User blog comment:Belle pullman/So. This film trailer./@comment-40236838-20190722035224/@comment-3182821-20190722103328

The trouble is, how long ago was Monsters Inc? And this trailer has come out next to The Lion King CGI fur-fest. Sure, it's difficult, but they're competing directly against other movies successfully pulling off the same trick.

The lips, I'd do the same thing as onstage - stop making them human-coloured! Simply shade the lips into the face-fur. Don't change the outlines or anything, just the colours.

I am questioning though, how much of John Napier's design influence I just take for granted - I am so close to the costume designs, literally wrote my dissertation on them, I'm making a Tugger cosplay at the moment - I see what's missing that to me, seems obvious that's just how to do it - like the lips. And the fur shape for the heads - I'm looking at my own cat dozing beside me, and it just seems obvious how to make the human heads look more cat-like. And the answer is to do what John Napier's designs did, but it seems more basic than that. It doesn't seem like the head shape is particularly John Napier so much as just... nature.

But! On the other hand, before Cats in 1981, did anyone dressing as a "cat" create that head-shape? I don't think they did. The closest I can bring to mind is the "Cowardly Lion" in Wizard of Oz, but then he wore a mane, of course. Most vintage "cat" costumes include the ears on a hood or band, and the human head shape. They do tend to be much larger ears than we see in the movie though, spaced further apart, giving a more convincing triangular silhouette.

I do hope that these character designs are not the intended final appearance - fully rendered graphics or not, there's a lot of flaws that would be easily solved.