Cat in the Hat, The
I’m proud, nay, honored to say that I own the vast majority of the Dr. Seuss Beginner Books library, including his masterpiece, The Cat in the Hat. A simple story of two bored children who, through the mischievous teachings of a 6 foot tall cat with a striped hat, learn to let their imaginations free. That any day can be extraordinary if you let it. It encouraged creativity and spontanaity instead of boredom and laziness. It will forever be a favorite of mine and I will certainly introduce the feline to my children. Just not in film form.
Bo Welch, better known for his wildly visual production design credits (Men In Black, Wild Wild West, Batman Returns), directs the live action translation of the children’s classic starring Mike Myers as The Cat. In a jarring contrast to the book, we are introduced to Lawrence Quin played by Alec Baldwin, an antagonistic character that simply did not exist in the pages conceived by Theodor Geisel (Seuss). Unfortunately Baldwin’s character helps in bringing an After-School special feeling to the plot. Instead of encouraging creativity and imagination, we’re choked with the morality of family love book-ended with horridly blatant product placements for Universal Studios and the Ford Focus.
I can say honestly that the performances by the actors, human and animated, were entertaining. Myers’ Cat is manic and unpredictable as one would expect, although it seems the creature is unoriginal, becoming a machine gun of past Myers characters from moment to moment. Still, he is fun to watch. The children play to the characters they’ve been given on two extremes: Authority driven and Rule breaker respectively. Although at times, both Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin) look heavily sedated. Even the up-tight fish (voiced by Sean Hayes of Will & Grace) is excellently animated in the “Seussian” style fans of the book will recognize.
The same goes for the visuals, the props and the effects. Brightly colored, perfectly styled and interesting to look at, the sets sometimes steal the scene from the actors and help to keep hold of the connection between movie and book. The style of the opening credits actually yanked me back to the days of when my mom would read the Seuss stories to me. Each of the studios involved transformed their logos to suit the Seuss style so much so that I felt a smile growing on my face and a little tingle down my back. I wish it had remained.
In the end you get gift wrapped fruit cake. Pretty to look at, but inside it’s still kinda crappy.
I don’t usually get sappy or heaven forbid, serious, but parents, read to your children. I want to thank my parents for reading to my brother, sister and I as children. I owe a lot of my love for literature, film, drawing and writing to that fact alone. In fact, forget the movie and spend two hours reading to your kids. Start with Dr. Seuss. Some day they’ll thank you for it (Thanks Mom and Dad!).
“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs/Is making a chore for the reader who reads” – Theodor Geisel
