| The Cat in the Hat | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Bo Welch |
| Produced by | Brian Grazer |
| Written by | Book: Dr. Seuss Screenplay: Alec Berg David Mandel Jeff Schaffer |
| Narrated by | Victor Brandt |
| Starring | Mike Myers Dakota Fanning Spencer Breslin Alec Baldwin Kelly Preston Amy Hill Sean Hayes |
| Music by | David Newman |
| Cinematography | Emmanuel Lubezki |
| Editing by | Don Zimmerman |
| Studio | Imagine Entertainment |
| Distributed by | North America: Universal Studios International: DreamWorks |
| Release date(s) | November 21, 2003 |
| Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $109 million |
| Gross revenue | $133,960,541 |
The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 American comedy film loosely based on the 1957 book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. It was produced by Brian Grazer and directed by Bo Welch, and stars Mike Myers in the title role of the Cat in the Hat, and Dakota Fanning as Sally. Sally's brother, who is not named in the book, is known in this version as "Conrad" and played by Spencer Breslin.
While the basic plot of the live-action adaptation of The Cat in the Hat rotates around that of the book, the film filled out its 82 minutes by adding new subplots and characters quite different from those of the original story, similar to How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Reviews were critically negative criticizing the films mature content. The film was nominated for eight Razzie Awards.
This is the first time Universal, DreamWorks and Imagine have co-produced since the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind.
Contents |
Plot
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This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (December 2009) |
The film starts with an inside look of Joan Walden's job at Hank Humberfloob's Real Estate agency, where the employees there are forced to clean their hands constantly either with a sink or a Hand Sanitizer. When Joan is called back to work, she gets a sleepy baby-sitter to baby-sit her kids, Conrad and Sally. Conrad, a 12-year-old boy has 2 problems: He is constantly doing the exact opposite of what he's supposed to do and causing trouble, and Sally, Conrad's 7-year-old little sister who tries to stop Conrad's trouble making. She is known as being rather bossy and perfect. Their next door neighbor, Lawrence Quinn or Larry as Conrad always calls him threatens to marry Joan, and send Conrad away to a military school 8 hours away from home. When Joan leaves, their baby-sitter, Mrs. Qwan, invites the children to sit with her in the living room and watch television, and then falls asleep. Not long after, it starts to rain and storm outside and the children get bored. But then there is a thud somewhere in the house, and as the children go investigate, the Cat in the Hat (played by Mike Myers) appears. After the Cat puts Mrs. Qwan in the closet, the Fish starts arguing about him being here. The Cat ignores the Fish and then convinces Conrad and Sally to sign a contract which will allow them to have all the fun they want, and will stop anything bad happening.
The fun begins with the Cat standing in front of a window and singing "I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that is funny. It's fun to have fun but you got to know how." He then magically conjures up a rodeo and a carnival, and then stands on a ball holding up several household items, including a rake, cake, several books, the fish's bowl, and a fan. Afterward, they jump on the couch (after the Cat had mechanically retrofitted it.)
When they make cupcakes out of hot dogs, eggs, ketchup, and a fire extinguisher, the cupcakes explode causing a large, purple gooey mess. The Cat tries to clean up the mess with Joan's dress, much to the horror of Conrad and Sally. The cat then brings in a large red crate, opens it, and releases Thing 1 and Thing 2. Conrad is eager to open the crate. The Cat explains that the crate is a transport to his own world, and warns him not to open it and puts a lock on the crate. The cat then hands Joan's dress to Things 1 and 2, who fling the mess off the dress and onto the couch. The things then go to work attempting to clean the couch, but end up flinging the spots all over the living room. They then start running around and creating even bigger messes, including throwing ceramic plates across the house and breaking a ceiling light. During the chaos, Conrad picks the lock on the crate, which then scurries off and attaches itself to Nevins the dog's collar. The Things throw Nevins out the window, and he runs off. Sally fusses over the state of the house, but The Cat warns them that they have more important things to worry about: if they don't put the lock back on the crate, they'll be in the middle of "The mother of all messes". The trio puts the babysitter on the crate, to buy some time, and chase after Nevins.
Meanwhile, Larry is revealed to be a disgusting, unemployed slob. His house is a mess and he has a large belly. He then sees Nevins running through the street and seizes the opportunity to try to frame Conrad, and just as the TV he is watching is being repossessed by a trio of Repo Men.
They chase him towards a birthday party, and the Cat gets whacked by a strong kid, imagining himself swinging, and wearing a dress. Larry grabs Nevins, and heads for Joan's office. Conrad, Sally, and the Cat manage to get Nevins back by catching up with a vehicle called SLOW and tricking Larry into handing over Nevins and the crab lock by making him sign a petition about a Zumzizaroo with a large oversized pen that requires two hands. They get away from him and into the dance party room where dance music is playing. While The Things distract Joan and Larry, the trio get back home, unaware that the babysitter has fallen off the crate to answer a phone call from Joan and that all terror is breaking loose as the crate erupts. When Conrad, Sally and Larry first enter, the house looks spotless. But when the cat reappears at the doorway, Larry starts sneezing and stumbles backwards, only to have the floor rip out from under him as if it were paper and send him falling from a massive high cliff into the Cat's world. The children gasp at what has become of the house, being "The Mother of All Messes," according to Conrad and the Cat. After a walk on the suspended in mid air front hall carpet and a thrilling ride on a deeply-asleep Mrs. Quan down a large "water slide" ride flowing with purple stuff, they find the crate, now with a big tornado spinning on top of it that is sucking up everything nearby. Conrad eventually manages to put the lock back on the crate, causing the distorted house to straighten itself, but then it collapses, leaving wreckage everywhere. They yell at the Cat to get out, but he comes back with Thing 1 and Thing 2 and a cleaning machine called the Dynamic Industrial Renovating Tractormajigger (DIRT). They clean up the mess, and the house is clean and back together. The Cat leaves, just in time for Joan to come home. Mrs. Qwan wakes up and tells Joan that the children were "angels," which she doesn't know anything that happened because she was sound asleep the whole time. But then Larry Quinn barges in, covered from head to toe with purple slime and starts telling Joan about the mess and the Seussian world. She sends him away, and things go back to normal. We see Mrs. Qwan falling back asleep standing up. The party goes as scheduled and the kids are told that their purple frosted cupcakes are a "huge hit." It is then reveled that outside the house that "The Cat" has been telling the story the whole time, he then leaves when we see him and is seen walking off into the sunset with Thing 1 and Thing 2 talking about going on vacation.
Cast
- Mike Myers as The Cat
- Kelly Preston as Miss Joan Walden
- Alec Baldwin as Lawrence "Larry" Quinn
- Spencer Breslin as Conrad Walden
- Dakota Fanning as Sally Walden
- Sean Hayes as Mr. Hank Humberfloob / Voice of The Fish
- Amy Hill as Mrs. Kwan
- Curtis Persons as Thing One
- Forrest Quilliams as Thing Two
- Dan Castellaneta as the voices of Thing One and Two
- Frank Welker as the voice of Nevins the Dog
- Steven Anthony Lawrence as Schweitzer
- Paris Hilton as Female Club-Goer
- Candace Brown as Secretary
- Victor Brandt as Narrator
- Daran Norris as Announcer
Reception
The Cat in the Hat received overwhelmingly negative reviews, getting a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average grade of D+ from critics in the interpretation of Yahoo's film website[1]
A characteristic evaluation was that of Ty Burr, writing in the Boston Globe: "The big-screen Cat represents everything corrupt, bloated, and wrong with mainstream Hollywood movies." A number of critics also said that the MPAA should have given the film a stricter rating than "PG", due to the mature themes and multiple double entendres.
Based on box office revenues, the film barely recouped its $109 million budget for a total of $101 million domestically in the US and an additional $38 million in foreign countries to its total of $139 million worldwide.
The Cat in the Hat was nominated for eight Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Mike Myers), Worst Supporting Actor (Alec Baldwin), Worst Supporting Actress (Kelly Preston), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Couple (Myers and either Thing One or Thing Two), winning one for Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie (All Concept/No Content). As a result of frequent mature themes, the widow of Theodor Geisel (who holds the rights to his work) declared that there are to be no more live-action movies based on the works of Dr. Seuss, arguing that the film has clearly deviated from her late husband's family-friendly work.
References
- ^ The Yahoo film website gives a compendium of reviewer and public reaction to the 2003 film, as well as its box-office history
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Cat in the Hat (film) |
- Official website
- The Cat in the Hat at the Internet Movie Database
- The Cat in the Hat at Rotten Tomatoes
- Archived ABC Feature Page for Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat
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