Move over, Cujo… A whole bunch of other terrifying house pets are slinking their way onto the silver screen. And this time, they can sing. That’s right, we’re talking about the Cats trailer. This first look at the movie musical isn’t meant to make for nightmare fuel, but for a lot of viewers, that’s exactly what it is.
The Cats trailer arrived online on July 18th, 2019, giving audiences a first glimpse at the live-action film adaption of the enduringly popular stage musical. Based on T.S. Eliot’s collection of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the original 1980 stage show enjoyed a combined 39-year run between its London and Broadway productions, grossing over $2 billion worldwide. And now, it’s coming to the silver screen.
The new film adaptation, set to hit theaters on December 20th, is directed by Tom Hooper, who previously brought the musical Les Miserables to the screen in 2012. It stars a slew of A-list stars including Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, Ian McKellan, Dame Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, and Jason Derulo, to name just a few.
If you’re completely unfamiliar with the Cats musical, you might be wondering why all these humanoid cats are bounding around and being all existential. Don’t worry: we can clear that up for you. According to the film’s official synopsis,
“A tribe of cats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life.”
Okay somehow the movie made more sense before we read that. Look, Taylor Swift is a cat now. What more do you need to know?
Based on the project’s star-studded cast, the producers of the Cats movie are clearly hoping that high-octane talent plus sleek CGI will equal big bucks at the box office much like another feline-centric blockbuster that came out to great success in 2019. But frankly, we have our doubts. Many have pointed out that the characters in the trailer have a truly uncanny, almost unsettling appearance, and it remains to be seen whether or not audiences will line up for a feature-length version of it. Sometimes a trailer can really freak people out.
The A.V. Club’s Britt Hayes summed up the situation succinctly, saying,
“Behold… a cinematic adaptation of one of the most dizzyingly atrocious musicals of all time. […] Bear witness… to the horrors of the unnatural feline-people as they sing and dance for your entertainment.”
In a behind-the-scenes look at the film, director Tom Hooper tries his best to make “digital fur technology” a thing.
The end result? According to a writeup from CNN,
“[It’s] an uncanny amalgamation of the actors’ human faces and a feline-adjacent body.”
#CATS #CATSTrailer #CATSReax
