“MC Hammer had just come out,” Reckinger tells Vulture, naming the bridge between what still remained “a huge gulf between black music and white music.” The directors decided to combine Abdul’s proficiency with movie-musical style and tap dancing with her modern-day dancing abilities. While those movies are classics, they were a bit old-fashioned, and Patterson and Reckinger wanted to inject some hip-hop culture into the mix. Kelly was also responsible for the most famous predecessor of the “Opposites Attract” concept (and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) of a live human dancing with an animated creation - this sequence in Anchors Aweigh (1945) where he grooved with Jerry from Tom and Jerry in adorable matching sailor suits.
#Skat cat car movie#
Patterson and Reckinger are also big fans of Kelly, as well as the American movie musical in general, particularly Kelly’s Oscar-winning opus An American in Paris. They headed up the creation of MC Skat Kat, a brief cultural sensation in the form of an old-school Disney-type animated cat whose vibe was equal parts musical theater and then-burgeoning hip-hop culture.īefore she became a pop sensation, Abdul had famously worked as a choreographer and dancer (including a stint as a “Laker Girl”), and, like most American dancers of the late 20th century, was heavily inspired by Gene Kelly and wanted to demonstrate that in a video. To bring him into the visual realm, Virgin Records’ Jeff Ayeroff sought out video directing team and animation experts Michael Patterson (A-ha’s “Take on Me”) and Candace Reckinger (Suzanne Vega’s “Luka”). On the record, musical duo the Wild Pair provided the singing voice for the then-unnamed character, a lover of Abdul’s who is her complete opposite in every way. It featured the singer dancing with a cool, street-smart, rapping, dancing cartoon cat. These phenomena collided in one of the era’s best music videos: Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract,” featuring MC Skat Kat. It was also a golden age of cartoon cats, what with Oliver & Company and Garfield & Friends.
The late 1980s brought with it new advances in the seamless combination of live-action with animation, exemplified by Who Framed Roger Rabbit. An animation cel with MC Skat Kat and Paula Abdul for “Opposites Attract.”
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