Dr. Seuss - The Cat in the Hat (2003, DVD)

In the sixties and early seventies, Ted Geisel and Chuck Jones worked together to bring several of Geisel's Dr. Seuss books to the small screen. The Grinch, the Lorax, and Horton the Elephant all came to life on television specials. In 1971, Geisel and Jones created a cartoon of Seuss's most famous character, The Cat in the Hat. "The Cat In The Hat" became a mini-musical, and features Allan Sherman in the title role. One rainy day, Sally (Pamelyn Ferdin) and Conrad (Tony Frazier) are left home alone while their mother (Gloria Camacho) goes grocery shopping. Bored with their toys, they spend the time sadly looking out the window. The Cat enters the house and offers to entertain, but the kids decide that's not a good idea. He pretends to leave, but comes back, claiming somebody stole his gradunza. The only suspects are the children and their fish, Karlos K. Krinklebein (Daws Butler).

The Cat then proceeds to have the children mark every place they inspect for the missing object, much to the dismay of Karlos. When marking fails, the Cat unleashes Thing 1 and Thing 2 (Thurl Ravenscroft and Lewis Morford), and they turn Karlos and his bowl into a kite and a hockey puck. The Cat then launches into a song about who he is in various countires, and finally brings Karlos into the spirit of fun. When Mother is seen coming home, The Cat makes sure everything is back in its place, and hopes to visit another day.

There's not much of a story to "The Cat In The Hat." The lost gradunza is just a ruse for The Cat to help Sally and Conrad make the most of a rainy day. I suppose the cartoon was made into a musical to fit the entertainer that Sherman was, a writer and singer who loved to make people laugh and smile. Sherman happily delivers as the fun-loving feline, with songs written by Seuss and Dean Elliott. My favorite song is "Cat Hat," where he gets the kids, the fish, and the things to join in the international feel of the song. When the song option is selected on the DVD, I discovered that the cartoon started with "Gradunza" and ended at the conclusion of the show. To me, The Cat in the Hat was just as tailor-made to Sherman as the Grinch was to Boris Karloff. It was, once again, a happy marriage of star and material. The animation, though made Seuss-like, does look choppy, making its TV nature obvious.

The key actors are probably more familiar to the over-40 crowd. Sherman's big claim to fame was his hit song, "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah." Butler did voices for many cartoons, and was the original voice of Cap'n Crunch. Ferdin was a popular child actor who was an early voice of Lucy Van Pelt, and was one of the stars of the live-action kids show, "Curiosity Shop." Ravenscroft is best known for this work as TV pitchman Tony the Tiger. All the actors have fun with their roles, and work nicely together.

"The Cat In The Hat" is a short feature (26 minutes) that's also short of DVD extras. The most notable is a look behind the scenes of the theatrical release starring Mike Myers. "The Cat In The Hat" brought back pleasant memories for me, and teaches kids the lesson to make the most of any situation. It's a journey of delightful discovery. The journey, in my case, was one of delightful rediscovery.

This has been an entry in the "Lean-N-Mean II" write-off, hosted by sleeper54. For a complete list of entries, here is the link: http://www.epinions.com/content_3600982148

Thanks again Tom.