Cats (The One With Taylor Swift and Digital Fur)

This week on The Worst Movie Podcast, Ade and Aaron curl up with one of the most infamous musicals-to-movie adaptations of all time: Cats (2019). With its star-studded cast—Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, James Corden, and more—it’s a film that aimed for spectacle and landed somewhere between surreal fever dream and Broadway karaoke. But love it or hate it, you can’t deny it’s unforgettable.The guys dig into what worked and what didn’t: the choice of digital fur, the confusing sense of cat-to-human scale, and the songs that range from head-scratching introductions to genuinely moving numbers. They give credit where it’s due—Jennifer Hudson’s powerhouse Memory, Taylor Swift’s stylish cameo, and Francesca Hayward’s heartfelt Beautiful Ghosts all shine through and remind us why the stage musical was a phenomenon in the first place.Along the way, Ade and Aaron debate whether Cats is secretly fun if you lean into the absurdity, and whether the movie might have been better enjoyed live on stage or with the right crowd (and maybe the right state of mind). It’s weird, it’s messy, but it’s also bold, memorable, and occasionally magical—just the kind of movie that makes The Worst Movie Podcast so much fun.Send us Fan Mail