Remember Hollywood's live-action Cats movie? Andrew Lloyd Webber does — and he has apparently suffered some emotional damage from it.
It's been nearly two years since the release of Tom Hooper's maligned film adaptation — the one starring Taylor Swift, James Corden, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson and, inexplicably, Ian McKellen — but Webber is still feeling the cringe. So much so that he got a dog in an effort to erase its memory.
In a new interview with Variety, the composer slammed Hooper's adaptation, calling it "off-the-scale all wrong" and explained how he now travels with an emotional support puppy as a result of the trauma of watching his musical creation get ground into proverbial normie dust. Exclaim!'s own 2/10 review panned Hooper's film, calling it a "dizzying orgy of tap-dancing and CGI."
"There wasn't really any understanding of why the music ticked at all," Webber said. "I saw it and I just thought, 'Oh, God, no.' It was the first time in my 70-odd years on this planet that I went out and bought a dog. So the one good thing to come out of it is my little Havanese puppy."
As the composer went on to explain, he became so attached to the dog that he decided never to travel without him.
"I wrote off and said I needed him with me at all times because I'm emotionally damaged and I must have this therapy dog," he continued. "The airline wrote back and said, 'Can you prove that you really need him?' And I said 'Yes, just see what Hollywood did to my musical Cats.' Then the approval came back with a note saying, 'No doctor's report required.'"
A veritable TikTok icon in his own right, Webber has shared videos and gags featuring the new addition to his family (whose name is apparently Mojito) over on the video-sharing platform. See the pup in one of his recent posts below.
It's been nearly two years since the release of Tom Hooper's maligned film adaptation — the one starring Taylor Swift, James Corden, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson and, inexplicably, Ian McKellen — but Webber is still feeling the cringe. So much so that he got a dog in an effort to erase its memory.
In a new interview with Variety, the composer slammed Hooper's adaptation, calling it "off-the-scale all wrong" and explained how he now travels with an emotional support puppy as a result of the trauma of watching his musical creation get ground into proverbial normie dust. Exclaim!'s own 2/10 review panned Hooper's film, calling it a "dizzying orgy of tap-dancing and CGI."
"There wasn't really any understanding of why the music ticked at all," Webber said. "I saw it and I just thought, 'Oh, God, no.' It was the first time in my 70-odd years on this planet that I went out and bought a dog. So the one good thing to come out of it is my little Havanese puppy."
As the composer went on to explain, he became so attached to the dog that he decided never to travel without him.
"I wrote off and said I needed him with me at all times because I'm emotionally damaged and I must have this therapy dog," he continued. "The airline wrote back and said, 'Can you prove that you really need him?' And I said 'Yes, just see what Hollywood did to my musical Cats.' Then the approval came back with a note saying, 'No doctor's report required.'"
A veritable TikTok icon in his own right, Webber has shared videos and gags featuring the new addition to his family (whose name is apparently Mojito) over on the video-sharing platform. See the pup in one of his recent posts below.
@officialalw Comment any questions below for Andrew and he'll be answering some LIVE on Thursday 4th February at 5PM GMT as part of ##learnontiktok. - Team ALW
♬ Any Dream Will Do (From "Joseph") - Jason Donovan
