Alas, if Twitter's anything to go by, the internet was more mystified than enchanted -- and in some cases, downright terrified.
In a teaser clip released earlier this week, director Tom Hooper lauded the movie's use of "digital fur technology" to create "the most perfect covering of fur."
When the cats were revealed, however -- an uncanny amalgamation of the actors' human faces and a feline-adjacent body -- social media users were less than convinced.
The new "Cats" trailer features "digital fur technology" and it's safe to say people are freaked out https://t.co/Bv2GiqJ2hT pic.twitter.com/SKJVDyAN4n CNN International (@cnni) July 19, 2019Some were perplexed by the specifics of the cats' anatomy: why the human/cat hybrids had breasts, for instance, or where exactly their tails protruded from.
The trailer raised another perturbing question: In a world where cats have human faces and loosely human physiques, where do actual humans, owners of the colossal beds and sofas and chandeliers the cats play on, fit in?