The Cat in the Hat (film)

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. Loosely based on Dr. Seuss's 1957 book of the same name, it was the second and final live-action Dr. Seuss adaptation after How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). The film stars Mike Myers in the title role along with Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Amy Hill and Sean Hayes in supporting roles, with the latter in a dual role.
Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat was released in theaters on November 21, 2003, in the United States by Universal Pictures and internationally by DreamWorks Pictures. The film was a critical and commercial failure grossing $133.9 million against a budget of $109 million and received largely negative reviews, but it has since developed a cult following and some positive critical retrospectives.
After the film’s release, Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, decided not to allow further live-action adaptations of her husband's works. After this, a planned sequel, based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, was cancelled. All adaptations have since been produced using computer animation. Warner Bros. Pictures Animation is developing another adaptation, and is scheduled to be released in 2026.
Conrad and Sally Walden live in the city of Anville with their single mother Joan, who works for neat-freak Hank Humberfloob as a real estate agent and is dating their next-door neighbor Larry Quinn. One day, Joan leaves her children at home with a lethargic babysitter, Mrs. Kwan, while she goes to the office, forbidding them to enter the living room, which is being kept pristine for an office party she is hosting that night.
After Mrs. Kwan falls asleep, Sally and Conrad meet The Cat in the Hat, a sarcastic wisecracking anthropomorphic talking cat with a red-and-white striped top hat and a large red bow tie, who wants to teach them how to have fun despite the objections of the family's pet fish, who is revealed to talk. In the process, the Cat leaves a trail of destruction throughout the house (such as jumping on the couch, baking gross cupcakes that explode in the oven, and even ruining Joan's dress by cleaning the wall with it) and releases twin troublemakers, Thing 1 and Thing 2, from a red crate which he locks with a crab lock and forbids the children to tamper with, explaining that it is a portal to his world. He then tells the Things to fix Joan's dress, but they end up trashing the house instead, as they always do the opposite of what they are told. Despite the Cat's warning, Conrad picks the lock on the crate, which grabs onto the collar of the family dog Nevins, who runs off. The trio leaves the house and sets off to search for Nevins and get the lock back.
The Waldens are unaware that Larry is a rude, disgusting, and unemployed slob in debt due to being too lazy to work for a living, and is pretending to be a successful salesman in order to marry Joan for her wealth, as well as send Conrad to military school. Larry sees Nevins and kidnaps him, but the trio drives in the Cat's super-powered car after them and the Cat tricks him into returning the dog. Larry goes and tells Joan about the Cat, but they are stalled by the Things posing as police officers. Larry then races after the trio and tells Joan to meet him at the house.
When the trio return to the house, Larry cuts the children off and orders them inside the house, where he sneezes uncontrollably due to his cat allergy. The Cat takes advantage and scares him, only for them to find that the house has been transformed into "The Mother of All Messes", with Larry falling into a purple gooey abyss. The Cat, Sally, and Conrad ride on the still sleeping Mrs. Kwan and navigate through the surreal house to find the crate and lock it, whereupon the house returns to its normal proportions but immediately collapses. In a heated argument, the children discover that the Cat planned the whole day and furiously order him to leave.
Conrad and Sally realize their mistake and resign themselves to facing the consequences when Joan comes home, but the Cat returns with a cleaning invention and, with the help of the Things, fixes the house. Conrad and Sally reconcile with the Cat and thank him for everything, and he departs just as Joan arrives. Larry, having survived the fall and merely covered in goo, comes in, thinking he has busted the children, tries to tell Joan about the mess and the Cat's world. Joan, having seen the clean house, does not believe his story and says that Conrad, while indeed a troublemaker, is nice on the inside before politely dumping Larry, much to his humiliation and dismay. After the successful party, Joan spends quality time with her children by jumping on the couch with them, while the Cat and the Things walk off into the sunset.
DreamWorks Pictures originally acquired the film rights to the original Dr. Seuss book in 1997. However, production did not officially start until after the 2000 Christmas/comedy film How the Grinch Stole Christmas, produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, both of whom also joined to finance, distribute and produce the film with DreamWorks, and 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." Grazer then contacted Bo Welch over the phone with the offer to direct the film, and he accepted. 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 (namely co-stars Baldwin and Preston) how to perform their scenes. Screenwriters Mandel and Berg pitched the film as a child-friendly version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Tim Allen was initially considered for the role of the Cat. The script was initially based on a version of the original book's story conceived by Allen, who admitted that as a child he was afraid of Seuss' "mischievous feline babysitter" and it was his dream to give the edge that scared him for the role. However, the studio did not 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 rewrite the film (replacing the original draft of the film that was written by Eric Roth a few years prior), 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. Due to scheduling conflicts with that film, he dropped out of the role. Afterwards, Will Ferrell, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Dana Carvey and Billy Bob Thornton were considered for the role. Eventually, in March 2002 the role of the Cat was given to Mike Myers, 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. 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. Myers was obligated to appear in the film as a result of a settlement related to the Sprockets film's cancellation. Soon after, Myers, Dave Foley, Jay Kogen and Stephen Hibbert did uncredited rewrites of the script. Peri Gilpin was originally attached to play Joan Walden, but was unable to do so due to scheduling conflicts with Frasier.
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 (showing up late to meetings and refusing to come to makeup tests punctually) and the complex challenge of designing the character's makeup, he left the project and was replaced by Steve Johnson, one of his earliest apprentices. 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. 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 (R&H) (responsible for the visual effects and animation in films such as Mouse Hunt, Cats & Dogs, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Scooby-Doo and The Golden Compass), 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.
Before 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. No arrests were made. 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. 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 can 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. Mike Myers was unaware that a piece of the house would fall behind him near the end of the film during his scenes with Spencer Breslin and Dakota Fanning. His reaction was real and left unscripted in the final film.
According to co-star Amy Hill, Myers was difficult to work with on set. Hill called her experience "horrible, nightmarish", and said that Myers refused to talk to anyone on the production (other than his assistants and director Welch) and isolated himself from the cast and crew during breaks in filming. She mentioned that while Welch was "really lovely", there would be retakes of scenes because Welch, who was a first-time director, would often let Myers decide whether they were good enough or not. In addition, she stated that Myers had an assistant who held chocolates in a Tupperware, and whenever Myers needed a piece of chocolate, his assistant would come over and give him one.
Grazer's frequent collaborator David Newman scored the film. The soundtrack was released on November 18, 2003. Originally, Marc Shaiman was going to compose the score for the film, but due to 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. Hang On by Smash Mouth was also featured in the film but was not included on the soundtrack.
The Cat in the Hat was released on VHS and DVD on March 16, 2004. The DVD release 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. On February 7, 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray.
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. The film ended its theatrical run nearly four months later on March 18, 2004, having grossed $101.1 million domestically and $32.8 million overseas for a worldwide total of $133.9 million.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 10% of 163 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Filled with double entendres and potty humor, this Cat falls flat." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 19 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.
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". Ebert and co-host Richard Roeper gave the film "Two Thumbs Down" on their weekly movie review program. 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 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."
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".
Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film as "attractively designed, energetically performed and, above all, blessedly concise."
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.
The film contains a number of adult themes, such as:
The film also received three nominations at the Hollywood Makeup & Hairstylists Guild Awards.
In a 2023 interview with Syfy Magazine, Welch defended the film, feeling it was "weird and funny and anarchic […] there's a craziness to it that I think people can embrace." Writing for social networking website Letterboxd, Jack Moulton wrote, "The Cat in the Hat may not have been parent-friendly, but it was kid-friendly in ways studios did not anticipate in 2003," citing "a weirder niche of younger audiences vibing with [the film's] colorful gooey world [and] the irreverence of Cat's crude 'tude." Reflecting on the film's "divisive" nature on the site, with a 2.5/5 average user rating, Moulton felt that despite "[the] litany of gag reviews […] we're in the post-ironic era where that can translate into a genuine love." Calum Russell of Far Out felt that the film possessed an "idiosyncratic brand of humour that was surprisingly ahead of its time," and "[couldn't] help but think this is exactly what a contemporary adaptation of The Cat in the Hat would be like if it was released today."
On the day of the film's release, Mike Myers stated in an interview that he expected a sequel where the children meet the Cat again. A sequel based on the original book's sequel 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. Berg stated that writing a sequel would be difficult as the film had borrowed elements from the second book. Following the film's poor reception, Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, decided not to allow any subsequent live-action adaptations of Seuss's works, resulting in the sequel being scrapped.
In March 2012, an animated Cat in the Hat film adaptation 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.
In January 2018, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation picked up the rights for the animated musical Cat in the Hat film as part of a creative partnership with Seuss Enterprises. In October 2020, Erica Rivinoja and Art Hernandez were announced as directors. In June 2023, Hernandez was replaced as director by Alessandro Carloni. In February 2023, four of the movie's concept art got released to the internet. In March 2024, Warner Bros. announced that the movie will be released on March 6, 2026, starring Bill Hader as The Cat, alongside Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang, Xochitl Gomez, Matt Berry, and Paula Pell, with Rivinoja and Carloni writing the screenplay Warner Bros. Pictures Animation has not released a full synopsis yet, but the company did explain in a release: In the wonderfully whimsical tradition of Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat comes to the big screen in his animated theatrical feature film debut, doing what he does best—spreading joy to “happyless” kids. In the film, The Cat takes on his toughest assignment yet… to cheer a pair of siblings struggling with their move to a new town.
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, shortly before the film's theatrical release. The game received mixed reviews from critics.