But unfortunately, the cat buttholes weren’t the biggest issue in making this film. While Hooper has directed great films in the past, the director had little knowledge or experience about what went into animating and special effects for the film, and he made the jobs of the people who did know what they were doing extremely difficult. The report says a source said the following:

“The director has no idea how animation works—but that did not stop him from sending crew members individual emails denigrating their work.”

They went on to explain the process:

Before visual effects artists fully render sequences for animated films, they normally show directors playblasts—preview renderings that feature characters without color or texture. That allows the director to evaluate the motion before hours of work are done to flesh out things like color, texture, and lighting.

Unfortunately the director didn’t grasp that, and he reacted adversely:

Any time the visual effects team wanted to show the director any animatics, they had to fully render it. Otherwise, he’d say things like, “What’s this garbage?” and “I don’t understand— where’s the fur?”

That sounds like an incredibly frustrating work environment! It sounds like they should have hired a new director, or at least a consultant to be the go-between. It’s too bad there was such a disconnect, because it showed in the final results.

Did you see Cats? Is there anything you think could have been done to save it?