Thoughts on the final CATS trailer…

It was mid-July when we were first hit with it. A regular summer day that clearly marks a before and an after. Yes I am talking about the teaser for CATS. The trailer that made us all collectively pause in bewilderment, mild disgust and planted a desperate curiosity into our minds. The day that Tom Hooper’s feline-human hybrids pranced across screens all over and introduced us to the long talked about digital fur technology.

In the months since then things have been relatively quiet, but as the December premiere date started to get closer and closer it felt like the calm before the storm… When would the final trailer crash down upon us?

Well today was that day.

Once again all of us waited with baited breath to see what this would bring. Nothing much has changed since the teaser, possibly some polishing up around the corners but that almost goes under the radar as there is so much to take in. Here we get closer looks at characters played by Taylor Swift, Jason Derulo and Idris Elba who all take up good portions of the trailer.

This film poises the introduction of Francesca Hayward as the young wide-eyed cat at the center, we don’t know much about her yet as the trailer keeps a tight grip on what it chooses to reveal of her. Though we can only imagine what spotlight is left for a newcomer amongst such a smorgasbord of blinding visuals.

I was a bit surprised that the creatives behind the scenes didn’t take the chance to incorporate the new original song “Beautiful Ghosts” which was released last friday. The song co-wrote by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift is arguably one of the best things to come out of the project so far.

Pertaining to the point of view of our young protagonist Victoria (Hayward) and with a haunting (in a good way) score it could’ve been a good salve on a trailer to at least try and have it taken more seriously by the general film going public. Here we get a bouncy musical accompaniment punctuated by snippets of dialogue. It even lacks the sweeping punch that the teaser had with Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of “Memory”.

Cats twirl and leap from human sized objects with actors who look to delight in this world. It leaves one with many questions and quandaries. A train wreak that is nearly impossible to look away from. With feline characters maintaining enough humanistic aspects that would almost be more at home in the shadowy corners of our room between wakefulness and sleep.

If it succeeds in one thing that is the curiosity it appears to leave with us all. It is easy to talk big game of what a monstrosity this is but deep down knowing that when December comes most of us will go to the theater just to scratch that itch.