The Amazing Catwick

***The Amazing Catwick*** is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tim Burton and written by Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, and Seth Macfarlane.

Loosely based on Dr. Seuss's 1957 book The Cat in the Hat, P.L. Traver's Mary Poppins book series, and primarily based on Norton Juster's 1981 book, The Magic Suitcase, it was the second feature-length Dr. Seuss adaptation after *How the Grinch Stole Christmas* (2000).

It was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Walden Media, Goanimate Pictures, Fuzzy Door Productions and Valhalla Motion Pictures and produced by Seth MacFarlane, Chris Meledandri, and Tim Burton. Loosely based on the Cat in the Hat character by Dr. Seuss, it was the second feature-length Dr. Seuss adaptation after the 2000 holiday comedy film, *How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the first feature-length Dr. Seuss adaptation* to not be based on a Dr. Seuss book. The film is narrated by James Earl Jones and stars Brendan Fraser, Sean Hayes, Spencer Breslin, Emma Stone, Dakota Fanning, Dylan Sprouse, Cole Sprouse, Alec Baldwin, and Helena-Bonham Carter.

Production on the film began in 1997 with Tim Allen initially cast as Catwick, but he dropped his role due to work on *The Santa Clause 2*. In 2002, Jim Carrey was originally cast, but he refused due to casting issues, and the role was later given to Fraser. While the basic plot parallels that of the book, the film filled out its 133 minutes by adding new subplots and characters significantly different from the original story. Marc Shaiman composed the film's score.

Released on November 21, 2003 in the United States, the film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics who praised its story, animation, humor, visual style, and Shaiman's musical score but criticized its lack of faithfulness to Dr. Seuss' original story, Fraser's performance as the title-character and the profanity joke in the "Kupkake-inator" scene. The film became a box-office success, grossing $733 million worldwide against its $209 million budget and is warmly received by audiences.

## Plot

In New York 1934, single mother Joan Walden is the mother of three children—Conrad and Sally. She is a real-estate agent who loves her children, but since the death of her husband, has spent little time with them and cannot handle them. Besides their mother, the only people the children will ever listen to is Carlos, the family's uneducated and grumpy but caring and fearful butler who also has his own child—Maisy. Their next door neighbor, Larry Quinn dreams of marrying Joan and sending the children to a military school to straighten up their behavior.

One day, Carlos and Joan discover multiple references for an "Amazing Catwick" throughout the home. That same night, it starts to rain outside and the kids start fighting in the living room. When Carlos and Joan slowly start bickering, they hear someone at the front door and as Carlos goes to investigate, a man with many magical tricks named the Amazing Catwick Hatwin appears. Freaked out by his sneakiness, the family realizes that Catwick wants them to learn and have fun, but Carlos is very reluctant at first but slowly warms up to him over time. Catwick convinces the family to sign a contract which will allow them to have all the fun they want, and to prevent anything bad from happening.

The family is financially supported by Joan's domineering and short-sighted boss, Hank Humberfloob, who demands custody over one of the children. He first wants thebyoungest son Tess, but Judy volunteers to go and Hank agrees, assuming she is one of the children. He also threatens to reduce the family to poverty unless Joan remarries within the month.

Desperate, Joan turns to Larry. Together, the children sabotage Mr. Quinn's visit, and he leaves, angry at Joan. After the financial rationale for the marriage is explained to the children, they realise their mistake; the children appease Mr. Quinn by confessing they were to blame for ruining her visit. Mr. Quickly, intrigued when she hears about Hank's wealth and status, reconciles with Joan and agrees to marry her.

The next day, when the kids are hungry for cupcakes, Catwick spawns two clones, a host and a british chef, who put on a cooking show (with him, the kids, and an assortment of people as audience members) to present the Kupkake-Inator. When the chef accidentally chops off of his hand the Cat then adds a drop of Limb Re-Attach onto his hand (as some of the injuries from his clones become part of his body when they cease to exist). Eventually, the gang end up making cupcakes out of everything in the kitchen, but the cupcakes explode, creating a large purple gooey mess. Catwick tries to clean up the mess with Joan's dress, but Conrad and Sally unsuccessfully try to stop him.

The next day when Joan is called back to work, Catwick takes a large red crate out of his magic carpet bag, opens it, and releases two screwball creatures named Thing 1 and Thing 2. Conrad and Sally are eager to open the crate again, but Catwick explains to them that the crate is a teleportation device to his own world, known as the Trans-Dimensional Teleportolator, and he warns them not to open it as the crate locks itself. As Things 1 and 2 proceed to mess around with the house, Conrad goes against the Cat's rules and sneakily opens the crate. The lock ends up on the collar of their dog, Nevins. Thing 1 and Thing 2 then throw Nevins out the window, just before the kids and Carlos catch them in a net. Sally fusses over the state of the house, but Catwick warns her, along with Conrad and Maisy that they have more important things to worry about... if they do not put the lock back on the crate in time, they will be in the middle of "the mother of all messes". The gang then puts a boulder on top of the crate to buy some time and chase after Nevins.

Meanwhile, Larry is revealed to be a rude, abusive, gold digger who just cares about himself, and wishes to marry Joan for all of her money and to get her kids out of sight. He sees Nevins running through the street and seizes the opportunity to frame Conrad, Maisy, and Sally for being unable to take care of Nevins.

Catwick leads Conrad, Dave, Sally, Maisy, Tess, and Carlos to a birthday party they weren't invited to and disguises himself as a clown. Kids start hitting him with plastic bats, but a bigger kid with a wooden bat orders them to move out of his way. Sally predicts that it can't end well as Catwick frantically raises a white flag. The boy stands behind him and slams Catwick hard with the bat causing him to fly straight into the bush the gang was hiding in. Maisy then secretly uses a Swiss Army knife to break the pinata causing the candies to fall out and the trio to scurry away before the other kids look inside the bushes and happily grab candy.

Larry dognaps Nevins and heads for Joan's office. The gang catches up to Larry in a vehicle called the Super Luxurious Omnidirectional Whatchamajigger (SLOW), formerly known as the Furious Automobile of Speedajiggy Transporter (FAST), which ends up being destroyed in a crash as they head downtown. Catwick then tricks Larry into handing over Nevins and the crab lock by making him sign a petition with a large, oversized pen that requires two hands. Larry becomes furious and heads to Joan to tell her about the behavior of her kids. Realizing and remembering that the Things always do the opposite of whatever they are told, the kids are able to get them to help the gang get home, and stall Joan and Larry, by telling them not to do either.

While the Things distract Joan and Larry, the gang gets back home, unaware that the boulder has fallen off the crate due to it being smoothe. Because of this, all terror begins to break loose in the house as the crate erupts. An obsessed Larry decides to run to the house and tell Joan to meet him there. When Larry catches the kids at the doorway and takes them to the house, Catwick reappears with a pepper shaker. Larry stumbles backwards while sneezing (due to being allergic to pepper), only to fall from a high cliff into the Things' world.

the kids are surprised at what has happened to this house, being the "mother of all messes", just as Catwick had warned them before. After passing through the Things' world, they find the crate and successfully close it. The house returns to normal, but it suddenly collapses. Sally asks Catwick what they will do, despite the fact that he was not responsible for this mess. Catwick then leaves the house saying that he will "be right back".

the kids and Carlos become ready to face the consequences when Joan comes home, but just when it looked like this was the end of the road, much to their surprise, Catwick comes back with Thing 1, Thing 2, and a cleaning machine called the Dynamic Industrial Renovating Tractormajigger (DIRT). He explains that, when Conrad opened the crate, the contract became null and void, thus explaining why bad things happen on the contrary to prior agreement. However, he then explains that it would be reinstated if the children learned from their mistakes. Catwick, Things 1 and 2, and Judy clean up the mess and puts everything in the house back together, much to the relief of the kids and Carlos, who then thank Catwick for everything.

Catwick puts away the Things, just in time for Joan to come home, but she tells the children, Carlos, and Catwick that her wedding with Larry is tomorrow at 3:00pm.

The next day, the wind changes, meaning Catwick must leave. Meanwhile at the gaudy wedding, the children pretend there are bees (inspired by the way Larry told them to "behave,"), chase the guests, and start a food fight using banquet pastries. Joan swiftly understands her children do not like Larry and, recognizing that he is not right for her or her children, joins in the commotion herself. Larry calls off the marriage and storms off in anger. When it seems that Adelaide's marriage deadline is missed, Sally suggests that Joan marry Carlos. Carlos and Joan resist at first, but then realize their feelings for each other and agree to marry, satisfying Hank's conditions for maintaining her financial support. Catwick (who heard everything and was at the front-porch about to leave) then magically makes it snow in May, transforming the wedding scene and changing Joan's clothes into a wedding dress, and creates a watch for Conrad.

The film ends with a shot of Catwick and the Things happily walking away in the sunset and thinking about going on vacation.

## Cast

* Brendan Fraser as the Amazing Catwick, a magical and loving man who wears an oversized red bow-tie and a magical red-and-white striped top-hat that reveals many humorous gadgets. He is firm in his use of authority but gentle and kind as well, a major departure from the original books, in which the character was a 6 ft. tall, anthropomorphic and humanoid wise-cracking cat
* Burton's collaborators as well as other popular celebrities at the time also make cameos as Catwick's disguises throughout the film:
	+ Paris Hilton as the Dancer, a woman who appears during Catwick's fun song.
	+ Michael Keaton as The Bull Fighter, a Bull fighter who appears during Catwick's fun song.
	+ Danny Devito as Mr. Wrenchman, a mechanic who helps the Waldens fix their couch.
	+ Seth Macfarlane as The Guy in the Sweater Who Asks All the Obvious Questions, the blonde-haired and bespectacled host of the fictional TV cooking show "Astounding Products".
	+ Stephen Fry as Cheshire Chef, a chef from Cheshire, England who is a guest on "Astounding Products"
	+ Johnny Depp as the Zumzizeroo Man, a hippie who offers a petition to stop the senseless, wholesale slaughter of the fictional flatulating, acid-spitting Zumzizeroo creature to Larry as part of the Cat's plan to rescue Nevins.
* Spencer Breslin as Conrad Walden, Joan's destructive and misbehaved 12-year-old son, and the older brother of Sally.
* Dakota Fanning as Sally Walden, Joan's dull, somewhat bossy, well-behaved and rule-obeying 8-year-old daughter, and the younger sister of Conrad and Dave.
* Emma Stone as Lucy McGrew, Carlos' bratty and destructive 12-year-old daughter.
* Sean Hayes as Carlos K. McGrew, Tina and Lucy's single father, the Waldens' butler, who dreams of being an educated man.
* Helena Bonham Carter as Joan Walden, Conrad, Dave, and Sally's single mother, a workaholic real estate agent.
* Alec Baldwin as Larry Quinn, the main antagonist; the Waldens' cruel and greedy next-door neighbor who is allergic to pepper, steals food from the Waldens unnoticed, and is determined to marry Joan to mooch off of her wealth and wants to send the kids to military school to get rid of him.
* Billy Dee Williams 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 hates germs), often in an extremely loud tone of voice.
* Dan Castellaneta as Thing 1 and Thing 2, two gibbering trouble-making creatures that the Cat brings in with him.
* Steven Anthony Lawrence as Dumb Schweitzer, an intellectually and socially inferior pre-teen boy with a Bronx accent. When Catwick disguised himself as the piñata at a birthday party Sally was left out of, he whacks Catwick with a wooden bat.
* Frank Welker as Nevins, the Waldens' pet dog. 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.
* James Earl Jones as the Narrator, who tells the story. he is revealed to be Catwick using a voice-changer at the end.

### Casting

Tim Allen was originally planned to play Catwick. 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." However, producers did not commission a screenplay until late February 1999, when Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin, Wellesley Wild, Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and Dave Mandel (who were also writers on *The Dimon & Ms. Becky Show*, *Family Guy* and *Seinfeld*) were hired to write the script (replacing the original draft of the film that was written a few years before penned by Eric Roth), so the film would not be ready to shot 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. Due to a scheduling conflict with that film, he dropped out his role. In March 2000, the role of Catwick was originally given to Jim Carrey, but he refused due to casting issues, even though he was a long-time fan of the original Dr. Seuss book, and that it was the first book he ever read. In April 2001 during the interview, Brendan Fraser was interested in the film, and Seth Macfarlane wanted someone young for the role, so he has been given for the role of Catwick.

## Release

### Box office

*The Amazing Catwick* opened theatrically on December 15, 2004 and earned $138,329,160 in its opening weekend, ranking first in the North American box office. The film ended its theatrical run on March 18, 2004, having grossed $301,149,285 domestically and $432,811,256 overseas for a worldwide total of $733,960,541.

### Critical reception

Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 84% approval rating, based on 158 reviews with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Not wise, but stunning nonetheless." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 79 out of 100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A" on an A+ scale.

Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* gave the film four stars, starting with an positive-to-mixed review, "the animation and story are beautifully stunning and well-done, and the performance of Brenden Fraser (Catwick) is hilariously outstanding, despite certain flaws." Roger Ebert of the *Chicago Sun-Times* gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. Although he praised the production design, music score, Fraser's performance, and animation, he criticized the unfaithfulness to Seuss' original 1957 work by saying "the film should've needed more work and effort by adapting the story". Richard Roeper also stated "It's hard to say, but though this film may not be entertaining, even for us, it is considered favorably comparable to *How the Grinch Stole Christmas*".

Leonard Maltin in his Movie Guide gave it five stars out of five by praising for its influential and colorful animation, decent voice acting, Fraser's fun voice performance for Catwick and some clever witty humor.

*Variety* praised it as being "attractively designed, smoothly animated, energetically voiced and, above all, blessedly concise, this adaptation of one of the most popular American kids' books walks the safe side of surrealism with its fun-flying shenanigans. The younger the viewers, the better reactions are bound to be, while grownups will sit in varying states of bemusement".

### Home media

*The Amazing Catwick* was released on VHS and DVD on April 8, 2005. It features 16 deleted scenes, 20 voice outtakes, almost a dozen featurettes, and a "Dance with Catwick" tutorial to teach kids a Catwick dance. On February 7, 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray.

## Quotes

* Catwick: Here she is, the Super Luxurious Omnidirectional Whatchamajigger or S.L.O.W. for short.
* Sally: S.L.O.W.?
* Catwick: Yeah, slow. It's better than the last name I had... The Furious Automobile of Speedajiggy Transporter.
* Conrad: Oh, you mean fast, right?
* Catwick: Yes... now let's go fast in the slow! (giggles)

## Sequel

Seth Macfarlane revealed on *The Tonight Show* that four more films were planned. The second film, *Catwick Returns* was released in November 2022. It stars Timothee Chalamet as Catwick, with Dan Castellaneta returning as Things 1 and 2, while also co-staring Jenna Ortega. In it, Catwick takes charge of the children of a woman whose husband has gone to war, with help from his new lamplighter friend, Judy.