We couldn’t quite picture what Tom Hooper’s version of the famous Broadway musical cats would look like, especially when he started talking about “digital fur technology.”
Now the first trailer is here and it’s creeping people out. Instead of having humans dressed up like cats (as in the Broadway production), or animated cats, it’s a disturbing blend of people animated to look like cats. Complete with human bodies and human faces. Just with fur, ears and a tail.
Ian McKellen comes off the best, perhaps because he looks less like a cat here.
Here’s who’s playing who in the movie:
Taylor Swift is Bombalurina, a flirtatious and confident female Jellicle cat with a red coat. Judi Dench is Old Deuteronomy, a wise and beloved elderly cat.James Corden is Bustopher Jones, a parody of an Edwardian gentleman of leisure. He is described as the St. James’s Street cat, a regular visitor to the gentlemen’s clubs in the area.
“Dreamgirls” star Jennifer Hudson is Grizabella, a lonely outcast who sings the musical’s most famous song, “Memory.”
Newcomer Francesca Hayward plays Victoria, a young cat. It’s primarily a dance role with no solo songs. She is featured in a ballet solo (“White Cat Solo”) and a pas de deux. Ian McKellen plays Gus The Theatre Cat, an old and frail, cat, who “suffers from palsy, which makes his paws shake.” Singer Jason Derulo is Rum Tum Tugger, a rebellious cat who loves to be the center of attention Idris Elba is Macavity (aka Mystery Cat, the Hidden Paw, and Napoleon of Crime), a master criminal partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty. Rebel Wilson is Jennyanydots, who during the day sits, and naps, and at night, orders the mice and cockroaches to keep house. Laurie Davidson is Mr. Mistoffelees, a young black-and-white tuxedo cat with magical powers he can’t fully control yet.
The rest of the cast includes Ray Winstone as Growltiger, Laurent Bourgeois as Socrates, and Melissa Madden-Gray as Griddlebone.
Movie Paws 