On December 20th, 2019, Amblin Entertainment and Working Title Films released  “Cats” to U.S. theaters. The movie is based off of the famous musical of the same name, originally performed in 1980, and had a budget of $95 million  along with an A List cast. However, the effort was wasted as the final product was confusing and incredibly disturbing.

The movie begins with Victoria, one of the main characters, being thrown from a streetcar into an alley in a trash bag. This alley is where the cats live, and within the next few seconds, they immediately broke into a five minute song about all of the personality traits a cat could have. This was before we were introduced to the characters or any background whatsoever. The animation of the movie almost too lifelike.

Since the parent work was indeed a musical, this may have been accurate to the original production, but was just confusing for movie viewers. Trying to sweep my confusion under the rug, on cue  the production became even more disturbing by pausing for a silent,  dramatic ballet number.

The scenes change to a small cottage containing a rather fat, cat, whom then started to do awkward catlike gestures, such as scratching and licking herself. Then opened another song and dance number where mice were taught how to sing and dance.

There was little to no dialogue to inform viewers of what was going on and why, leaving us struggling to evaluate the excessive gestures, songs and dances to try to piece the story together

As a lover of film and theatre arts, it was exciting to envision one of my favorite plays being transformed into another form of entertainment. The cast included those that I admired in the entertainment industry such as Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, Rebel Wilson and Idris Elba. Yet, viewers were left unsatisfied, confused and somewhat disturbed. 

For all of those wanting to see this production, do not to waste your time, especially if you are a theatre lover. This movie led to great disappointment, and guilt for asking my family to seem this with me.