The Cat in the Hat (film)

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

The Cat in the Hat (also known as Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat) is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Bo Welch in his directorial debut and written by Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer. Based on Dr. Seuss's 1957 book of the same name, it was the second feature-length Dr. Seuss adaptation after How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). The film stars Mike Myers in the title role with Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Amy Hill, and Sean Hayes in supporting roles.

Production on the film began in 1997 with Tim Allen originally cast in the title role. After Allen dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with The Santa Clause 2, the role went to Myers. Filming took place in California and lasted three months. As with the previous Dr. Seuss adaptation, many new characters and subplots were added to the story to bring it up to feature-length.

Released on November 21, 2003 in the United States by Universal Pictures with DreamWorks Pictures handling international distribution, the film grossed $134 million against a budget of $109 million^[2] and was panned by critics due to its screenplay, humor, lack of faithfulness to the source material and Myers' portrayal of the title character, although the music and production design received some praise.^[3] Seuss's widow Audrey Geisel was also critical of the film and decided not to allow any further live-action adaptations of her husband's works, resulting in the cancellation of a sequel based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back; all Dr. Seuss film adaptations have since been produced using computer animation.^[4][3]

Plot[]

12-year-old Conrad and 8-year-old Sally Walden live in the city of Anville with their single mother Joan, who works as a real estate agent for obsessive compulsive disorder-prone Hank Humberfloob. One day, Humberfloob warns Joan she'll be fired if her house is a mess for an office party she is hosting that night.

Meanwhile, Conrad proceeds to trash the house, causing the family's dog Nevins to run off in fright and him to almost ruin Joan's dress. Consequently, Joan grounds him for a week. Their next-door neighbor Lawrence "Larry" Quinn (whom Joan has been dating) brings back Nevins and Sally is grateful. Later that day, Humberfloob asks Joan to come back to the office so she asks lethargic babysitter Mrs. Kwan to watch the kids.

After Mrs. Kwan falls asleep, the children encounter The Cat in the Hat, an anthropomorphic tall talking cat with a red-and-white striped top hat and a large red bow tie who has sneaked into their house and persuades them to learn about having fun. The Cat proceeds to leave a trail of destruction throughout the house, such as jumping on the couch, baking gross cupcakes that explode, and even ruining Joan's dress by cleaning the wall with it. He also releases two troublemaking creatures, Thing 1 and Thing 2, from a crate which he locks and forbids Conrad to tamper with, explaining that it is a portal to his world. The Cat tells the Things to fix Joan's dress but they instead trash the house since they always do the opposite of what they are told. Ignoring the Cat, Conrad picks the lock, which grabs on to Nevins' collar. The Things then throw Nevins out the window and he runs off again. While looking for Nevins, the trio find themselves at a party for Sally's former friend Denise in which the Cat, masquerading as a piñata, ends up getting whacked by plastic bats.

Meanwhile, Larry is revealed as an unemployed, bankrupt slob posing as a successful businessman both to marry Joan only for her money and to get rid of Conrad (whom he despises because of his destructiveness) by sending him to military school. He sees Nevins running down the street and believes that Conrad let him out again so he calls Joan to let her know and she considers sending Conrad away for it. While spying on Nevins, the trio notice Larry kidnapping him, prompting the trio to chase the pair into the city with the Cat's super powered car. Larry notifies Joan about the situation but the Cat (disguised as a hippie) tricks him into giving them Nevins and they escape and retrieve the lock. When the trio sees Larry anxiously riding back with Joan (he believes the kids are trying to get out of going to military school) Conrad has the Things pose as police officers so the trio can beat them home with Larry's car. However, while they distract them, Larry sees them drive past in his car and realizes what they were plotting so he races after them on a police motorcycle telling Joan to meet him at the house.

When the trio returns to the house with the lock, Larry intercepts the children and orders them inside the house, despite Conrad's attempts to warn him of the mess inside. The Cat then surprises Larry who stumbles back sneezing uncontrollably as he is allergic to cats with the house falling apart in a paper-like fashion being transformed into "The Mother of All Messes", with Larry falling into a purple gooey abyss. The trio navigate through the surreal house, find the crate and lock it, whereupon the house returns to its normal proportions but immediately collapses. In a heated argument, the kids learn that the Cat had planned the whole day (and knew that Conrad couldn't resist not opening the crate) and they furiously order him to leave.

The kids resign themselves to facing the consequences when Joan returns, but the Cat (having a change of heart) reappears with a cleaning invention and fixes the house. The kids reconcile with the Cat and thank him for everything before he departs and Joan arrives. Larry returns covered in goo and he tells Joan what happened but Conrad reveals Larry's flaws and Joan's feelings for him, naming it a "win-win" scenario. Larry then begs Joan to accept his feelings for her as well as a marriage proposal but she reveals that while Conrad is indeed a troublemaker, he is a nice person at heart and politely dumps Larry, upsetting him. After the successful party, Joan spends quality time with her kids by jumping on the couch with them while the Cat and the Things walk off into the sunset.

Cast[]

• Mike Myers as The Cat in the Hat, a 6 ft. tall, anthropomorphic wisecracking cat with a Brooklyn accent who wears an oversized red bow tie and a magical red-and-white striped top hat that reveals many humorous gadgets.
• Spencer Breslin as Conrad Walden, 12-year-old Joan's destructive and misbehaved borderline troublemaker of a son, and the older brother of Sally.
• Dakota Fanning as Sally Walden, 8-year-old Joan's dull, somewhat bossy, well-behaved and rule-obeying sycophant daughter, and the younger sister of Conrad.
• Kelly Preston as Joan Walden, Conrad and Sally's single mother, a workaholic real estate agent.
• Alec Baldwin as Larry Quinn, the main antagonist; the Waldens' pompous, lazy and unemployed next-door neighbor who is allergic to cats, steals food from the Waldens unnoticed, and is determined to both marry Joan to mooch off of her wealth and send Conrad to military school to get rid of him.
• Amy Hill as Mrs. Kwan, an overweight and elderly Taiwanese woman who was hired to watch the kids, but sleeps through her job, which (as well as her weight) serves as a running gag.
• Sean Hayes as Hank Humberfloob, Joan's zero-tolerance boss, a germophobe who is seemingly friendly, but is quick to fire employees for even the smallest infractions (such as for shaking his hand which he does not allow since he dislikes germs), often in an extremely loud tone of voice.
  • Hayes is also the voice of the somewhat cynical, pessimistic family fish.
• Danielle Chuchran and Taylor Rice as Thing 1, and Brittany Oaks and Talia-Lynn Prairie as Thing 2; two gibbering trouble-making creatures that the Cat brings in with him. Dan Castellaneta provided the voices for the Things.
• Steven Anthony Lawrence as Dumb Schweitzer, an intellectually and socially inferior pre-teen boy with a Bronx accent.
• Paris Hilton as a female club-goer.
• Bugsy as Nevins, the Waldens' pet dog. Frank Welker provided his voice. Welker had previously provided the voice of Max the dog from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• Candace Dean Brown as a secretary who works for Humberfloob Real Estate.
• Daran Norris as the Astounding Products Announcer
• Clint Howard as Kate the Caterer
• Paige Hurd as Denise, Sally's former friend who no longer speaks to her, 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.
• Roger Morrissey 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 Pictures acquired the film rights to the original Dr. Seuss book in 1997.^[5] 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 success. Brian Grazer, 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."^[6] Grazer then contacted Bo Welch over the phone with the offer to direct the film, and he accepted.^[7] When production began, songs written by Randy Newman were dropped because they were deemed inferior; Newman's cousin, David, instead 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 by telling some of the cast (co-stars Baldwin and Preston) how to perform their scenes.^[8]

Casting[]

Tim Allen was originally considered for the role of the Cat. The script was 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."^[9] However, the studio didn't commission a screenplay until late February 2001, when Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer (best known for being writers on the television series Seinfeld) were hired by the studio to script the film (replacing the original draft of the film that was written a few years prior by Eric Roth),^[10] so the film would not be ready to shoot before the deadline. By this point, Allen was also committed to shooting Disney's The Santa Clause 2, which was also delayed because Allen wanted a script rewrite.^[11] Due to scheduling conflicts with that film,^[12] he dropped out of the role.^[13] As a result, in March 2002 the role of the Cat was given to Mike Myers,^[14] whom Grazer had an argument with regarding a proposed film adaptation of Myers' Saturday Night Live sketch Sprockets, which Myers cancelled in June 2000 after being dissatisfied with his own script for it.^[15] 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.^[16]

Makeup and visual effects[]

Originally, Rick Baker was set to be the prosthetic makeup designer for the film after his previous experience with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but due to conflicts with the studio and production team, particularly with Myers' behavior and the complex challenge of designing the character’s makeup, he was replaced by Steve Johnson. The Cat costume was made of angora and human hair and was fitted with a cooling system. To keep Myers cool during the outdoor shoots, a portable air conditioner was available that connected a hose to the suit between shots, while the tail and ears were battery-operated.^{[17][better source needed]} Danielle Chuchran and Brittany Oaks, who portrayed Thing 1 and Thing 2, respectively, wore a prosthetic face mask and wig designed by Johnson as well. The Fish was considered somewhat of a unique character for Rhythm & Hues Studios (responsible for some of the visual 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, resulting in all of his voice work taking place alone in a sound booth.^[18]

Filming[]

Prior to filming, giant props for the film were stolen from the set; the local police found the props vandalized with graffiti in a shopping mall car park in Pomona, California. Despite this, no arrests had been made and filming was to start the next week.^[19] Principal photography took place mostly in California from October 2002 to January 2003. The neighborhood and the town center was filmed in a rural valley near Simi Valley, where 24 houses (each 26 feet square and 52 feet tall) were constructed.^[20] 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 today 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 colors of the background had to be digitally fixed.

According to co-star Amy Hill, Myers was very difficult to work with on set, refusing to talk to anyone on the production (other than director Welch) and completely isolating himself from the cast and crew during breaks in the filming. She also noted that the film ended up having long and pointless retakes of scenes because Myers overruled Welch on whether they were good enough or not. In addition, he always showed up on set late and there were scenes he would downright refuse to do unless he was given a chocolate bar, which led to one of the producers setting up a Tupperware full of chocolate bars.^[21]

Music[]

The soundtrack was released on November 18, 2003.^[22] Originally, Marc Shaiman was going to compose the score for the film, but due to David Newman already being chosen for the film score, Shaiman instead wrote the film's songs with Scott Wittman. The soundtrack also features a song by Smash Mouth ("Getting Better"), which makes it the third Mike Myers-starring film in a row to feature a song by Smash Mouth after Shrek and Austin Powers in Goldmember. The trailer for the film uses a version of "Hey! Pachuco!" by the Royal Crown Revue. The soundtrack also includes two songs performed by Myers, who plays the Cat. Newman's score won a BMI Film Music Award.

Track listing[]

All music is composed by David Newman, except as noted.

Release[]

Home media[]

The Cat in the Hat was released on VHS and DVD on March 16, 2004.^[23] The DVD features 13 deleted scenes, 36 outtakes, 13 featurettes, a "Dance with the Cat" tutorial to teach children how to do a Cat in the Hat dance, and an audio commentary with director Bo Welch and actor Alec Baldwin.^[24] On February 7, 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray.^[25]

Reception[]

Box office[]

The Cat in the Hat opened theatrically on November 21, 2003 and grossed $38.3 million in its opening weekend, ranking first in the North American box office ahead of Brother Bear, Elf and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.^[26] The film ended its theatrical run on March 18, 2004, having grossed $101.1 million domestically and $32.8 million overseas for a worldwide total of $134 million.^[2]

Critical response[]

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Cat in the Hat has a 9% approval rating based on 160 reviews and an average rating of 3.17/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Filled with double entendres and potty humor, this Cat falls flat."^[27] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 19 out of 100 based on reviews from 37 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".^[28] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.^[29]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film one star, stating: "Cat, another overblown 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 two out of four 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".^[30] Ebert and co-host Richard Roeper gave the film "Two Thumbs Down" on their weekly movie review program.^[31] 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."^[31] Ebert compared the film unfavorably to How the Grinch Stole Christmas: "If there is one thing I've learned from these two movies, it's 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."^[31]

Leonard Maltin gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four in his Movie Guide: "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 said that the film's official title which included Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat was "an official insult".^[32]

Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film as "attractively designed, energetically performed and, above all, blessedly concise."^[33]

Alec Baldwin was disappointed with the film and 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.^[34]

Accolades[]

The film also received three nominations at the Hollywood Makeup & Hairstylists Guild Awards.^[36]

Future[]

Canceled sequel[]

On the day of the film's release, Mike Myers stated in an interview that he expected a sequel where the kids meet the Cat again, since there was a sequel to the book. A sequel based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back was in development just over a month before the film's release, with Myers and Welch to return to their duties as actor and director, respectively.^[37] Following the film's poor reception, Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, decided to disallow any subsequent live-action adaptations of her late husband's works to be produced, to which the sequel was eventually cancelled.^[4][3]

Animated reboot[]

In March 2012, a computer-animated Cat in the Hat film remake was announced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment following the success of The Lorax, with Rob Lieber set to write the script, Chris Meledandri to produce the film and Geisel to executive-produce it, but it never came to fruition.^{[38][39][40][41][42][43][44]} On January 24, 2018 it was announced that Warner Animation Group picked up the rights for the animated Cat in the Hat film as part of a creative partnership with Seuss Enterprises.^[45]

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Video game[]

A platform game based on the film was published by Vivendi Universal Games for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance on November 5, 2003, and Microsoft Windows on November 9, 2003, shortly before the film's theatrical release.^[46][47]

See also[]

• List of films based on Dr. Seuss books

References[]

External links[]

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Cat in the Hat (film).

• Official website
• The Cat in the Hat at IMDb
• 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