It is safe to say that Andrew Lloyd Webber is not a fan of the film adaptation of his famed musical Cats. 

The film, which starred Rebel Wilson, James Corden, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson and Jason Derulo was universally panned by critics and only grossed $75 million on a budget of $80–100 million.

In an interview with Variety, Webber did not mice words about Tom Hopper’s version of Cats. 

“Cats was off-the-scale all wrong,” Lloyd Webber said. “There wasn’t really any understanding of why the music ticked at all. 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.”

However, he credits the film with gifting him an emotional therapy dog. 

“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 said. “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.’”

Despite its critical and commercial reviews, the film still earned a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Original Song category for “Beautiful Ghosts,” which was written by Taylor Swift and musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.