The Cat in the Hat

The latest member of the family to succumb to this wonderful bit of silly fun is our 3 year-old. He rarely speaks, but has most of the lines to this one memorised and loves it to bits. Who can blame him? Alan Sherman's portrayal of the Cat is a fine piece of voiceover work, as are all the characters in this one, and the songs never leave your head WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!I really wish that Viacom, or whoever holds the rights to this one, as well as the other Dr. Seuss titles originally released by Fox would hurry up and get them out on DVD, because our tapes are nearly worn out! Definitely recommended, if you can find it.

With Dr. Suess you're WAY better off with SHORT cartoons then live action. My favorite part is the language lesson very cool. The cartoon at least is more faithful to the book and the Dr. Suess spirit. I also hope it gets released on DVd soon. Along with The Grinch Grinches The Cat In The Hat.

Scary thought- What if those people who made the live action films do THAT story next???????????

I remembered that this special would air on CBS around the end of December throughout the 1980's. Along with "Happy New Year" Charlie Brown, and that one Bugs Bunny New Year special, This special was great. The special was based on the great Dr.Seuss Book (which i owned as a child) that touched the hearts of millions of children possibly in the world. It was funny, and the fish brings back good memories. I wish CBS would air this timeless classic again, but that probably won't happen. But if you see it at a video rental store, rent it to bring back some childhood memories.

Is the worst thing, in your opinion, to be bored? I've heard for a lot of people it is. But, have you heard the old saying- if you're bored, then you're boring? I never much paid attention to it most of my life but when I hear people say certain movies are boring, and I decide to respond to that, this rings in my ears. I don't know whether or not I'm boring, but I am almost never bored. So, The Cat in the Hat is about 2 bored children who need entertainment on a rainy day because rainy weather just bums some people out. That lame starter is a good indication of how weak this made-for-television special will be. The problem could be the source material (the only thing I remember being an annoyance in the book was the entire Thing 1, Thing 2 sequence), but I wouldn't go that far. I mean, this adaptation may stick unbelievably close to the (very short) children's book. But this version of the story relies heavily on getting the cat to stay in the house which itself results in cartoon calamity- the reason these filmmakers see as being why you'll want to stick around.

As he first begins to leave, he gets his foot in the door by angrily (then tearfully) claiming that one of the children or their pet fish have stolen a piece of his property in the 2 minutes he's been there. Now, I understand logic has very little to do with a Suess story, but it's nonetheless hard to accept this when we know there's no way the kids or fish could have taken anything from the cat. And despite the logic excuse, there is actually a little emotion in the characters as the cat annoyingly whines and the children actually react to this by suspecting the fish of foul play. The children really are great, aren't they? They're kind enough to go all out in helping the cat look for his missing item but not thoughtful enough of their mother as they begin running around the house writing all over everything with markers. Did they even stop to say "that's wrong"? No. But forget all that, this special really goes to hell when Thing 1 and Thing 2 show up. Even the cat busts a gasket and can only say "they can find anything, anything, anything under the sun" even though what they're doing has nothing to do with finding something. Instead they ignore the cat's dilemma and terrorize the fish.

Since I'm not going to convince anyone of anything by trying to take logic apart, let's look at the artistic aspects of the movie. How's the music? Well scored. It's good music. But vocally and lyrically, the songs are not good (although the international language-learner "Cat Hat" comes close). Take out the words, sung by singers I wouldn't care to hear from again, and I'd love to hear the music in a better animated short. But the performers are entirely, well- underwhelming at best (except for Thurl Ravenscroft- the one voice you'll recognize from Disney's Haunted Mansion theme, the classic "Grim Grinning Ghosts"). Especially Allan Sherman as the cat, who rushes through most of his lines. However, Cat in the Hat is not all bad. In fact, the animation is pretty darn good at times. Especially during the Cat's song about how he's no good and the "Cat Hat" song.

As of my writing this, I've seen all 9 of the DVD-released Dr. Suess specials and this is easily the weakest of all of them.

Dr. Seuss books just don't lend themselves well to live action movies. The live action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas was awful, mostly because the padded scenes LOOKED like padding. There isn't enough of a story in Seuss's books to make a feature-length movie, and really not even enough to make a 25-minute TV show.

But add some good animation and the music of Allan Sherman, and you have a winner. I'll be watching THIS version for many years, not the dreadful Mike Meyers version.