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People Are Shocked And Horrified By The First Trailer For The Cats Live-Action Movie

People Are Shocked And Horrified By The First Trailer For The Cats Live-Action Movie

“I hate everything about this,” one viewer plainly said.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

When the announcement came that there would be a live-action movie based on the Cats musical, people were sceptically excited.

There have been plenty of advancements in film and digital technology, so the idea of turning Hollywood celebrities into cats who can sing is a very real and awesome opportunity.

However, fans have been shocked and horrified after seeing the first trailer for the film.

"What the f*** is this, this Christmas I will believe alright, believe in nightmares when I see those humanoid cats," wrote one person on Twitter.

"I hate everything about this," another plainly said.

"This is legitimately more terrifying and grotesque than anything in the most recent season of Stranger Things. And that's saying something," added another.

The film has an all star cast with Dame Judi Dench, Taylor Swift, James Corden, Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Jason Derulo, Ian McKellen and Rebel Wilson - but it seems like all the stans in the world haven't saved it from ridicule.

The film's premise focuses on 'a tribe of cats called the Jellicles, [who] make what is known as 'the Jellicle choice' and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life'.

That in itself sounds terrifying, but when you shop that synopsis onto cat-human hybrids then you're getting a Hollywood horror film rather than a musical fantasy.

It's based on the musical of the same name composed by the legendary Andrew Lloyd Webber, which is itself inspired by Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot.

In just 13 years after it premiered 1981, the musical had grossed more than $2 billion (£1.6 billion) - take a second for that to settle in. It's one of the longest running musicals on both the West End and Broadway, with 8,949 and 7,485 performances respectively.

Is this the stuff of nightmares?
Universal Pictures

A film adaptation has been in the works since the 1990s, but has continually stalled. It wasn't until 2013 that the project finally got off the ground with Universal Studios.

During her Reputation tour last year, Taylor Swift spoke of the project, saying: "This musical is timeless. We got to update it in ways that are so, so great."

The first obstacle was trying to work out how to bring the cats to the big screen. Clearly they went with something that is a go-between The Lion King live action remake and the Mulan live-action remake - which hasn't gone down well with fans.

It seems that fans wanted either realistic cats or actors with subtle cat-like features. Instead, it looks like we've got a regrettable marriage of the two.

Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film