As a Swiftie, I am excited for Tay Tay to once again grace our silver screens, this time as a singing and dancing cat in Cats. Taylor Swift dropped hints about the Cats movie recently, so when the trailer dropped earlier today, I screamed a little inside.
The movie is a remake of a popular Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Cats, which has played a few times in Singapore. I am sure Singaporeans young and old will be excited about the catchy tunes and emotional drama, even if they are not fans of Taylor Swift.
As I watched the trailer, I kept an eagle eye on the screen, ready to spot my idol. However, 30 seconds in, I found my mind drawing a blank space. Mixed emotions of exasperation, delight and confusion followed.
As I was hunting for Taylor, I realised that any of the cats with anthropomorphic female features, i.e. breast-like lumps on their chest, could be her.
It was only after the words TAYLOR SWIFT in gold font splashed across the screen, did I realise that Taylor Swift was the ginger cat with stripes (sorry, Garfield). I was also slightly delighted to learn that has-been rapper/singer Jason Derulo, known for just singing his name in songs, also appears.
I quickly scrolled to the comments section of YouTube, as I always do to find answers for life’s greatest questions. In this case, I couldn’t explain what to make of these dancing creatures whose closest cousins are furries.
“This will haunt my dreams tonight. I’m afraid to look at my cat now,” said Alessio Matteo Jr.
“It’s just because they have no genitals it’s uncanny,” Axel Denis had a theory.
A furries convention or the new Cats movie?
“Furries: The Musical,” Blair Bird proposed a re-title.
“If this was suppose[d] to convert me into a dog lover, then it succeeded big time,” Eclipto remarked.
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After my initial shock, I tried to learn more about the movie to see if we are able to look past these twirling human-faced cats in various states of undress. Tay Tay, for one, appears completely nude with just a metal choker.
Set to release on Christmas, I suppose this movie is branded as a family-friendly holiday spectacular, albeit with questionable CGI characters.
Some internet users guessed they ran out of budget hiring the star-studded cast, leaving the art department hardly enough funds to create more palatable characters and effects.
But based on the cast alone, it should be a treat.
Dreamgirls star Jennifer Hudson lends her beautiful soulful voice. We are sure she will hit all the right notes for cat ladies everywhere.
The Penguin from Batman: Returns, seems to make a cameo
Funnyman James Corden and funny woman Rebel Wilson appear as adorable chonkers, delighted about their newfound tails.
The man who would be Bond, Idris Elba, lost the role to a woman, but instead finds himself rein-cat-nated as a dustbin-trawling feline.
Seniors Ian McKellan and Judi Dench prove that age is just a number, even in the singing-cat universe.
Last but definitely not the least, Swifties can put their paws up for the one and only Taylor Swift, who is no stranger to a catfight.
If you close your eyes, and just listen to the soundtrack, it sounds amazing. After all, this musical has delighted many around the world.
The mantle of turning the Broadway musical into a movie has been passed to Les Miserables director Tom Hooper, who unfortunately had no experience handling how CGI animals should be portrayed.
Nevertheless, if you enjoyed the big, dramatic singing and dancing numbers from Les Miserables, the musical scenes from Cats should not disappoint.
This Cats debacle could very well have been prevented as it is hot on the tails of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie saga that happened recently.
When the trailer dropped for Sonic the Hedgehog’s movie, fans took to social media to decry the character’s design. They were largely disturbed that the talking hedgehog had human teeth and looked like a human child dressed in a onesie.
Upon the backlash, the producers of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie have announced that they will be reworking all the scenes with Sonic to please unhappy fans.
However, we doubt the Cats team will be going back to the drawing board. Seeing as how many kitties litter each scene, it could potentially cost millions to reanimate.
While the visual presentation of the movie feels weird, watching a behind-the-scenes video of the movie did make my fur stand, in all the right ways.
Hudson, Derulo, Swift and the other actors talked about their passion working on the film. Scenes of the actors rehearsing in actual physical sets show the commitment of the cast and crew to create a spectacle.
Perhaps it was best to match the sets with the fur-lined costumes and full-faced makeup used in the Broadway productions.
This is a homage to a retro musical anyway.
For now, you can get your fix of singing felines in the new Disney live-action remake of The Lion King.
And as a Taylor Swift fan, I’d say that this is the first time she catfished me, as she does not look like her pictures, in the trailer.
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