There's almost no greater cinematic feat than capturing one actor's transition from boyhood to adulthood as he grows up over a 12-year period. That is until you do it with cats.
Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" has won so much acclaim from critics and audiences alike, you've probably either seen or read so much about it that you don't even have to see it by now. But in case you do need a refresher, the film is a slice of life story about a boy (played by Ellar Coltrane) growing up from age 6 to 18, while dealing with all those fun growing up sort of things, like parents (played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette), puberty and developing your personality. And of course, part of the buzz surrounding this film is that it uses the same actors during the 12 years of filming. Impressed yet?
After wowing the world and showing us a film that's unlike anything we've ever seen before, the next step would obviously be for someone to create a cat parody of this gem. And that's exactly what happened.
We now present to you "Richard Linklitter's" "Cathood", which follows a kitten's journey to becoming a cat over 12 weeks. "Cathood" shows one kitten taking on the world and coming into its own by playing with toys, attacking a sock and sniffing everything in its sight, all with the same wide-eyed wonder as the protagonist in "Boyhood." Paws will be licked, wet food will be chowed down upon and there will be cuddling. Lots and lots of cuddling.
This is a pretty well-thought out parody, complete with "reviews," such as "It's a lot like another video that my aunt posted on Facebook" from "Someone's Nephew," and some major "stars" in the cast, such as "Patricia Ourcat," "Eatin Hawk" and "Collar Catrane." The video is also as much of a shot-by-shot parody as it can be when using cats instead of people. Bonus points for replicating the scene when the boy is in the darkroom. The only bad part about this video is that it's only about 90 seconds long, and it probably won't be turned into a feature-length film.
The mastermind behind "Cathood" is The Pet Collective, a website and YouTube channel that creates original pet videos. The Pet Collective got the inspiration after Variety's deputy editor Pat Saperstein tweeted the suggestion to the group. And we're all so glad that she did.
Photo: Nikita / Flickr
