The Cat in the Hat (1971 TV Special)

***The Cat in the Hat*** (promoted as "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat") is a 1971 cartoon adaptation of the book of the same name. It is the first of seven TV specials developed by DePatie-Freleng. While the special initially received mixed reviews for not following the book, it got better reviews when the live action remake of the cartoon came around.

## Original Plot

When the story opens, it is too rainy and cold to play outside, so Conrad and his sister Sally sit bored and look out the window. Their mother announces her departure, tells them to have fun, and says she'll return at 3:30 sharp. While their mother is out at a job interview, they have no other choice but to wish they had something to do.

The mysterious, Cat in the Hat suddenly enters with a bump and fools around a bit. The family goldfish named "Carlos K. Krinklebine", demands that he must leave, but instead the Cat plays a game which he calls "Up, Up, Up, With a Fish", placing the fishbowl on top of a stack of bubbles. The girl notices that the Cat is making the house a little dirty, and the boy recalls their mother's return at 3:30. Noting their objections, the Cat bows to the voice of the majority and dejectedly states he's going to Siberia. Immediately after leaving, however, the Cat bursts back in claiming that his "moss-covered three-handled family gredunza" has been stolen. The Cat accuses Carlos of being the thief, and sings a ballad about the loss of his treasured keepsake.

The Cat then leads the kids on a search for the missing gredunza using his method of "Calculatus Eliminatus ", in which random numbers and letters are drawn anywhere the gredunza should be to mark that they have already checked there. This makes a mess of everything and Carlos once again demands that the Cat leave. Ostensibly to gain sympathy, the Cat sings a pessimistic song to convey his low self-esteem, then puts Carlos to sleep by singing a lullaby. Having made a miraculous recovery from his bout of depression, the Cat brings out Thing One and Thing Two to aid in the search for the gredunza, singing to the kids that they can find "anything under the sun". Instead of being productive, however, the things play a variety of sports using Mr. Krinkelbein's fishbowl, noting that every house they visit has a pessimistic fish. Carlos becomes angry and accuses the Cat of not being a real cat ("Whoever heard of a six foot cat?"), and his hat of not being a real hat. But the Cat indignantly asserts his legitimacy by singing his name in several languages, all of which are real and fictional. The song becomes so catchy that everyone, even Carlos, joins in and contributes, telling the Cat that in Russian he is a "chapka in a shlyapa" (An interesting point to note is that in the Russian portion of the song, the Cat describes himself as a "chapka in a shlyapa", which translates to "*hat* in a hat", in russian, the most common word for "cat" is "koschka").

As the song ends, Carlos spots the mother coming home. The Cat exits, leaving behind an extremely messy house. He quickly returns, however, using a motorized vehicle to tidy things up. He then departs for good, hinting that he may return someday. Just as he departs through the back door, the mother walks in through the front door; she asks the kids how their day was, and then tells them that she just saw a cat in a hat "going down the street with a moss-covered three-handled family gredunza". The exact identity of the object has never been revealed, but this indicates that the gredunza was never really lost, and the Cat simply wanted an excuse to have more fun. The kids look out the window much as they did at the beginning of the special, and watch as the Cat walks off to his next adventure.

## Transcript(s)

### Original

* Click here to view the original transcript
* Click here for the faithful version that follows the book more closely