#cats amblimation

[ultrakeencollectionbreadfan]

Recently, a bunch of model sheets for Amblimation's unmade Cats movie were uncovered by @eye-may. I recently had the pleasure of looking at them, and wanted to show you some of my favorites:

Grizabella looks pretty much exactly how I expected her to look. I don't really have any qualms about this one.

This version of Macavity is the one that really stood out the most to me. I like the simplicity.

Old Deuteronomy, like Grizabella, looks pretty much how I expected him to look. I don't really have any complaints about this one.

Oddly enough, I think this image of Demeter is the one I like best. Also, judging by the fact that all the images of Demeter we get here have no stripes, I think they were going to combine her and Victoria's characters.

These are supposed to be Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. Reportedly, Steven Spielberg wanted them to be the protagonists of the movie, and it shows here.

I like this version of Rum Tum Tugger the best, since I feel it best captures his raw energy.

On the other hand, I do like the idea of Rum Tum Tugger having a fanboy!

Out of all the Mistoffelees designs on these model sheets, I liked this one best, since it looks the least silly out of all of them. Mr. Mistoffelees is not supposed to be a silly character.

Gus the Theatre Cat looks just perfect here!

I'm not sure how they could include Growltiger in this movie; after all, he isn't actually a living character. Maybe a flashback?

Well, those are my two cents. If you want to see more (or if you don't believe me) click on the above link and find out.

[eye-may]

Never-before-published model sheets for canned Amblin Cats movie 🐈‍⬛✏️👁️

Hi all. As promised, I am sharing a comprehensive .PDF of model sheets that were created for the Amblimation Cats movie that never saw the light of day. Most of these model sheets have not been published or posted anywhere on the internet as far as I'm aware. I'm going to get ahead of some questions for the good of the order:

Are these real? I certainly didn't sit and create all 117 pages myself for the sake of an elaborate hoax!

How did you get these? I work in the animation industry. A senior coworker caught wind of my cats obsession and said he had the Xeroxes and asked if I wanted him to bring them in. Internally, I flipped my shit. And then I digitized his hard copies.

How did your coworker get these? They were found in the library of the university he used to go to. (Not super unusual at an arts school in southern California.) He made photo copies back then and has been holding onto them. The thing is he knows nothing about CATS; isn't a CATS fan, never seen it, etc. I guess he just felt it was something worth holding on to!

Can you upload better quality? Unfortunately what you're seeing as good as the quality gets. These are scans of photocopies from the 90s. There is nothing to be done for the crunchiness.

What about (missing characters)? I'm showing you everything I was personally given!

Which character is (nondescript drawing of a cat)? If the image isn't labeled, your guess is as good as mine! I put all the misc./unlabeled cats in the back of the PDF. The only exceptions are ones that I felt were abundantly obviously supposed to be a specific character.

Who are the artists? Unfortunately, there's no way I can tell for sure. None of the sheets are signed. I wouldn't even go about guessing because many concept artists can perfectly emulate more "well known" illustrators whose styles were sought after. My coworker said he might be able to figure out who the draftsmen were; until then it's a mystery! If I find out, I will come back to this post and update it with that information.

Are these all the model sheets ever? No! In fact, there are model sheets that have been posted online that are not in the bundle I was given. I have no idea of the sum total of model sheets in existence.

Where's the link?! Here it is! Have fun kitties!

[sandytrish008]

Fanart based on the sequels of An American Tail: Fievel goes West and The Treasure of Manhattan Island, I liked them both a lot! 🐭

[merry-melody]

[tenjad129]

THE GIRL MOUSE THAT ROARED

In this edited clip from the 1992 Fievel's American Tails episode, 'Little Mouse on the Prairie' (S01E03, 1992, Nelvana, Amblin, Universal), Fievel Mousekewitz's cat friend Tiger hears a sound from Fievel's sister Tanya Mousekewitz, while the three little brother and sister mice were being trapped inside a log by a mountain lion...only, she literally roars like a lion!

And really, talk about a mouse that roared!

And of course you know that real mice just can't roar like lions can roar! Instead, they might emit high pitched squeaks at best!

With the voice talents of Cathy Cavadini (Tanya), Phillip Glasser (Fievel) and the late Dom DeLuise (Tiger).

[magical-mr]

kitty cats :3

somewhat inspired by the amblimation designs, i got macavity's entire shtick from those sketches for practice but the rest were just me playing around w that sort of style

[chaifootsteps]

Even though the 2019 movie proved Cats doesnt work as a tradition movie, I think it could have worked as a series. Did you ever seen the concept sketches that were done for the cancelled animated movie? I believe they were drawn by Don Bluth and I would have loved to have seen them fully animated

Oh, I think it could have absolutely worked as a movie that wasn't objectively hideous. Fully animated or made by hooking up a bunch of dancers to motion capture and then slapping it on some CGI cats? I'd watch the hell out of that.

(Also, it was Stephen Spielberg and Amblimation.)

[white-cat-of-doom]

A newsprint advertisement from Variety magazine the week of 27 June 1990 announcing plans for an animated motion picture of CATS.

The venture was to see Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment collaborate to produce the feature, which as we are aware never came to fruition for a variety of reasons. This initial project was cancelled during development in 1992, but revived again in 1994 for a tentative release in 1997, and then fully scrapped during the second development period when Amblimation folded. This paved the way for the 1998 film to be created by The Really Useful Group under Andrew.

However, 22 years later, a revived Amblin Entertainment was one of the producers of the 2019 motion picture, bringing together the concept art and setting (and possibly more) to actually see this project to the light of day, although probably not as initially envisioned close to three decades before.

Interestingly, I own two different versions of this same promotional advertisement, showing that there was a push to inform people of the major collaboration.

The good news is that we now have two major films instead of just the one!

[vincent-marie]

Fanimatics. The next best thing to the Amblimation CATS movie that we never got.

[theimpossiblescheme]

Here's a question for the Cats fandom--since Amblimation (the studio that was supposed to produce the animated movie forever ago) no longer exists, which animation team would you want to see make the movie now?

[pinksilvace]

Most of this is based on information from this page on the Cats wiki because I don't really have the energy to search for more at the moment. First, let's just appreciate this section:

Imagine. Imagine. I think about what an aristocats-style Cats would look like every single day. This version, though, wouldn't have had Webber's music.

Anyway, when Amblimation (animation studio founded by Spielberg) got the go-ahead to make an adaptation of the musical, the initial plan was to use a lot of new characters and such, which... okay. Sure. Maybe it would have worked. We'll never know.

Promotional materials for this project date back as far as 1990. By 1994, the studio was supposed to begin on a feature-length film for release in 1997. Production reportedly began by sometime in 1995. Then, Amblimation shut down in 1997, thus leading to the project's demise. In its place, Cats '98 was released.

In terms of whether I would have preferred to get one over the other, I'm glad '98 exists; it's as close to a "definitive" version of the show as we might ever get. Considering that some of the creative team, including Spielberg himself, went on to contribute to 2019, the original vision for the animated film might not have been something I liked at all, but I'm not actually sure how much input these folks had.

But oh, gosh, the concept art. The concept art.

This isn't to say that this adaptation would have been perfect. Far from it. The information we do have leads me to believe that certain aspects would come across in a less than ideal (read: racist) way, but I'd be a liar if I said the style wasn't alluring.

I know a number of artists here on tumblr have tried their hand at redesigning Cats characters for hypothetical animated projects, and they look fantastic.

Going back to the original question: do I think an animated adaptation of Cats should be made? I would certainly like one. I think it would have the potential to be fantastic.

The biggest argument I see against doing something like this is that the dance aspect of Cats would be lost or, at the very least, diminished. It all depends on how different folks view the show, but I personally enjoy Cats because of set design, costume design, and character interactions - things that could all translate very easily into an animated film. Besides, I think that 2D hand-drawn animation is the most dynamic visual medium out there, and even if the characters weren't outright dancing in this hypothetical film - which they very well could - the visual style alone could simulate a similar feeling.

At this point, I simply must shout out the Cats 2019 re-animated fan project - some of the clips in there show INCREDIBLE movement, even the ones clearly meant for laughs. Or, think about Lackadaisy! Visual style just isn't a concern in my mind for this hypothetical.

An animated film would be able to give pointed emphasis to certain character interactions, which is what I'd personally be looking forward to most. Even just imagining an animated Munkustrap interacting with the kittens fills me with excitement, and oh, gosh, the kittens! If nobody had told me that Pouncival, Victoria, Tumblebrutus, Electra, Etcetera, and George are kittens, I might not have ever guessed it for myself because 1) they're obviously played by adults, and 2) most of them blend into the chorus. Little clarity problems like that could be solved instantly.

This is all without mentioning how different characters could be made to better resemble siblings, to convey facial emotion, and just express personality, family, and thought through visual design alone.

I think I might start repeating myself, so I'll just say that I think an animated Cats film could be incredible IF it's directed by somebody that actively enjoys the source material and appreciates everything that it builds up. This is a character-driven show, after all, so somebody that doesn't understand the characters (cough Tom Hooper cough) wouldn't make a faithful adaptation at all.

Do you ever think they should make an animated Cats musical?

Bestie I am forever mourning the canceled 1990s Spielberg Cats adaptation

[ultrakeencollectionbreadfan]

Character concept art for Steven Spielberg and Amblimation’s unmade Cats movie, 1997.

[punster-2319]

Balto 25th Anniversary

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Amblimation’s 3rd (and final) movie Balto. Like many non-Disney animated films at the time, Balto under performed during its theatrical release (being overshadowed by Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story at the time), but has since gained a cult following through home video and tv airings over the years.

[xenoredux]

Unfortunately there will be no fan project for February! In fact, I don’t plan to start another one til April this year so I can focus on some original creations. But for the sake of fun, I WILL be taking requests for Balto and Into the Wild art all month long. I can’t promise anything given it’ll be done in my down time, but I’ll do my best to create at least some that I get. Feel free to send suggestions via the ask box! I’ll ping you if/when I complete your request.

[tenjad129]

A Tim Box Production: A Dream Logo Animatic Idea of Mine

Now, to round up the year 2024 before 2025 begins in the next five days from now....

Yes, it's only just an idea of mine as well as being, a primitively rough animatic for an animated dream logo for my very own dream production company, sure, and yes, I haven't even set it all up yet in the foreseeable future, and yes, sure, the name "Tim Box" may actually referred to a container made out of tinplate metal, but anyway...

If An American Tail's very popular Fievel Mousekewitz mouse character had once graced the closing logo for legendary Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg's short-lived London, England, UK-based Amblimation studio (active between 1989 (a full year after the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and 1997 (leaving behind three completed movies and an unrealized animated musical version of Cats (not to be confused with the notorious 2019 film of the same name), and being the ancestor of today's DreamWorks, the studio behind the Shrek movies) at the very end of 1991's An American Tail: Fievel Goes West as well as at the very end of two other films called We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Balto (1993 and 1995, respectively)…

Then why not have the Fievel Goes West iterations of Fievel's mouse sisters, Tanya and Yasha, also from the American Tail movies, possibly grace the animated logo for my dream production company "TIM BOX Productions" to help open any of my movie ideas, especially my epic of the Planet of the Toons or perhaps even something else based on and inspired by my early childhood experiences?

Well, here are all 25 panels of my dream logo idea for my dream production company, "TIM BOX Productions" with the Fievel Goes West versions of Tanya and Yasha, the sisters of Fievel Mousekewitz:

And here is the original concept art for the dream logo animatic:

Now, the music starts out very circus-like before moving on to vaguely sexy music when Tanya comes out of the dressing room scene in her the Girl You Left Behind saloon show girl gown and makeup before segueing into a heartwarming orchestral instrumental from James Newton Howard's expanded Disney Dinosaur music (i.e., the Playing Monster cue).

Yes, the TIM BOX Productions dream production company logo animatic is animated very roughly and very primitively done like an actual Leica story reel, but anyway, what do you think of this dream logo animatic of mine?

[chaifootsteps]

MalVa Anon here, coming back from lurking to say that the Cats concept sketches were actually Stephen Spielberg and Amblimation. Still agree with the previous anon, a Cats animated series of vignettes would have slapped. At least we will always have fan animations.

Hi, MalVa Anon! And you're correct. It was Amblimation, the same studio that made Balto.