Cats

Cats is a 2019 musical fantasy film based on the 1981 stage musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which in turn was based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The film was directed by Tom Hooper, in his second feature musical following Les Misérables (2012), from a screenplay by Lee Hall and Hooper. It features an ensemble cast, including James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, and Francesca Hayward in her film debut. Filming took place from December 2018 to April 2019. It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom and the United States on 20 December 2019 by Universal Pictures. Cats received generally negative reviews by critics, some of whom named it as one of the worst films of all time, with criticism aimed at Hooper's direction, the visual effects, screenplay and editing. Cats grossed $75 million on a budget of $80–100 million, making it a box-office bomb. Plot Victoria, a young white cat, is abandoned by her owner in the streets of London in the middle of the night. The alley cats, witnessing this introduce themselves to her as the "Jellicles". Mr. Mistoffelees, Munkustrap, Cassandra and Demeter take Victoria under their wing and show her the world of the Jellicles as they prepare for the Jellicle Ball, an annual ceremony where cats must compete to be chosen to go to the Heaviside Layer and be granted a new life. Most of the Jellicle Ball competitors are introduced and sing about themselves: Jennyanydots, a domestic tabby who sleeps during the day and by night boosts the productivity of mice and roaches; the Rum Tum Tugger, an extravagant yet indecisive cat who riles up the others; Bustopher Jones, a bourgeois cat who boasts about his weight and shares food scraps from the garbage; Skimbleshanks, a tidy ginger cat who tap dances and supervises the operation of a train, and Gus, an aged theatrical cat who has played some of the biggest roles in history.