Guy straps camera to model train, envisioning a world where giant cats roam the Earth

Jonathan Lawton is a visionary artist. His work may seem humble—the West Yorkshire man builds model railways, set in blue-skied little villages, just like so many other people looking for a productive reprieve from their daily lives. But, Lawton’s work extends beyond its genre and into the realm of speculative fiction thanks to his collaborator, a cat named Mittens that towers like a benevolent god in a showcase of his creation.

Lawton recently created a striking short film in which he put a camera on a model train as it toured his miniature town. The craftsmanship on display in the tiny boxcars and bridges is impressive in its own right, but what truly stands out is Mittens walking throughout the town, mighty and proud as it surveys its domain.

Mittens towers over the little village, keeping watch over everything that occurs within its domain. The train momentarily enters a tunnel and briefly hides from the giant cat’s view, but it emerges again soon after, just as Mittens effortlessly descends from a warehouse roof to stand, impassive as a four-legged Colossus Of Rhodes, while the train passes between its car-sized paws.

Fortunately, Lawton and Mittens’ art offers a utopian vision of the future. The cat doesn’t swipe or bite at its tiny subjects, but lives in harmony with them, keeping a watchful eye on all it surveys. The only downside to the video’s depiction of a giant cat-ruled world is that occasionally, as the clip demonstrates, our skyscraper-sized feline overlords may occasionally interrupt traffic by sitting in front of a train before lazily standing up to reveal a gross cat asshole the size of a billboard.

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