Andrew Lloyd Webber hated the 'appalling' Cats movie so much that he bought a dog

He wanted the butthole cut

There is a late 90’s PBS broadcast that was essentially a filmed version of the classic stage show. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_(1998_film)?wprov=sfti1 I think it’s on Prime or Tubi It’s about as close as you’ll get to seeing a version of the stage show outside an actual live performance. It’s weird, but much more compelling than the flm. Better filming of the dance stuff, too.

One of the theories is that CATS was so successful because New York and Broadway get a lot of tourist. Many of which English is not their first language. This isn’t a disparagement of that. People enjoy opera not being able to speak Italian. But all it takes to enjoy CATS is an appreciation for music, dance, and costuming and stage magic. The plot really isn’t a plot. It’s based on a collection of poems the world’s favorite pet; a picture book that you can read to a 3 year old. You don’t really need to understand the lyrics to get what Rum tug tugger is about. All of this can be impressive live. Audience interaction is a huge part of most productions. But in no way will this translate to a screen. It’s a spectacle. I can’t think of a movie franchise that relied on spectacle since the Avatar movies. If they wanted to make a movie, I could see animation being a good route. You can dramatize the characters, add your own style, market to kids with some adult jokes thrown in. Create fever dream level dance sequences for visual appeal. Instead they went with a lack luster star studded caste of has beens, some actively closer to infamous than famous to audiences, added an unnecessary song, failed to bring any spectacle with lack luster CGI that became a meme in itself, and added unnecessary plot to something that’s suppose to be silly, light hearted, and borderline absurd. Who ever directed it completely missed the point of why it was such a long running musical.

I enjoy movies that are genuinely bad, like Plan 9 From Outer Space, Manos: The Hands of Fate, or The Room. They're unintentionally hilarious and you can watch them and laugh at the fact that someone actually thought this was a good idea. But Cats had incredible production values and you can tell that lots and lots and LOTS of people worked really hard on it. It's just more sad than funny.

Well, to the film’s credit (I haven’t seen the stage show), there is no way the stage version is weirder. It’s one of the strangest movies ever made.

It’s out, homie. You can enjoy all of it.