Note: this is the EXACT type of cat I DREAM of owning one day.
I obsessively read all three “The Hunger Games” books in a period of about two weeks last year before the first film came out. Then it came out and what did I find? A weird cat in the place where Buttercup should be. In the books (written by Suzanne Collins in case you were wondering), Prim has a cat that is yellow and PISSED OFF that looks like the image above in my and most fan’s heads. Yet the film, somehow, cast a very adorable don’t get me wrong black and white cat instead. (see below):
In the novel, Katniss Everdeen (portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence), described Buttercup as “the world’s ugliest cat” and often how angry and scowl she is. Yet the movie adaptation seemed to ignore this (tiny) fact. While most people don’t care or maybe didn’t notice, a lost of fans felt like it was both pretty annoying and a totally ridiculous thing to change.
During a recent interview io9, the film’s director, Francis Lawrence, spoke about their plans to recast the cat to something more true to the source text.
“You know what that was actually, and I was happy to do it, that was a request from Nina the producer and Suzanne the author. That they thought the cat from the first movie was not the way he was described in the book. And that had annoyed a bunch of fans, and things like that. But it also just kind of bothered them that Buttercup was not a black and white cat. So I was happy to get one that felt like the Buttercup of the book,” said Lawrence. “It’s funny because now people are split. Some people think we should have continued on with what happened in the first movie. And some people are really happy. You never win.”
I think the point is that I care way too much about a cat I have never met. But I am excited.
