Netflix is about to lose my favorite bad movie musical — here's why 'Cats' is worth watching (no, really ...)

(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Strike up your Netflix app because one of the most epic movie musicals of all time is about to depart the streaming platform on Jan. 15 — no, we're not talking about "Wicked," "West Side Story" or "Chicago." We're talking about the hilariously abysmal 2019 live-action adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats."

The stage bona fides of "Cats" are undeniable: As of 2024, the story of the Jellicle alley cats remains the fifth-longest-running Broadway show and the eighth-longest-running West End show. But, despite a starry cast that includes the likes of James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson and even Taylor Swift, the 2019 film version failed to live up to that theatrical greatness.

Directed by Tom Hooper — who had way more critical success with his previous movie musical effort, the Oscar-winning "Les Misérables" in 2012 — "Cats" boasts a woeful 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critical consensus calling the adaptation "a clawful mistake that will leave most viewers begging to be put out of their mew-sery." It won three Golden Raspberry Awards (a mock award show honoring the worst of cinematic failures) for Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Picture of the year, and Andrew Lloyd Webber told Variety he disliked the film so much ("I saw it and I just thought, ‘Oh, God, no'"), it convinced him to get a therapy dog. Sure, all of that together might have you thinking you'd rather cough up a hairball than cue up the film, but "Cats" is an incredibly fun streaming watch precisely because of how terrible it is. Marvel at the curious proportions of the "cats" to their surroundings, the CGI messiness of the "digital fur technology" (extra points if you can catch Dame Judi Dench's human hand accidentally left in instead of a feline paw) and the melodramatic majesty of Jennifer Hudson belting her way through "Memory" while decked out as a "glamour cat." It is a cinematic cat-astrophe that is definitely worth checking out before it departs Netflix.

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Christina Izzo is a writer-editor covering culture, food and drink, travel and general lifestyle in New York City. She was previously the Deputy Editor at My Imperfect Life, the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York.