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Cats trailer drives Twitter insane and the memes are horrifying

Cats trailer surpasses Sonic as the most nightmarish trailer of 2019.

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Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
CNET freelancer Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
2 min read

The music from Cats, the Broadway musical-turned-movie, is critically acclaimed. But you try and put humans in cat suits, and fur sure, people are going to hiss and yowl about it.

The first trailer for the film came out Thursday, featuring such stars as Taylor Swift , Idris Elba and Judi Dench transformed into cats, complete with "digital fur."

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Watch this: Trailer for Cats movie featuring Taylor Swift arrives

To be fair, it's an almost-impossible task to blend humans and animals and make them not look like something out of the Island of Doctor Moreau. Social media users found the combination a bit unnerving -- especially since the actors almost look naked in their feline get-ups. "Somehow the people in Cats look more nude than if they were actually nude, and it's weird as hell," wrote Gavia Baker-Whitelaw.

Some couldn't resist comparing the reaction to Cats to the recent response when Sonic the Hedgehog revealed its own movie character. The reaction was so negative that Sony went back to the drawing board to fix the character's appearance. "(I don't know), I think Taylor Swift looks good in the Cats trailer," wrote Josh Kurp on Twitter, sharing a picture of the creepy, human-toothed Sonic.

Yes, there were Doctor Moreau comparisons. Joked author Cethan Leahy, "The new The Island of Doctor Moreau trailer looks very creepy but I'm not sure about all the singing."

And the size of the cat-actors when combined with the sets seems off to some. "I own a very small cat," wrote Emily Heller on Twitter. "She does not look this tiny on my bed."

Cats opens Dec. 20 in the US and UK, with no release date for Australia yet.

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Originally published 3:29 p.m.