The big-screen adaption of the musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber has proven to be one of the weirdest movie releases of 2019. The CGI heavy-movie about a tribe of singing and dancing cats has viewers confused, but not surprised. 

As soon as the official trailer for “Cats” had been released worldwide in August, it was made into a mockery by social media users across almost all platforms. The movie, from this point on, was almost guaranteed to be a disaster, and it definitely was. Based on its Rotten Tomatoes rating of 20%, moviegoers and critics were anything but satisfied.

Although the movie features many famous actors and singers, such as Taylor Swift, Jason Derulo, James Corden and Rebel Wilson, it fell drastically short of the expectations of many. Making only $58.4 million in the box office with a $95 million budget, “Cats” has caused the production company, Universal Pictures, a reported loss of $71 million. 

One of the biggest complaints, out of the many that the movie received, dealt with the awful CGI. People observed actors’ bodies and faces falling out of sync frequently, as well as the “digital fur technology” looking sloppy and hurried. Despite Tom Hooper, the director, boasting about the fact that he had worked up until Dec. 20, the day of the movie’s premiere, a second version of “Cats” was eventually released with reportedly improved CGI; however, this made little to no difference for most critics. 

Additionally, like other musicals that have been adapted into movie format by Hooper, such as “Les Misérables,” “Cats” does not fully take advantage of spacing. Musical numbers feel somewhat boxed in and insignificant, for example. The movie’s most memorable song, “Memory,” is filmed in such a way that it becomes almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It should have filled up the entire screen to encapsulate it’s true importance to the actual musical, but instead, it was shot in close-up and did absolutely no justice for the actors or the already terrible CGI. Jennifer Hudson, the main singer in “Memory,” spent almost the entire song sobbing instead of actually singing. This was a tremendous disappointment to many, as “Memory” was notably the most famous song from the original musical. 

Despite the backlash, some still managed to find upsides to this movie. With many going to see it purely for comedic value, “Cats” has been dubbed a so-bad-it’s-good classic. Hooper ignores the fact that “Cats” is traditionally a very ludicrous show by deciding to make the movie serious and unnaturally emotional, which audiences found to be hilarious and somewhat disturbing. For these reasons, among many others, “Cats” is almost guaranteed to be a movie remembered by most but definitely not for the reasons Hooper and Universal were hoping for.