A sexual addiction? It's common to hear the vagina referred to as a pussy. Was that a reference here, or coincidence?
shareGlad to have read this post. I thought Cat Flu was completely ridiculous. It still is...but these two interpretations make it much more tolerable.
shareGoing by the trivia on this site, apparently Disney keeps some cats in the park who kill mice each night when the park's closed. This is probably where the cat flu in the movie comes from.
shareI thought it was some kind of reference to the Cheshire Cat. I see no other reason he would have those eyes and creepy grin....
shareWe're all mad here... so to speak.
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well Cheshire cat definitely is part of it because of how he looks when he dies, and would explain why he is acting crazy. And Cheshire cat knows everyone is crazy but he is the only one that seems to talk about it. It's the knowledge that you are crazy that is what makes him special, and in psychology it's very hard for most crazy people to know they are crazy.
The father certainly had sex on his mind though, so I'm sure a symptom of Cheshire cat flu is that you are obsessed with pVssy.
The fact that cats eat mice.. I have more trouble seeing a connection there. Maybe the cat flu makes people also anti the House of Mouse? So Disney definitely didn't mean to create this flu and it just so happens that they accidentally did and unleashed it on it's patrons?
(gonna get pretentious for a minute - spoilers of course)
a major theme of the movie seemed to be the loss of innocence - happy, harmless images becoming disturbing, a man taking his kids to the place his father brought him as a boy but confronting wholly adult nightmares there (losing his job, falling out of love with his wife, losing his daughter in the crowd). "escape from tomorrow" = attempting to avoid the future, adulthood. because the most iconic image of disney world is of course mickey mouse, i took "cat flu" to mean, in part, something that preys on that symbolic innocence. it's jim experiencing, and being destroyed by, growing up and facing the 'bad things' that come with the territory. that was just my take on it.
this is, excuse me...a DAMN fine cup of coffee
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I don't think you are giving the filmmakers enough credit. Just because they didn't do a great job doesn't mean their ideas don't connect at all and came out of nowhere. Indie filmmakers with only 1 or 2 writers know what they are trying to say. It's the big budget films with multiple writers that lose their point. Though they usually have clearer delivery and can re shoot things if test audiences don't get it.
shareFrom the IMDb trivia: The "cat flu" plot device is a direct response to the Mouse-themed amusement park itself.
shareThe director said
"I think I'm a little OCD, so, for me, especially with all the kids, it seemed like there was definitely a fear of the germ factor. And it sort of happened later on in life that I got that way, and saw this place as a giant petri dish. Everyone's touching exactly the same things, people are hacking up lungs left and right, and you see kids throwing up after rides. I think that's where the idea of the Cat Flu came in. There needed to be this kind of antimatter to the happiness at the park. And bird flu was going around when I was writing the script, and I also made the mouse-cat connection. "
Read more: Disney World Secrets - Escape from Tomorrow's Randy Moore on Disney Secrets - Esquire