What were they thinking? That’s not even criticism—that’s the only logical reaction.
Look, I get it. The Cats ran forever. It’s a brand. It’s recognizable. On stage, it works because it’s live theater. You’re sitting there, you accept the costumes, the dancing, the weirdness. It’s an experience, not a story.
But film is different. Film demands discipline. It demands coherence. And that’s where this thing goes off the rails immediately.
The second that trailer dropped, you knew. Not “maybe it’ll work.” You knew it was a disaster. The CGI alone—this “digital fur” experiment—lands right in the uncanny valley. They don’t look like cats. They don’t look like people. They look like something that shouldn’t exist. And once your audience is uncomfortable just looking at your characters, the game is over.
What makes it more baffling is that this came from Tom Hooper, the same guy who directed Les Misérables. That wasn’t perfect, but it had structure. It had gravity. This feels like nobody was in charge of saying no.
That’s the real issue. No guardrails.
Big budget. Huge cast. Endless resources. And yet every decision feels like it went unchecked. Scale is inconsistent, tone is all over the place, and there’s no narrative spine holding anything together.
This is what happens when momentum replaces judgment. When everyone assumes someone else has it figured out.
You didn’t need to see the whole movie. The trailer told you everything. And somehow, they still released it anyway.
