The Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tim Burton (with a co-director, Bo Welch) based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss book The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. The film stars Mike Myers in the title role of the Cat in the Hat, and Dakota Fanning as Sally. Sally's brother, Conrad, is portrayed by Spencer Breslin. The Cat in the Hat is the second feature-length Dr. Seuss adaptation after the 2000 holiday film How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
The idea was originally conceived in 2001, when Tim Allen was 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 Mike Myers. Filming took place in California for three months. While the basic plot parallels that of the book, the film filled out its 81 minutes by adding new subplots and characters quite different from those of the original story, similar to the feature film adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
The Cat in the Hat was released on November 21, 2003 in the United States and grossed over $133 million. Later, Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel, who owns her husband's works, decided not to allow any further live-action adaptations of Seuss' work. After this, a planned sequel based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back was cancelled.
==Plot==
Conrad and Sally Walden live in the city of Anville with their single mother Joan Walden, who works for neat-freak Hank Humberfloob's real estate office. One day, Mr. Humberfloob tells everyone that tonight is the company's meet and greet party, he firmly warns Joan that she will be fired if her house is messy. At the house, 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. 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 to straighten him out, earning Conrad the reputation of "troublemaker", while his sister is characterized as "perfect and well-behaved". 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 forbidden to enter the living room, which is being kept pristine for the upcoming party. Conrad says that he refuses to go to military school but Joan points out that if he wasn't breaking the house and doing the opposite of what he's told she wouldn't be considering military school. Before she leaves Conrad says he wished he had a different mom and Joan wishes the same, while she feels guilty for what she said after she closes the door, she leaves to get back to work.
Once their mother leaves, and Mrs. Kwan is falling asleep, Sally and Conrad discover a humanoid, oversized talking Cat in a Hat in their house. The Cat wants them to learn 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 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 called Thing 1 and Thing 2 from a shot crate that he explains is actually a portal from their world to his. The Cat tells Conrad that he only has one rule: that he must 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 easy, Conrad picks the lock responsibility. When the crate's lock attaches itself to Nevins' collar, which then escapes, the Cat and the kids go out to find it because the lock is the only way to keep the crate shut and if they don't lock it soon, they're going to have the mother of all messes.
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 to 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 in town. 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 disappears 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 and Lawrence comes out the houses pipe covered in purple goop. 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 only thing that was not planned was his tail being cut off. The kids angrily tell the Cat to leave the house for the destruction he has caused, and then brace themselves for their mother's arrival. Sally tells Conrad he should run away until their mom calms down but he says he's going to stay and accept his punishment. Conrad tells Sally to go upstairs so she won't have to see their mom yelling at him, Sally tells him there's no point in doing that, because not only are the stairs destroyed, this is just as much her fault as it is his. However, the Cat happily returns to clean up his mess with a great cleaning contraption much to Conrad and Sally's surprise and delight, he explains that the contract they sign states that if the kids learn their lesson everything will be fixed. Thing 1 and Thing 2 help out as well, soon enough Joan gets closer to the house.
Afterwards, when everything is restored to its original cleanliness, the Cat says goodbye to Conrad and Sally as 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 really messy Lawrence), she disbelieves him, and dumps him. He cries, sneezes in his hands, disgusting Joan (it is possible that she has learned of his sloppiness). He asks her to marry him, and 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 gracefully completed, Joan and her kids play in the living room by jumping on the couch and having fun (with the cat going out of town with Thing 1 and 2, completing the film as the credits roll).
== Cast== 
*Mike Myers as the Cat in the Hat, a large, wise-cracking anthropomorphic cat with a Brooklyn accent. His hat has many magical abilities. He likes to have fun, but often makes mistakes. In the end it is revealed that he was also the narrator.
*Spencer Breslin as Conrad Walden, Joan's friendly and happy, but rule-breaking son, who goes along with the Cat's plans. As a running gag, the Cat constantly calls him names other than Conrad, due to his lack of name in the original book and TV special.
*Dakota Fanning as Sally Walden, Joan's dull, well-behaved, and rule-obeying daughter, who learns to have fun with the Cat.
* Kelly Preston as Joan Walden, Conrad and Sally's mother, a successful real-estate agent.
*Alec Baldwin as Lawrence "Larry" Quinn, the Waldens' selfish, lazy, unemployed next-door neighbor. He is allergic to cats, steals food from the Walden family, and is determined to both marry Joan for her wealth and send Conrad and Sally away.
*Amy Hill as Mrs. Kwan, an elderly Asian woman with a thick Chinese accent that 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. He 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 Announcer
* Clint Howard as Kate the Caterer; makes brownies, cakes, and pies for parties, weddings, funerals, and graduations.
* 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, which is most likely.
*Stephen Hibbert as Jim McFinnigan. Touching Humberfloob's hand, Jim gave him a handshake which results in being fired.
*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.
==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. 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 $133.9 million.
===Critical response===
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Cat in the Hat has a 9% approval rating based on 163 reviews and an average rating of 3.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Filled with double entendres and potty humor, this Cat falls flat." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 19 out of 100 based on reviews from 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.
==Trivia==
*While lots of people (particularly grown ups) hated the movies, kids have actually liked the film.
* The film was released not to long after the live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas which starred Jim Carrey as the titular character, critics said that this film did what the latter did bury a great actor under make up.
*The filmmakers did not like Mike Meyers on set as he was rude to practically everyone.
Category:Films based on works by Dr. Seuss
Category:2003 films
Category:American comedy films
Category:2000s comedy films
Category:2000s fantasy films
Category:American fantasy-comedy films
Category:American films
Category:Children's fantasy films
Category:Films based on children's books
Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
Category:Films about cats
Category:Slapstick films
Category:Films produced by Brian Grazer
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:DreamWorks Pictures films
Category:Imagine Entertainment films
Category:Films
Category:Fourth Wall
Category:DreamWorks films
Category:Universal films
Category:Distributed by Universal Pictures
Category:Films with narration
Category:Films starring Mike Myers
Category:Films starring Alec Baldwin
Category:Films starring Frank Welker
Category:Films starring Sean Hayes
Category:Films starring Dakota Fanning
Category:Films starring Spencer Breslin
Category:Films starring Kelly Preston
Category:Films starring Amy Hill
Category:Rated PG