The Cat in the Hat (film)

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bo Welch
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Screenplay by	Alec Berg David Mandel Jeff Schaffer
Based on	The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Starring	Mike Myers Spencer Breslin Dakota Fanning Kelly Preston Alec Baldwin Amy Hill Sean Hayes
Narrated by	Victor Brandt
Music by	David Newman
Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by	Don Zimmerman
Production companies	Imagine Entertainment Alphaville Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (North America) DreamWorks Pictures (International)
Release dates	November 21, 2003 (2003-11-21)
Running time	82 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$109 million[2]
Box office	$134 million[2]

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Bo Welch based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss book The Cat in the Hat. The film stars Mike Myers in the title role of the Cat in the Hat, and Dakota Fanning as Sally. Sally's brother (who is unnamed in the book and the 1971 TV special), Conrad, is portrayed by Spencer Breslin. The film is the second feature-length Dr. Seuss adaptation after the 2000 holiday film Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The idea was originally conceived in 2001, with Tim Allen initially cast as the Cat, but he dropped his role due to work on The Santa Clause 2, and the role was later given to Myers. Filming took place in California for three months. While the basic plot parallels that of the book, the film filled out its 82 minutes by adding new subplots and characters significantly different from the original story, similar to the feature film adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Released on November 21, 2003 in the United States, the film grossed $134 million worldwide.^[3] After the film's release, Seuss' widow, Audrey Geisel, decided not to allow any further live-action adaptations of Seuss' works to be produced, and Universal Pictures cancelled a planned sequel to the film based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.

Plot

Conrad and Sally Walden live in the city of Anville with their single mother Joan Walden, who works for Hank Humberfloob of Humberfloob Real Estate, Hank Humberfloob warns Joan the day the movie takes place that she will be fired if her house is messy for the upcoming meet and greet party (because of his germaphobia). Later that day, Conrad trashes the house, causing their dog Nevins to run down the street in fright. Joan punishes Conrad for a week while re-cleaning the house. Their next-door neighbor, Lawrence Quinn, whom Joan is dating to Conrad's dismay, brings back Nevins, and Sally is grateful. When Lawrence leaves, Joan is called back to the office again, leaving the kids with Mrs. Kwan, a lethargic babysitter, and making sure they are not allowed to enter the living room, which is being kept pristine for the upcoming party. Lawrence is constantly on the lookout for any mischief that Conrad is up to, as he wants nothing more than to send him away to military school for the rest of his life, earning Conrad the reputation of "troublemaker", while his sister is characterized as "perfect and well-behaved".

Once their mother leaves, and Mrs. Kwan is falling asleep, Sally and Conrad discover a humanoid, oversized talking Cat in their house. The Cat wants them to learn how to have fun, though the children's pet Fish doesn't want the Cat around while Joan is away. In a series of antics, the Cat balances some stuff, ruins Joan's best dress, jumps on the living room's couch, and bakes cupcakes that explode. In the process, he even releases two troublemaking Things from a crate that he explains is actually a portal from their world to his.

The Cat tells Conrad that he only has one rule: to never open the crate. The Cat tells the Things to fix Joan's dress; however, they end up wrecking the house instead, since they only do the opposite of what is said. Despite the Cat's warning, Conrad picks the lock anyway. When the crate's lock attaches itself to the collar of the family dog, Nevins, which then escapes, the Cat and the kids go out to find it.

Meanwhile, Lawrence is revealed to be a disgusting and unemployed slob who has false teeth and is in financial ruin, showing off the impression as a successful businessman in the hopes of marrying Joan for her fortune and sponging off of her. Lawrence sees Nevins running across the street and sees that this is an opportunity for Joan to send Conrad to military school as punishment and allow him to move in. They are almost discovered by some children from the nearby birthday party of Sally's former friend, Denise, during which the Cat hides by pretending to be a piñata and is subsequently beaten.

While spying on Nevins, the Cat and the kids see Lawrence arrive and take the dog. The Cat and the kids are witness to this and, using the Cat's super-powered car, they follow Lawrence into town but end up crashing the car to a pole. Lawrence goes to see Joan, but the Cat (disguised as a hippie) intervenes and tricks Lawrence into handing over the dog and he and the kids escape. They later see an anxious Lawrence driving home with Joan, but Conrad uses Things 1 and 2 to stall her by posing as police officers, giving them time to get back using Lawrence's car. While distracting them, Lawrence sees the group drive past and races back to the house, telling Joan to meet him there.

During this time, "the mother of all messes" has been emitted from the unlocked crate and enters the house. Lawrence catches the kids out the front and pushes them into the house, where they find it surprisingly immaculate. A hidden Cat then reveals himself to Lawrence, who stumbles back in fear sneezing (he is allergic to cats), tearing through a wall and falling off a bottomless cliff, revealing the Cat's world. The trio navigate their way through the oversized house by riding Mrs. Kwan and find the crate sucking up things that disappear forever once gone through.

Sally is nearly sucked up, but Conrad manages to put the lock back on the crate to save her and the house. The house returns to its normal proportions but immediately falls apart. The Cat then tells the kids that he had planned the whole day, including making not opening the crate his only rule (as he knew Conrad could not resist), and also admits he never really lost his magic hat.

The kids angrily tell the Cat to leave the house and think about all the trouble and for the destruction he has caused, and then brace themselves for their mother's arrival. However, the Cat happily returns to clean up his mess with a great cleaning contraption, much to Conrad and Sally's surprise and delight.

Afterwards, when everything is restored to its original cleanliness, the Cat says goodbye to Conrad and Sally, and they plead with him not to go, but he departs just as Joan is coming in. Lawrence arrives, thinking he has busted the kids, but when Joan sees the clean house (and a messy Lawrence), she doesn't believe him, and dumps him as a result. He cries and sneezes in his hands, much to Joan's disgust (as it is possible that she has learned of his sloppiness). He asks her to marry him, but she closes the door, and Sally locks him out of the house. Conrad and Sally jump for joy, as Mrs. Kwan falls asleep again.

When her party is successful, Joan and her kids play in the living room by jumping on the couch and having fun, while the Cat in the Hat goes out of town with Thing 1 and 2 (after being revealed to be the narrator), completing the film as the credits roll.

Cast

• Mike Myers as the Cat in the Hat, a huge, anthropomorphic, wise-cracking cat with a Brooklyn accent who wears a special hat which reveals many magical abilities.
• Spencer Breslin as Conrad Walden, Joan's destructive and misbehaved son.
• Dakota Fanning as Sally Walden, Joan's dull, well-behaved, and rule-obeying daughter.
• Kelly Preston as Joan Walden, Conrad and Sally's mother, and a workaholic real-estate agent.
• Alec Baldwin as Larry Quinn, the Waldens' pompous, lazy, unemployed next-door neighbor. He is revealed to be allergic to cats, steals food from the Waldens and gets away with it, and is determined to both marry Joan for her wealth and send Conrad to military school to straighten up his behavior.
• Amy Hill as Mrs. Kwan, an elderly woman who gets hired to watch the kids, though she sleeps through her job. Her weight and sleep serves as a running gag.
• Sean Hayes as Mr. Hank Humberfloob, Joan's boss. Hayes is also the voice of the family fish.
• Danielle Chuchran and Taylor Rice as Thing One, and Brittany Oaks and Talia-Lynn Prairie as Thing Two; two gibbering trouble-making creatures that the Cat brings in with him. Dan Castellaneta provided the voices for both Things.
• Steven Anthony Lawrence as Dumb Schweitzer
• Paris Hilton as a female club-goer
• Bugsy as Nevins, the Waldens' pet dog. Frank Welker provided his voice.
• Candace Dean Brown as a secretary who works for the Humberfloob Real Estate.
• Daran Norris as the Astounding Products Announcer
• Clint Howard as Kate the Caterer
• Paige Hurd as Denise, who doesn't speak to Sally anymore, not long after she talked back to her. She never invited Sally to her birthday party either since Sally earlier stated that she told Denise not to speak to her anymore.
• Stephen Hibbert as Jim McFinnigan
• Roger Morrisey as Mr. Vompatatat
• Victor Brandt as the Narrator, who tells the story; he is revealed to be the Cat using a voice-changer at the end.

Production

Development

DreamWorks acquired rights to the original book in 1997.^[4] However, production did not originally start until after the 2000 Christmas/comedy film How the Grinch Stole Christmas, based on another Dr. Seuss book of the same name, became a commercial and critical success. Brian Grazer, who was the producer of The Grinch, stated, "Because we grew up with these books, and because they have such universal themes and the illustrations ignite such fantasy in your mind as a child — the aggregation of all those feelings — it leaves an indelible, positive memory. And so when I realized I had a chance to convert first The Grinch and then, The Cat in the Hat, into movies, I was willing to do anything to bring them to the screen."^[5] Grazer contacted Bo Welch over the phone with the offer to direct the film, and he accepted.^[6] When production began, songs written by Randy Newman were dropped because they were deemed inferior. Newman's cousin, David Newman, composed the score for the film. Although Welch and a publicist for Myers denied it, several people said Myers had considerable input into the film's direction, telling some of the cast (co-stars Baldwin and Preston) how to perform their scenes.^[7]

Casting

Tim Allen was originally planned to play the role of the Cat. The script would be originally based on a story conceived by Allen, who admitted that as a child he was afraid of Seuss' "mischievous feline" babysitter. Allen stated, "My dream is to give it the edge that scared me."^[8] However, producers did not commission a screenplay until late February 2001, when Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and Dave Mandel (who were also writers on Seinfeld) were hired to write the script (replacing the original draft of the film that was written a few years before),^[9] so there was no way the film would be ready to shoot before the deadline. Allen was also committed to shooting Disney's The Santa Clause 2, which was also delayed because Allen wanted a script rewrite.^[10] Due to a scheduling conflict with The Santa Clause 2,^[11] he dropped out his role.^[12] In March 2002, the role of the Cat was given to Mike Myers,^[13] even though he had an argument with Grazer about starring in a cancelled Saturday Night Live skit named Dieter.^[14] Myers stated in an interview that he was a long-time fan of the original Dr. Seuss book, and that it was the first book he ever read.^[15]

Makeup and visual effects

Makeup for the character was designed by Steve Johnson. The Cat costume was made of angora and human hair and was fitted with a cooling system. To keep Mike Myers cool during the outdoor shoots, a portable air conditioner was available that connected a hose to the suit between shots. The tail and ears were battery operated.^[16] The Fish was considered somewhat of a unique character for Rhythm & Hues (responsible for some of the effects and animation in such films as Cats & Dogs, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Scooby-Doo), in that the character had no shoulders, hips or legs, so all of the physical performance had to emit from the eyes, head and fin motion. Sean Hayes, who provided the voice for the Fish, found the role significantly different from his usual on-camera jobs; he did not know how the final animation would look, and all of his work took place alone in a sound booth.^[17]

Filming

Prior to filming, giant props for the film were stolen from the set. Local police found the props vandalized in a mall car park in Pomona, California. The props were covered with graffiti. No arrests had been made, and filming was to start the next week.^[18] Principal photography took place mostly in California from October 2002 until January 2003. The neighborhood and the town centre was filmed in a rural valley near Simi Valley, where 24 houses (each 26-feet square and 52-feet tall) were constructed.^[19] The downtown area outdoor shots were filmed along a Pomona street where a number of antique and gift shops are located. The community decided not to redecorate after filming ended, so the surreal paint scheme and some of the signage could still be seen as it appears in the film. Because of so much smog in the area, the sky had to be digitally replaced with the cartoon-like sky and colours of the background had to be digitally fixed.

Music

The soundtrack was released on November 18, 2003.^[20] It includes David Newman's score, plus a song by Smash Mouth ("Getting Better") and ("Hang On") that makes it the third film in an row playing a song in an film starring Mike Myers, after Shrek (2001) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). The soundtrack also includes a couple of songs performed by Mike Myers (the role of the Cat). Newman's score won a BMI Film Music Award.

Track listing

All music composed by David Newman, except as noted.

Release

Home media

The Cat in the Hat was released for VHS and DVD on March 16, 2004.^[21] It features 16 deleted scenes, 20 outtake scenes, almost a dozen featurettes, and a “Dance with the Cat” tutorial to teach kids a Cat in the Hat dance.^[22] On February 7, 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray.^[23]

Reception

Box office

The Cat in the Hat opened theatrically on November 21, 2003 and earned $38,329,160 in its opening weekend, ranking first in the North American box office.^[24] The film ended its theatrical run on March 18, 2004, having grossed $101,149,285 domestically and $32,811,256 overseas for a worldwide total of $133,960,541.^[2]

Critical response

Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 10% of critics gave the film a positive review out of 158 reviews, with the consensus statement being: "Filled with double entendres and potty humor, this Cat falls flat."^[25] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 19/100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike".^[26] It also received an average grade of D+ from critics in the interpretation of Yahoo's film website.^[27]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film one star, stating, "Cat, another over-blown Hollywood raid on Dr. Seuss, has a draw on Mike Myers, who inexplicably plays the Cat by mimicking Bert Lahr in The Wizard of Oz." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. Although he praised the production design, he considered the film to be "all effects and stunts and CGI and prosthetics, with no room for lightness and joy".^[28] Ebert and co-host Richard Roeper gave the film "Two Thumbs Down". Roeper said of Myers' performance that "Maybe a part of him was realizing as the movie was being made that a live-action version of The Cat in the Hat just wasn't a great idea." Ebert had the same problem with the film that he had with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in that "If there is one thing I've learned from these two movies is that we don't want to see Jim Carrey as a Grinch, and we don't want to see Mike Myers as a cat. These are talented comedians, let's see them do their stuff, don't bury them under a ton of technology."

Concerns were also raised over the PG rating of the film with some critics, stating that it should have instead been rated PG-13 in relation to its high amount of adult content.^[29]

Leonard Maltin in his Movie Guide gave it one and a half stars out of four saying that the "Brightly colored adaptation of the beloved rhyming book for young children is a betrayal of everything Dr. Seuss ever stood for, injecting potty humor and adult (wink-wink) jokes into a mixture of heavy-handed slapstick and silliness." Maltin also claimed that the film's official title which included Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat was "an official insult."^[30] However, Jeffrey Lyons from the NBC-TV, enjoyed the film and considered it "enormously funny".

Baldwin addressed complaints the film received because of its dissimilarity to the source material. He expressed a belief that a film is "an idea about something" and that because Dr. Seuss' work is so unique, making a feature-length film out of one of his stories would entail taking liberties and making broad interpretations.^[31]

Awards and nominations

The film also received three nominations at the Hollywood Makeup & Hairstylists Guild Awards.^[33]

Cancelled sequel

Mike Myers stated in an interview (on the day the film was released) that he expected a sequel, since there was a sequel to the book. A sequel based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back was in development, a little more than a month before the film's release.^[34] In February 2004, Dr. Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, said she would never allow any further live action adaptations of her husband's works, and the sequel was eventually cancelled.^[35]

Animated remake

On March 15, 2012, a computer animated (CGI) remake of the film was announced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, following the success of The Lorax.^{[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]} However, no release date is set for the remake.

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Video game

Reception

Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (Xbox) 52.67%[43] (PS2) 50%[44] (GBA) 46.50%[45] (PC) 19.50%[46] Metacritic (Xbox) 56/100[47] (PS2) 56/100[48] (GBA) 40/100[49] (PC) 40/100[50] Review scores Publication Score Famitsu 27/40[51] GameSpot 3.8/10[52] GameZone (PC) 8/10[53] (PS2) 7.2/10[54] (GBA) 5/10[55] IGN 6/10[56] (GBA) 4/10[57] Nintendo Power 2.3/5[58] OPM (US) [59] OXM 5.5/10[60] PC Gamer (UK) 9%[61] PC Zone 30%[62] X-Play [63]

A video game based on the film was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance on November 5, 2003, and PC on November 9, 2003, shortly before the film's theatrical release. A version for the Nintendo GameCube was cancelled.

The plot of the game is different from the film; instead of Conrad unlocking the Cat's Crate, Larry unlocks it and steals the Lock. Playing as the Cat, the player must go through thirteen levels through the transformed house and chase down Larry, who is collecting the magic released from the Crate for himself, and defeat him to get the Lock (called the "Crablock" in-game) back and re-lock the Crate before the children's mother returns home.^[64]

The game received mixed reviews^{[43][44][45][47][48][49]} (except for the PC version, which received negative reviews).^[46][50]

Trivia

• Mr. Humberfloob is a germaphobe, as is the film's producer, Brian Grazer.

See also

• List of films based on Dr. Seuss books

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Cat in the Hat (film)

• Official website
• The Cat in the Hat at the Internet Movie Database
• The Cat in the Hat at Box Office Mojo
• The Cat in the Hat at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Cat in the Hat at Metacritic
• Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat at MobyGames