One of my guilty pleasures is Cats the Musical. Yes, it has no plot. Yes, the 2019 movie is nightmare fuel. I am FULLY aware. The stage show is fun though!
I have thought for so long how I personally would go about adapting this story to screen, as it is a really difficult task because of how formatted for the stage it is in its original form. The stage show is a visual spectacle that uses its sets and dancing and songs to draw the audience in. A live action movie seems the most logical translation of this to screen, but because of the fantastical nature of the show, I think 3D animation is the best fit.
The uncanny-ness of an actor in heavy makeup crawling around can be eliminated with a character model that already looks like an animal, having them walk on all fours seems more natural and with the right proportions, letting them stand and move more like humans is not a massive shift. I looked at Puss in Boots a lot for this proportion reference, as both films work very well balancing the more animalistic and more human qualities in their feline characters.
I also looked at the original book of poems that inspired the musical. Many of the costumes in the stage productions have a very painterly and hand drawn look to them. I thought that this “storybook illustration” would work very well with this story, and I am a huge fan of the painterly texturing that I’ve seen become more popular recently in shows like Arcane and films like Spiderverse or again Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. I used a lot of watercolor brushes to try and emulate the painterly style on the characters, and if I ever decide to go further with this project, I’d love to work that into the props and environments!