Persuasive outline

Title: Why you should watch cats with someone you hate.
General Purpose: To persuade the audience.
Specific purpose: To persuade the audience that they shouldn’t watch that movie.

Introduction:

A. “Oh God, my eyes — Ty Burr” (Gonzales, 2022).

B. That is an actual review that that movie received, and I cannot agree more with it.
C. It is normal in the cinematographic world to make new versions of existing films and
stories, and this movie was not the exception.
D. There are good remakes and bad remakes of the production of a story, this was a bad
remake, and many people agree on that, but how this movie can get a 3.8 out of 10 (Cats,
2019) in its review, even with the stelar performances of James Corden, Jason Derulo,
Judi Dench, Idris Elba, and even the world wide recognized, acclaimed, and beloved
Taylor Swift?
E. I saw this movie and I can tell you, even if the participation of those actors made the
movie more memorable, it wasn’t in the good sense of the word, probably due to the fact
of seeing one of your favorite actors or famous dresses as a cat while singing and dancing
is not the most common way to perceive them, or probably because I don’t like musicals.
F. But today I’m here to convince you to not watch this movie under any reason, but if you
still want to, watch it with someone you hate, don’t traumatize your friends like I was
traumatized. In order to do that I will discuss:
a. What makes a movie, a good movie.
b. The story of this movie and the musical that was behind it,
c. The different reviews that this movie received.

Transition sentence: “The Cats Movie Is a Boring Disaster Filled With Joyless Pussies — Kevin
Fallon” (Gonzales, 2022).

Body:

A. There are good movies and bad movies, but this is a fact that everyone is aware of, but
what makes a good movie, a proper storyline? The participation of popular figures? Good
CGI? Even good music could be? Well apparently, not, because this movie had these
factors and still was a bad movie, so let's break down what can lead to a good movie.
B. Paul Jenkins defines a good movie “by the several elements that create an engaging and
memorable experience for the viewer.” (Jenkins, 2023).
C. According to the filmmaker and screenwriting Grant Harvey, roughly there are five
elements that can make a good movie:
 a. A good script, a good script will help the production designers to know what
exactly they need to build, who to cast, how to take the shots, give emotions to the
characters without the explicit need for dialogue.
b. “The secret to writing a good movie is writing something familiar that feels new”
Harvey (2023).
c. Having a vision when it comes to directing the movie, all the actions on screen are
made to actually mean something or do something in the movie. The author says
“Good directing, instead, is when the director can guide the choices of every
department toward one singular, cohesive story” Harvey (2023).
d. “No film would be complete without at least some type of human story for us to
relate to.” Harvey (2023).
e. The third element is the actors, the power a performance holds in a movie is huge,
and not necessarily acting, but to give something the audience to relate to.
f. One of the most famous companies that do this and without acting is Pixar, the
way we can connect with the characters, even if it’s a toy.
g. A good movie has great cinematography, every shot follows the emotion and is
placed where we can understand the characters' value in the scene.
h. “It’s not just a pretty picture – it’s a work of art, telling its story in a single
frame.” Harvey (2023).
i. Lastly, how immersive a movie is a factor that shows us how cohesive all the
decisions were, everything should “they feel like their own world, [...] and
everyone involved feel natural to us” Harvey (2023).

Transition sentence: “The movie Cats doesn’t even know what the musical Cats is about — Aja
Romano” (Gonzales, 2022).

A. It is a musical and now movie, based on the work of T. S. Eliot 1939 poetry collection
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (Henry, 2022).
B. This musical has been presented “over 8,107 performances between the original
production and revival productions on Broadway alone, not to mention many more on
tour and around the world.” (Henry, 2022)
C. The story of cats is about this tribe of cats called the Jellicle cats, who reunites one a year
to find which of them will be reborn to have a new “Jellicle life and ascend to the
Heaviside Layer” (Henry, 2022).
D. During the play the cats will be telling their story and stating why they should be the
chosen ones with a song, we have an antagonist Macavity who wants to be the chosen
one and do everything in its power to accomplish it, and our chosen one who despite the
adversity that lives trough is worthy of kindness and love.
E. “At its core, CATS is a musical about accepting one another despite our differences in
appearance.” (Henry, 2022).
 F. The movie remained multiple aspects of the play, only with the addition of new
characters to add more twists to the plot of the original story, many people consider the
play as a classic, and they are right but still, something between the play and the movie
did not work properly.

Transition sentence: Cats “A Tragical Mess of Mistoffelees — Richard Lawson” (Gonzales,

2022).

A. Everyone has their own opinions, but in some cases most of us can agree when something
is off, and a lot of people including myself perceive this movie as a remarkable
experience, but not in the best aspects.
B. “Cats review: Nearly as obscene as The Human Centipede — David Sexton” (Gonzales,
2022).
C. "Even after 110 tumbling, tail-swishing, deeply psychedelic minutes, it’s hard to know if
you ever really knew anything — except that C is for Cats, C is for Crazy, and C is
probably the grade this cinematic lunacy deserves, in the sense of making any sense at
all." Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly (Gonzales, 2022).
D. "There is a strange scene — OK, there are many strange scenes — near the end of 'Cats,'
the flailing feline phantasmagoria coming soon to a movie theater and/or shroom party
near you." Justin Chang of The Los Angeles Times (Gonzales, 2022).
E. It was uncomfortable to watch even if it was just only for the memory, and traumatizing
but true this movie set the ideal example of the “uncanny valley” which is the revulsion
to humanoid figures that look too human but not enough to be mistaken for someone
(Burr, 2019).

Transition sentence: What defines a good movie at the end of the day will always be the
audience, since what is the point of making a movie if nobody will see it?

Conclusion:

A. For me, that movie was stressful to even watch with friends while you joke about the
appearance of the characters and the lack of plot, sincerely I cannot say that after
watching that movie I saw the same Taylor Swift.
B. Certainly, this movie had many things to make it a great movie, but sadly it failed
remarkably, it could be the fact that the movie unlike the play did not fully show what
was the plot of the movie, a problem in the script and cohesiveness of the movie,
probably was the fact that it tried to include too many things that at the end it was a spiral
of cat tails that seemed to not have end.
References:

♦ Gonzales, E. (2022, August 26). These brutal cats reviews are better than the actual
movie. Harper’s BAZAAR.
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a30298304/cats-bad-reviews/
♦ Cats. (2019, December 20). Rotten Tomatoes.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cats_2019
♦ Jenkins, P. (2023, April 24). What is a Good Movie: Defining Cinematic Excellence -
Brilliantio. Brilliantio. https://brilliantio.com/what-is-a-good-movie/
♦ Harvey, G. (2023, October 18). The 5 key ingredients to a good Movie - FilmDaft.
FilmDaft. https://filmdaft.com/the-5-key-ingredients-to-a-good-movie/
♦ Henry, A. (2022, June 3). What is CATS about? Everything you need to know about
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical. BroadwayWorld.com.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Yes-CATS-Has-a-Plot-What-You-Need-To-
Know-About-Andrew-Lloyd-Webbers-Hit-Musical-20190724
♦ Burr, T. (2019, December 19). ‘Oh God, my eyes’: Read Ty Burr’s scathing review of
‘Cats.’ BostonGlobe.com. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/12/18/arts/claws-out/