Hot on the heels of the newly released Lion King live action film, there’s another animal movie in town, this time with smaller cats.
The first trailer for the hotly anticipated Cats was released on Thursday - and the Internet has some questions.
Within moments of it dropping, Twitter went into overdrive with memes about Taylor Swift, James Corden and the rest of the cast’s unsettlingly furry faces.
The film's stars including Swift, Corden, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Dame Judi Dench and Jason Derulo were featured singing and prowling their way across the screen.
But many had less than positive reactions to seeing the actors reimagined as cat-human hybrids.
Some drew comparisons between Cats and the controversy surrounding Sonic the Hedgehog’s poorly received CGI treatment, which actually led the film to postponing its release.
An iconic moment from the cult comedy What We Do in the Shadows also began making the rounds, in which one of the film’s main characters transforms badly into a black cat.
Fans of Kimmy Schmidt also chimed in, sharing GIFs of character Titus Burgess who has an entire episode in which he stars in the Webber musical.
Others simply responded with their own hilarious hot takes.
There were also references to Scarlett Johansson, who was the subject of controversy recently when she said in an interview, “You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job.”
Others also decided to re-cut the trailer to different music.
One user edited the creepy theme from Jordan Peele’s horror movie Us over the trailer. The user wrote, “I think it fits better.”
Peele responded on Twitter, retweeting it with a simple “Yes.”
Of course, Twitter then kicked it into high gear when musical lovers pointed out that this isn’t even one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stranger musicals.
Another, called Starlight Express, sees trains as characters with actors zooming around onstage in roller blades.
So, of course, Twitter did its thing...
The musical, which draws its lyrics from many of poet T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, centres around a tribe of cats called the Jellicle Cats.
Every year, they come together to choose one cat to enter the Heaviside Layer - a feline equivalent of heaven. And of course, there’s that one hit song Memory in it which you’ve probably heard your parents warbling to themselves when they think nobody’s looking.
Cats will be released to theatres on December 20, just in time for a terrifying Christmas.
