In case you haven’t already seen the trailer trending on twitter last Thursday or haven’t heard, Cats the musical is getting a film adaptation scheduled to release on “December 20, 2019” according to CNN.
According to a recent Time Magazine article, “Cats the musical was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and first performed on London’s West End in 1981.” It has since spread to be played in other major cities across the world such as Paris, France, and Tokyo, Japan including many others.
The Broadway classic “revolves around a tribe of cats called Jellicles who are preparing for a ball and an ensuing ritual in which one Jellicle is chosen to become reborn,” according to a recent Time article.
The musical is known for its eccentric and bizarre cat characters portrayed in tight fur patterned leotards, fuzzy headpieces with ear, arm warmers, leg warmers, and lots of face makeup. Whereas the film takes a new approach and uses “enormous, real sets scaled so that the human actors look cat-size, rather than relying on CGI to create the environments.” Slate stated in a recent article.
“…director Tom Hopper praised the film’s use of “digital fur technology to create the most perfect covering of fur” on all of the actors,” read a recent Oprah magazine article.
This new “digital fur technology” is polarizing the internet because it anthropomorphizes cats and each character looks like cat-human hybrids with more human attributes then feline attributes. So it is deemed by many on social media as well “really weird.”
‘The Overturned Bouquet’ (1660-1679) vs ‘Cats’ (2019). Have we not learned what cat faces look like in 350 years?! #CatsMovie pic.twitter.com/Sis0ZyhpI0
— Rob McD (@ROBCMCD) July 19, 2019
Many are poking fun of the visuals of the trailer on Twitter comparing it to using the face swap filter on snap chat with your cat. Some are even going as far as implying that the whole film was filmed using Snapchat filters.
I’m a CATS fan and was looking forward to this ha but for this image alone, I wish they’d just put them in catsuits and makeup like the stage production. Got these folks lookin like a bad Snapchat filter in these streets If the face don’t fit…? #CatsMovie pic.twitter.com/fOuXv09w0Z
— Lori Sinclair Minor (@LoriMinor247) July 19, 2019
Others are poking fun at how the characters look strikingly similar to the cat in “The Cat in the Hat” film – and not in a good way.
#CatsMovie i really want a sequel to cat in the hat with james corden playing his long lost evil twin pls pic.twitter.com/UCaX8puYQd
— jazz ✪ (@jazzgreggs) July 18, 2019
Nonetheless in the abundance of mixed reactions to the trailer of the film on social media there are still many fans of the classic and fans of the star-studded cast excited for the upcoming film.
I don’t care what anyone says. I watched the trailer & cried big kitten tears. Can’t wait for the movie! ?❤️? #catsmoviehttps://t.co/BCyStrqpN9
— Elaine Hendrix (@elaine4animals) July 19, 2019
What is giving many hope is the stellar cast line up with big-name stars like Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Jason Derulo, Rebel Wilson, Idris Elba, Judi Dench, and more. Also helping behind the scenes of the film has “Hamilton” choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler and “Les Mis” director Tom Hooper.
Overall it’ll be interesting to see how the film adaptation will differ from the classic musical and seeing if moving forward the filmmakers decide to make changes to the CGI to make the characters in the film more appealing to audiences – and a little less unsettling. Who knows maybe adding more fur, changing the human noses to cat ones, and working on fixing the proportions and ratios anatomically might just be the changes the film needs and extra time that will make all the difference.