The Cat in the Hat | |
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Directed by | Bo Welch |
Produced by | Brian Grazer |
Screenplay by | Alec Berg David Mandel Jeff Schaffer |
Based on | The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss |
Starring | Mike Myers Alec Baldwin Spencer Breslin Dakota Fanning Kelly Preston Amy Hill Sean Hayes |
Narrated by | Victor Brandt |
Music by | David Newman |
Cinematography | Emmanuel Lubezki |
Edited by | Don Zimmerman |
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Distributed by | North America: Universal Studios International: DreamWorks |
Release date
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Running time
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82 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $109 million |
Box office | $133,960,541 |
The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 American slapstick 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 revolves 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 film's crude humor and mature content, and the film was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards.
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When Joan Walden (Kelly Preston) is called back to work, she gets a sleepy baby-sitter to baby-sit her kids, Conrad (Spencer Breslin) and Sally (Dakota Fanning). Conrad, a twelve-year-old boy, has two problems: he is constantly doing the exact opposite of what he is supposed to do and causing trouble, and Sally, Conrad's seven-year-old little sister, tries to stop his trouble making and is being rather bossy and perfect. Their next door neighbor, Lawrence "Larry" Quinn (Alec Baldwin) dreams of marrying Joan for her wealth, and sending Conrad away to a military school to straighten up his behavior. When Joan leaves, their baby-sitter, Mrs. Kwan (Amy Hill), falls asleep. Not long after, it starts to rain 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 (Mike Myers) appears. Once the cat introduces what he is there to do the Fish starts talking, 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.
When they make cupcakes out of everything in the kitchen, 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, but 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. Conrad goes against the Cat's rules and sneakily opens the crate. The lock ends up on his dog, Nevins', collar. Thing 1 and Thing 2 then throw Nevins out the window. Sally fusses over the state of the house, but The Cat warns them that they have more important things to worry about: if they do not put the lock back on the crate, they will 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, and it is also revealed that he is waiting to marry Joan for her money. He sees Nevins running through the street and seizes the opportunity to try to frame Conrad for being unable to take care of Nevins, just as the TV he is watching is being repossessed by a trio of Repo Men. 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 the Super Luxurious Omnidirectional Whatchamajigger (SLOW) and tricking Larry into handing over Nevins and the crab lock by making him sign a petition about a Zumzizaroo. 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. An obsessed Larry decides to run to the house and tells Joan to meet him there.
The trio ends up at a birthday party they were not invited to, and the kids hide behind a bush as other children come out. The Cat disguises himself as a cat piñata. The kids hit him with plastic bats, and one boy tells the others to step out of the way, and hits the Cat hard from behind, causing him to howl in pain and agony. Conrad and Sally throw candy to distract the children and rescue the Cat.
When Larry catches the kids at the doorway and takes them to the house, the Cat reappears. Larry stumbles backwards while sneezing, due to being allergic to cats, only to fall from a high cliff into the Cat's world, surprising the kids at what has become of the house, being "the mother of all messes", just as the Cat warned before.
They finally find the crate, after passing trough the Cat's world. They successfully close it, and the house returns to normal, but then suddenly collapses. The kids berate the Cat for not fixing things, despite that he was not responsible for the mess. He admits that he planned the entire day, so the kids order him to leave. Much to their surprise, 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 put back together, much to the kids' relief. The Cat and the Things then leave the house, just in time for Joan to come home. Mrs. Kwan wakes up and tells Joan that the children were "angels", which she does not know anything that happened because she was sound asleep the whole time. But then Larry barges in, covered from head to toe with purple slime and starts telling Joan about the mess and the Cat's world. Not believing Larry (as the house has already been cleaned), Joan declines his proposal of marriage and instead sends him away, much to Larry's sadness and Conrad and Sally's delight. The party goes as scheduled. The film ends with a shot of the Cat and the Things walking away on the street in the sunset.
Tim Allen was originally planned to play the role of the Cat, but dropped out at the last minute, since he was filming for The Santa Clause 2.[1] Coincidentally, Spencer Breslin appeared in both The Cat in the Hat and The Santa Clause 2.
The Cat in the Hat received overwhelmingly negative reviews, getting an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average grade of D+ from critics in the interpretation of Yahoo's film website.[2]
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.[citation needed]
The film only managed to recoup $101 million of its $109 million budget domestically at the box office; however, an additional $32 million from foreign countries brought the film's total box office revenue to $133 million.[3]
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 the frequent mature themes, Audrey Stone Dimond Geisel, the widow of Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel (and holds the rights to his work), declared that there were to be no further live-action film adaptations based on the works of Dr. Seuss, arguing that the film has deviated from her late husband's family-friendly work.[4]
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