AceShowbiz - "Cats" director Tom Hooper altered the computerised feline visual effects after the movie's first trailer sparked a global backlash.

An early teaser for the movie musical debuted in July but left fans bemused as they were shocked by the computer effects used to give stars like Taylor Swift, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, and Jennifer Hudson a furry cat-like appearance.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Hooper revealed changes have been made to the controversial visuals ahead of the film's release next month.

"We'd only finished shooting in March, so all the visual effects were at quite an early stage," the "Les Miserables" filmmaker said. "Possibly there were, in the extremity in some of the responses, some clues in how to keep evolving (the production)."

"When you watch the finished film, you'll see that some of the designs of the cats have moved on since then, and certainly our understanding of how to use the technology to make them work has gone up, too."

Hooper admitted that he was stunned by the scale of the reaction to the "Cats" trailer on social media, saying, "I was just so fascinated because I didn't think it was controversial at all. So it was quite entertaining. Cats was apparently the number-one trending topic in the world, for a good few hours at least."

However, the changes don't seem to have placated the naysayers, as a new trailer drew a similar if slightly more muted reaction, with social media users repeating criticism that the characters looked unnerving.

"Cats", which is based on a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, hits cinemas on December 20.