Every Movie Musical Featuring James Corden (Including Cats)

Here is a complete list of every movie musical that has featured James Corden, including the poorly received 2019 adaptation of the Broadway show Cats. Corden has made a name for himself as a talk show host, taking over for Craig Ferguson on CBS’ The Late Late Show in 2015. Since then, Corden has taken the format to new heights with his tremendously popular recurring segment Carpool Karaoke, wherein he sings popular songs alongside musicians and actors, oftentimes surprising fans and celebrities alike with his musical talent. Although his position with The Late Late Show was among his earliest ventures into American markets, Corden’s history in entertainment long predates his talk show success.

James Kimberly Corden first took to the stage in the 1996 production of the musical Martin Guerre in the West End, 23 years before he donned his CGI fur in the Cats movie. In 2004, he premiered in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys at the Royal National Theatre in London, touring across the world with the production before reprising his role in the 2006 film adaptation by the same name. He has appeared in numerous British television shows, from leading his own comedy series Gavin and Stacy to a three-episode stint on the global mega-hit Doctor Who. He has won ten Primetime Emmy Awards to date, and in 2015 Corden was presented with the Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year by BAFTA Los Angeles.

Much of Corden’s success (in America, at least) has been predicated on his musical abilities, so his affinity for movie musicals comes as no great surprise. However, his career in film has been met with as much acclaim, as it has controversy, from his Cinderella flash mob to the Cats re-release that somehow made the movie even worse. With that in mind, here is a look back at the successes and shortcomings throughout James Corden’s work in musical movies.

Begin Again (2013)

Begin Again was written and directed by John Carney following the success of his 2007 movie musical Once. The film follows Gretta (played by Kiera Knightley), a singer-songwriter who is discovered by a struggling record label executive (played by Mark Ruffalo). The two collaborate to produce an album that they record in various public locations in New York City. Corden plays Steve, a street performer and close friend of Gretta who encourages her to take to the stage after she is dumped by her boyfriend (played by Maroon 5’s Adam Levine following his American Horror Story appearance). Begin Again is the highest-rated of Corden’s musical movies, and although his role is relatively small, his performance is perhaps the most earnest of any film on this list.

Into The Woods (2014)

Disney’s film adaptation of Into the Woods is based on the 1986 stage production written by Steven Sondheim and James Lapine, which is itself an interpretation of several classic fairytales by the Brothers Grimm. The plot contains characters and elements from Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Bean Stalk that are all woven together by an original story. A baker and his wife (played by Corden and Emily Blunt) are unable to have children due to a hex placed on them by a witch (played by Meryl Streep), so they take to the forest in search of the ingredients for a potion that will undo their curse. Into the Woods is among the more successful movies based on Brothers Grimm fairytales, earning nominations for three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes, although it did not win at either ceremony.

Trolls (2016)

The animated Dreamworks film Trolls was inspired by the iconic dolls made by Danish company Dam Things that were hugely popular in America during the ‘60s and early ‘70s. After the Troll Village is invaded, Poppy (played by Anna Kendrick), the happiest troll ever born, and Branch (played by Justin Timberlake), a prickly and cautious troll, set off on a quest to save their friends. Corden plays Biggie, the biggest member of the Snack Pack with a big heart and a pet worm called Mr. Dinkles. The film revitalized the brand and brought an iconic toy to a new generation, bringing in $347 million worldwide before securing Trolls an online presence with Netflix, making it the most financially successful of Corden’s movie musicals and the second most successful of Corden’s films overall, sitting only $4 million behind 2018’s Peter Rabbit.

Smallfoot (2018)

Smallfoot is an inverted interpretation of the fable of the abominable snowman (or yeti) that is based on an unpublished children’s book by Sergio Pablos called Yeti Tracks. The film follows Migo (played by Channing Tatum), a friendly yeti whose life takes an unexpected turn when he comes across a creature he never knew existed—a human (or “smallfoot”). The other yetis don’t believe his story and banish him from their village, so Migo sets off on a journey to prove his story and earn back the respect of his peers. Corden plays Percy Patterson, a struggling British wildlife documentarian in search of yetis who is captured by Migo and brought back to his village to clear his name. Despite competing with a trend of animated yeti movies, Smallfoot seems to have found its audience, pulling in $214 million worldwide.

Yesterday (2019)

Yesterday is a musical romantic comedy directed by Danny Boyle, the legendary filmmaker responsible for such iconic films as Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire. After a bus crash during a mysterious global blackout, a struggling British singer-songwriter, Jack, awakes to discover that the band The Beatles and all of their music had somehow never existed. Being the only person in the world with the memory of their music, Jack becomes an overnight sensation performing the Beatles’ greatest hits as though they were his own. Several celebrities appear as themselves in the film, including Ed Sheeran, Michael Kiwanuka, and James Corden, who invites Jack onto The Late Late Show to perform.

Cats (2019)

Perhaps the most memorable moment in recent cinema history is the backlash surrounding the movie adaptation of Cats. Cats is one of the most successful and long-running Broadway shows in history, having been performed over 7,000 times since it premiered in 1982. The show slowly introduces a cast of cats with different quirks and intentions as they all compete for the honor of rebirth. Corden plays Bustopher Jones, a parody of an Edwardian gentleman of leisure. Although the Broadway show has historically been a massive success, the 2019 film adaptation was quite the opposite. Between unpopular casting choices, terrible CGI, and horrifying sequences, Cats was almost unanimously detested by fans and critics alike. The film only grossed $75 million worldwide against its $95 million budget, and its 2.7 rating on IMDb makes it one of the lowest-rated films of all time.

Trolls World Tour (2020)

A sequel to 2016’s Trolls, Trolls World Tour makes music a more integral part of its story, with voice cameos from various singers and artists. Poppy and Branch discover that there are six different troll kingdoms, each devoted to a specific style of music—funk, country, techno, classical, pop, and rock. When Queen Barb and King Thrash (played by Rachel Bloom and Ozzy Osborne) from the rock kingdom decide to destroy all other forms of music, Poppy and Branch embark on a mission to unite the other kingdoms and preserve the diversity of music. Most of the original cast returned for the sequel, with Corden reprising his role as Biggie. Trolls World Tour premiered on April 10, 2020, roughly a month after the first COVID lockdowns in the United States, which significantly complicated its release. The film only grossed $51.3 million in theaters worldwide, although it found success with its VOD release.

The Prom (2020)

Though he commands a massively popular television empire, director Ryan Murphy has struggled to find success on the big screen, and his Netflix film adaptation of the Broadway musical The Prom is certainly no exception. In Edgewater, Indiana, a high school prom is to be canceled because a girl named Emma (played by Jo Ellen Pellman) wants to bring a girl as her date. At the same time, two struggling actors (played by Corden and Meryl Streep) are searching for a way to revitalize their careers after the failure of a recent show. The two see Emma’s story on Twitter, so they set off to Indiana to devote themselves to the cause. Corden received devastatingly negative reviews for his insulting caricature of a gay man, and the film was rather poorly received as a whole, currently holding a 5.9 rating on IMDb.

Cinderella (2021)

The story of Cinderella dates back to roughly the year 7 BC and has been told in different forms in various countries across the world, and of all of those interpretations, Amazon Prime’s version of Cinderella is perhaps the most distinct. Writer and director Kay Cannon somewhat modernizes the story with performances of popular music, although the story itself is set in the 19th century. James Corden appears as one of the three mice turned human by the Fabulous Godmother (played by Billy Porter) alongside fellow British comedians Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster. Although the film made some bold choices that were generally well-received, the terrible dialogue and clashing tones made the film a critical failure, garnering Cinderella largely bad reviews and an average 4.2 rating on IMDb.

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