There Was Almost a Version of WEST STORY STORY Starring Animated Cats

A version of West Side Story featuring animated cats was almost created, Deadline reports.

Animated film writer and director Christopher Sanders revealed, "Jeffrey Katzenberg once flew me out to New York City because he wanted us to do West Side Story with cats."

He went on to share, "I [story]boarded this huge sequence where these cats were battling each other. Jeffrey said, 'We're going to fly to New York, and you're going to pitch it to Leonard Bernstein.' All of a sudden, I was on Disney's corporate jet. I went to the room and I set up all the boards, and I practiced and I practiced and I practiced."

Leonard Bernstein did not show up for the meeting and instead sent representatives, Sanders said. "You could tell it wasn't going well. Like, 'Oh, I think we may have made a mistake by coming here.'"

Coincidentally enough, years later, big-screen adaptations of both West Side Story and Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS were made within a few years of each other.

Read the original story on Deadline.