Tom Hooper's movie Cats arrived in theaters in December, and promptly broke the internet. The reaction to the Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation has been strong, as the wild musical combined with digital fur technology and the movie's scale polarized moviegoers. Cats recently arrived early via video on demand, allowing cinephiles to re-examine the viral movie. Rumors of the "butthole cut" have also emerged over the past few weeks, claiming the VFX team added said body part to the actors at some point during the editing process. And now we know a bit more about how and why said buttholes were discovered.
Calls for Cats' butthole cut began a few weeks ago, when someone on Twitter claiming to know a VFX artist let slip that the singing cats were made atomically correct. The internet soon began riffing from this news and referencing Justice League's long awaited Snyder Cut, resulting in #ButtholeCut trending on social media. One crew member from Cats recently revealed how said buttholes were reportedly found, and the story is truly bananas. As the anonymous crew member put it,
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.
Talk about a crazy day at work. One minute you're transforming Oscar-winning Jennifer Hudson into Grizabella, and the next you're discovering a slew of buttholes that somehow snuck into the movie. And that, ladies and gents, is why the public has been so Cats crazy over the past few months. It's just too entertaining.
The anonymous crew member's comments to The Daily Beast seems to corroborate the original story. It seems that editors one day discovered the subtle buttholes on cast members while preparing Cats for its theatrical release. Their origin remains a mystery, but VFX artists did have to go in and edit out that part of the dancers' bodies. After all, the movie already featured anthropomorphic cats, cockroaches, and mice. Including buttholes would just be too much.
The mystery surrounding Cats' rumored butthole cut has been ever changing since it was first revealed. One VFX professional refuted the rumors, claiming that any buttholes were actually just strange folds in the digital fur that needed to be adjusted. Universal itself hasn't given an official ruling, but posted an amusing response once #ReleaseTheButtholeCut started trending.
Most recently, a fan added some buttholes to footage from Cats, to hilarious results. And as the situation continues to unfold, there are sure to be more revelations coming from those who worked on the movie musical.
Cats is available on DVD and Blu-ray now. Be sure to check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
