Cats trailer: Twitter slams Taylor Swift, Judi Dench's CGI-infused musical remake, call it 'a nightmare'

LOS ANGELES | The star-studded movie version of hit stage musical Cats released its first trailer on Thursday, but first impressions were far from cuddly. The movie, to be released in December, features Taylor Swift in her first film role, along with Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba and James Corden.

The film uses the actors’ faces and covers their bodies in computer generated fur as they sing and dance on a larger than life set.

Jennifer Hudson in a still from the trailer | Twitter

The film, directed by Britain’s Tom Hooper, who won an Oscar for The King’s Speech, is the first movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s successful stage musical Cats. The unlikely stage musical, based on poems by T.S. Eliot, opened in 1981 and had become one of the longest-running shows on both Broadway and in London.

The trailer racked up more than 100,000 views in the first hour of being posted on YouTube. However, social media users found the combination a bit unnerving, to the extent that some even termed it as nightmare. “Taylor I love you but this is gonna give me nightmares,” a user named Charlotte Eller posted on YouTube.

Check out some of the reactions here

In a behind-the-scenes video, Oscar-winner Dench, one of Britain’s most admired actresses, called the film “an Alice in Wonderland experience.” Swift, known for her love of cats, said cast members did extensive movement workshops to embody their feline characters.

“As a cat lover, and a cat owner, he (Hooper) told me I was going to get to go to cat school every day. For work! What?!,” the delighted singer said in the video.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Watch the trailer here: