Easily one of the most talked about trailers to have come out in the past year is the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic broadway show, Cats. It’s just not for the reason the filmmakers were hoping for. Despite a huge cast and Academy Award winning director Tom Hooper attached, many criticized the Cats trailer for maybe being too accurate to the original Broadway play, featuring huge sets with actors covered in CGI cat-like fur and tails, providing an uncanny aesthetic that felt off-putting for online audiences. Unlike the Sonic movie, however, Universal does not have any plans to delay their film to fix the character designs, as they just released a new trailer.
The trailer sets up Cats‘ story with Old Deuteronomy (played by Judi Dench) telling the Jellicle Cats about how she will choose one of them to be a part of a new life. The film centers mostly around Victoria (Francesca Hayward), who’s hoping to be the pick of the night. However, the cats also must beware the evil Macavity (Idris Elba) who ihopes to make the other cats’ night much worse. The rest of trailer shows more cats characters doing various dances and skits by actors like Taylor Swift, James Corden and Rebel Wilson… except as cats. Unlike the first trailer, none of the iconic songs are heard outside of an orchestral score featuring the play’s original music. Though this trailer features a ton more dancing choreography reminiscent of the Broadway show.
Although this trailer a bit different than the first, audiences are still uncertain about Cats due to the disturbing humanoid cat characters’ design, especially when it could have been an animated film with anthropomorphic cats instead. Cats is still set set to be this year’s big musical, so it could still garner some interest on that aspect alone with musical fans. However, coming out the same day as Star Wars Episode IX could potentially tarnish the film’s box office potential.
Cats is set for release on December 20th 2019. Watch the full trailer below: