Yes, Cats is plotless, pointless, and creepy, but that’s how it should be. With a 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and CGI (computer-generated imagery) deemed bad enough to warrant an immediate update, there are a host of self-proclaimed Cats haters out there. While disliking the distracting cat ears or uncomfortable sexual tension is completely valid, if that’s what defines your opinion on Cats, then you completely missed the point. 

The original musical, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and based solely on children’s poems by T.S Elliot, wasn’t written to have a bombastic, adventure-filled plot. It was meant to be an experience, a spectacle of emotion, music, and magic. Cats the movie delivered this vision. 

Cats is funny. Without going into too much detail and spoiling it for those who have yet to see it, imagine James Corden hissing, Rebel Wilson getting stuck in a mousetrap, and Jason Derulo rolling around on the floor, and remember, all of them are cats. Doesn’t that just sound laughable? Well, it is. There are moments in the film, sometimes because of CGI hiccups, sometimes because of all-star comedians, that are genuinely hilarious.

Cats is also heart-wrenching. “Memory”, the musical’s most popular song, might be the most emotional song ever written. If you’ve never heard it, I urge you to listen to it now. Right now. It may very well change your life. The song is powerful in an inexplicable way, and of all the songs in Cats, “Memory” was hands down the most impressive, namely because of its singer: Jennifer Hudson. When I saw Cats, the lyrics of “Memory” mixed with the timbre of Hudson’s vocals and the genuine emotion on her cat face, brought me to tears and made me sing along at the same time.

Maybe Cats was messy. Maybe it made no sense and had bad CGI, but watching the film was an experience. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It was Cats!