Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat (2004, DVD)

When I was a child, my grandmother got me most of the Dr. Seuss books. She and my mother both encouraged me to read from a young age, and some of the first books I read myself were the Dr. Seuss books that Grandma got me. I still have those books. She didn t get me all of his books though. I didn t have The Cat in the Hat or a few others. I have been seeing previews for the movie version of The Cat in the Hat for several months and I decided that I wanted to see it. I recently discovered that there was a cartoon version of the book that I somehow missed seeing growing up. Before seeing the movie, I was really unfamiliar with the story.

Sally and Conrad lived in Anville with their mother Joan. She was a real estate agent that worked for Mr. Humberfloob. He was a neat freak and fired someone for shaking his hand because he was afraid of the germs. Joan was hosting a party for the realtors at her home that evening. Mr. Humberfloob let her know that her job was on the line for the party.

Conrad never did what his mother told him to do. He was always getting into trouble and making a mess. Sally was the exact opposite. She never did anything wrong and enjoyed seeing her brother get in trouble. Joan went home early because the babysitter had to leave. Conrad managed to make a mess before she got home. She started to get ready for the party. Quinn, the neighbor she had been dating, dropped by to bring the dog home. Quinn and Conrad didn t like each other. Joan was called back into work and she got Mrs. Kwan to babysit. Joan gave her children some rules before she left. She made it clear that no one was to go into the living room. Right after Joan left, Mrs. Kwan fell asleep on the couch.

Conrad and Sally were sitting watching it rain when they heard a noise from upstairs. When they went to investigate, they found a large talking cat who was wearing a red and white striped hat. Cat was there to help Conrad and Sally have fun. Cat said that the children were out of balance. Conrad was willing to do things with the Cat, but Sally took more convincing. She was worried about breaking their mom s rules. The goldfish started talking, saying how they were breaking rules, but no one paid any attention to him. The children and Cat had some fun, and a huge mess was made. Sally, and even Conrad, was worried about getting it cleaned up before their mom got home. Quinn dropped by again and saw some of what was going on. He was determined to get Conrad in trouble with Joan.

CAST

Mike Myers - Cat
Alec Baldwin - Quinn
Kelly Preston - Joan
Dakota Fanning - Sally
Spencer Breslin - Conrad
Amy Hill - Mrs. Kwan
Sean Hayes - Mr. Humberfloob/Voice of the fish
Victor Brandt - Narrator

Bo Welsh - Director

The Cat in the Hat was released on November 21, 2003. The movie is based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. There has also been a cartoon version of the story. I haven t read the book or seen the cartoon, so I m not sure how different the movie is from those. It was rated PG and 78 minutes long. There were a few suggestive things said that some parents may not want a younger child to see.

I didn t have high expectations for The Cat in the Hat. I just wanted to be entertained, which I was. I have read and heard some things about this movie and know that a lot of people didn t like it that much at all. I have seen better, and it did have some problems, but I did enjoy it for the most part. This movie was aimed mainly at children, and I think adults need to remember that when they see it. I think if people go into a movie like this expecting too much, they will be disappointed. It was just meant to be a fun movie for kids. It was really silly at times, but that doesn t bother me. I like silly things at times. And I do still love cartoons and movies aimed at kids. I have seen some animated movies or movies aimed at children that did have more substance to the plot, but that doesn t mean that some other children s movies can t be silly and fun. Maybe I ended up enjoying the movie more than some other people because I hadn t read the book or seen the cartoon before seeing the movie.

The Cat in the Hat is the second Dr. Seuss book to be made into a movie. I did see the movie version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. That movie was different from the cartoon that I loved growing up, but I still enjoyed the movie. I didn t find it as horrible as some people. With that movie, I knew what had been changed from the original story because I was very familiar with it. I have a few thoughts on things that may have been added to the movie version of The Cat in the Hat, but I don t know for sure since I never read the book or saw the cartoon. I m guessing that the book focused in on the children and Cat and the trouble they caused in the house. I thought that the parts of the movie that took place in town, or showed some other characters, like Quinn and Joan s boss were added into the story. There were a few times during the movie when I thought that a scene was only in the movie to serve as filler. Some of those scenes weren t too bad, but others were just annoying, like the demonstration of the kitchen gadget that would make cup cakes. Some of those scenes, including the one featuring the cup cake gadget, dragged a bit. I think that the book may have been a bit short and needed to have some padding to get it to be long enough to be a full length movie.

There were several things that I thought were funny in The Cat in the Hat. Most of those things were shown in the trailer, but I did find some other things funny as well. Mike Myers was funny as the Cat, but he was a little irritating at times. He went a bit overboard in some scenes. He kept changing how Cat sounded as well. Most of the time it did sound like Cat had a New York accent, but that changed for some lines. There were times when Cat sounded like Austin Powers to me. I almost expected him to say one of Austin s catch phrases. I though he sounded like Dr. Evil a few times as well. He also slipped into a bit of a Scottish accent at times too. He seems to like doing that accent. It was almost like Myers was channeling every character he had even done before. Cat kept saying Oh yeah throughout the movie, and that was getting on my nerves by the end.

The Cat in the Hat has some interesting looking sets. It was set in a fictional town that Dr. Seuss created. There were always unique settings and some unique characters in the Dr. Seuss books that I read growing up. Things didn t look as different in this movie as they did in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Most of the characters looked to be humans instead of some other type of creature. Mrs. Kwan did have a strange hair color, but the people looked like normal people. They didn t look different like the Whos from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. There were only a few unique looking gadgets in the movie. The houses all looked identical and most of the cars were the same only in a different color. The houses did look a little different, but I m not exactly sure what it was about them that seemed different to me. It could have been the color schemes. Sally did have some sort of electronic organizer, but there didn t seem to be a lot of high tech stuff in the movie. The phones were older looking ones, like the old rotary phones. The trees were unique looking. I think that the talking fish was animated, but I m not sure. I thought that the fish looked fine. There were some other times in the movie when I think some kind of effect was used, and most of them looked ok to me. There was one time when I thought something did look right, but it flashed by so fast, I couldn t tell what it was that looked wrong to me.

The acting in The Cat in the Hat was fine. Mike Myers was good as Cat, but he did go overboard some times and seemed to slip into the voice of a character he had done before. Kelly Preston wasn t in that much of the movie, so she didn t have too much to do. She was good as the mother trying to get her children to behave. Sean Hayes was really funny as Mr. Humberfloob, though he only had a couple of scenes. He also provided the voice for the fish. The voice fit the fish. Dakota Fanning and Spencer Breslin were fine as the children, but nothing outstanding. The movie did have a narrator like How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The narrator was fine, but I did like Anthony Hopkins in that role for How the Grinch Stole Christmas more.

CHARACTERS

Cat - He was a large, talking cat. He was able to do all kinds of things that seemed to be somewhat magical. His hat was special in some way. Cat liked to have fun. He wanted to get Sally to lighten up and for Conrad to get more serious. Cat was silly at times.

Joan - Single mother of two children. She was a successful real estate agent. She was hosting a party for her agency that night and it was very important that everything went well. Her job was on the line.

Sally - Joan s daughter. Sally was very serious. She never did anything wrong. She seemed to enjoy seeing her brother get in trouble.

Conrad - Joan s son. He got into a lot of trouble. He rarely, if ever, did what he was told. He made messes on a regular basis. He wanted to have fun with Cat.

Quinn - Joan s single neighbor. The two had been dating for a while. Quinn had some plans. He was trying to push Joan into making a decision about Conrad. Quinn seemed to want to get Conrad in trouble.

Mrs. Kwan - The babysitter for Conrad and Sally. She fell asleep minutes after Joan left and slept through everything.

Mr. Humberfloob - Joan s boss. He was a neat freak and afraid of germs. He carried antibacterial hand lotion with him. He fired a man for shaking his hand.

The Cat in the Hat did have some problems, but I was entertained by it. I could see this movie being too silly for many adults. Children will probably like this movie more than adults. I do think the movie is worth seeing, but people should be in the mood for something a bit silly. People who really loved the book or cartoon may be disappointed with the movie because of whatever changes were made to the story.

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