Character Design Evolution of Cats: Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer
So, I use the Cats wiki to collect photos for these things and it’s hard to find photos of one of these two without the other, so they get to be in the same entry.
1981: Jerrie looks like he’s in a very strange boyband. Teazer looks like a cheerleader for a school with a very strange choice of school colors. But, they both look human and strange.
1982: This is the era where they were trash puppets possessed by Cryptid Misto.
1998: Two very silly cats. They describe themselves as clowns and comedians and they are indeed very silly. They’re also very cute.
2016: So, the previous Terrie Jeazer combos that weren’t trash puppets were in the same Iconic Pose. 2016 redid the choreography, so maybe that’s why I couldn’t find a picture in that pose. They look like they’re having a good time. Also, with every single one of these (not counting the puppets), the tiger stripes get crazier.
2019: I have a surprising amount to say.
These designs are pretty good by 2019 standards, tbh, but there are a few things that bug me. First, it was actually hard to find pictures of the two together. For the plays, it was hard to find separate pictures. That’s a sign that something went wrong with how the characters were written, directed, and/or shot. These two are supposed to be together almost all the time.
Also, here’s a consequence of realistic cat designs: The play costumes are exaggerated, so most of the cats don’t resemble and variety of real cat. If they vaguely look like a thing, well, it’s vague. Jerrie and Teazer look more like tigers than house cats in the plays tbh. But, the movie had to make them look more like real cats with realistic color schemes. If they’re going to insist on being realistic, I’m going to nitpick when they seem to be failing:
I’m pretty sure Jerrie and Teazer are calico cats in this movie. Male calicos are extremely rare, so it’s really odd that Mungojerrie just sort of exists. Almost no one would actually give a shit about this, but it makes me want to headcanon about what life for a male calico would be like in the world of cats. Perhaps cats would see coat patterns that are usually only seen in queens as feminine and that’s why Jerrie is so easily confused with his sister.
Maybe 2019 Jerrie is trans. The twins work for Macavity because he used his magic to make afab Jerrie biologically male in exchange for the two working for him. Changing his sex didn’t change his coat color. I’m cis, so I can’t make good trans headcanons, but this literally just occurred to me. Do with this what you will
