Movie Review for Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat

Summary: Today is a special day for Conrad and Sally Walden--even though they don't think it is. It seems that Sally and Conrad, different as black and white, have pushed their single mom, Joan Walden, to the limit. Conrad's endless rule breaking has his mom seriously considering military school for her son--an idea planted by her just-this-side-of-smarmy neighbor and suitor, Lawrence Quinn. Sally, tightly wound though well-behaved, has bossed away every friend she has, and divides her time between upbraiding her brother and putting new 'To Do' lists in her junior palm pilot. And all the while their mom is just trying to keep domestic peace while balancing a successful career as a real estate agent for her germophobe boss, Mr. Humberfloob. However, on the Saturday that she is to host her company's party, Joan's preparations have fallen prey to Conrad's shenanigans. Thus, she lays down a mom-sized decree: Sally and Conrad are not to leave the house while she is at work; furthermore, they are forbidden from making a mess or misbehaving in any way. The kids are left with little to do besides sit and stare out of the window, while their babysitter, Mrs. Kwan, dozes in the den. Until their unexpected guest--a six-foot-tall talking feline, sporting a red-and-white-striped stovepipe hat--appears. The original party animal himself arrives to turn their world upside down by showing Sally and Conrad that "it's good to have fun--but you have to know how!"

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat (7/0)
            The Cat in the Hat is ostensibly a family film, yet it is filled with material that is i...

By Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            A film adaptation with big-buck effects, but no soul to speak of.

By Emily Blunt of Blunt Review (7/0)
            The Addams Family-Beetlejuice-Monkey Bone loving lot of you should RUN to this spectacular outrag...

By Ty Burr of Boston Globe (7/0)
            The big-screen Cat represents everything corrupt, bloated, and wrong with mainstream Hollywoo...

By Dan Marcucci and Nancy Serougi of Broomfield Enterprise (7/0)
            It would have been nice for Myers to be a little more original.

By Lawrence Toppman of Charlotte Observer (7/0)
            82 of the most wretched minutes ever imprinted on celluloid.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Marc Caro of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            You shouldn't have to add burps, farts and dog pee to Dr. Seuss.

By Mark Caro of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            The movie includes little of Seuss' language and even less of his wit.

By Gloria Goodale of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
            No doubt Myers's fans will find something to like, but others may find themselves quoting the goo...

By Karina Montgomery of Cinerina (7/0)
            Ever catch a family member sniffing your underwear? I haven't either, but I suspect it feels som...

By Paul Clinton (CNN.com) of CNN.com (7/0)
            It's perfect for parents looking for harmless entertainment to keep the young ones engaged during...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            It's a noisy nightmare, a hugely impersonal, manufactured product. It shows not only a complete d...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Peter Sobczynski of Critic Doctor (7/0)
            Unless you have children who have been especially naughty and who are in need of severe punishmen...

By Steven D. Greydanus of Decent Films Guide (7/0)
            What's next? Will the Sneetches get wild and crazy? / Will the Lorax get jiggy with Daisy-He...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            [An] excruciatingly unfunny live-action comedy.

By Sean O'Connell of E! Online (7/0)
            All in all, this Cat is a dog.

By Collin Souter of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Creepier than Michael Jackson's mug shot, and yet very similar. Parents shouldn't leave their ki...

By Oz of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Burn the negatives.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            You'll watch with a sneer and a throb in your head. You'll watch and you'll sit there and wish yo...

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            Bearing a slight, coincidental resemblance to a book by Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat is an 82-mi...

By Jake Euker of F5 (Wichita, KS) (7/0)
            What's on sale in The Cat in the Hat is a free-for-all, postmodern pastiche that feels like a sei...

By Eugene Novikov of Film Blather (7/0)
            All the signs leading up to this were dire, but honestly, I tried to like it. I was ready to like...

By Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (7/0)
            Abandon hope all ye who enter.

By Daniel Eagan of Film Journal International (7/0)
            Mangles one of the most famous children's books of the last 50 years, coarsening its charm in a s...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By John R. McEwen of Film Quips Online (7/0)
            To paraphrase Woody Allen, if Dr. Seuss were alive to see this production, he would never stop th...

By Sean O'Connell of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            Catastrophic.

By Ian Spelling of FilmStew.com (7/0)
            Mike Myers’ companion piece to fellow Canadian Jim Carrey’s portrayal of the Grinch falls flat, g...

By Stephen Himes of Flak Magazine (7/0)
            Perverts Geisel's complicated legacy as storyteller, cartoonist, and political radical.

By Eric Lurio of Greenwich Village Gazette (7/0)
            I laughed once. That’s it. The jokes fell flat every other time.

By Ross Anthony of Hollywood Report Card (7/0)
            I enjoyed the film!

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (7/0)
            It's so bad that Dr. Seuss should sue from the grave ... It is one of longest eighty minutes you'...

By Bob Bloom of Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN) (7/0)
            The Cat is a letdown, I ruefully confess. Once again the studio has made Seuss a mess.

By Alex Sandell of Juicy Cerebellum (7/0)
            It takes cinematic magic to entrance a child. There's nothing magical about this movie. I began w...

By James Sanford of Kalamazoo Gazette (7/0)
            Another pre-packaged blockbuster that's all concept and no charm... Trust me, you'll love it. Eve...

By Carol Cling of Las Vegas Review-Journal (7/0)
            It's a shame and a pity to see what they've done, Making a movie about magic that contains less ...

By Jon Niccum of Lawrence Journal-World (7/0)
            All the wild visual textures don’t disguise the fact that the film makes little connection with i...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Manohla Dargis of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            If directing bad movies were a sin to confess, Bo Welch would say oops for making this mess.

By Connie Ogle of Miami Herald (7/0)
            A poorly made movie for children, full of crass, bodily-function humor and embarrassingly empty o...

By Meg Jones of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            There are a few cinematic hairballs along the way, but most of the film is a great ride.

By Susan Granger of Modamag.com (7/0)
            More than anything else, it looks like the prototype for a theme-park ride at Universal Studios.

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
            Replace the 'C' with 'S' and 'H' and you'll be on the money as to what the filmmakers have done h...

By Frank Ochieng of Movie Eye (7/0)
            [a] kiddie-coated clunker...The Cat in the Hat has the numbing staying power of sniffing artifici...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/0)
            It has filler that ranges from the superfluous to the distracting and some inexcusably vulgar hum...

By Michael Elliott of Movie Parables (7/0)
            I do not like what I have seen. I do not like it on the screen.

By Nick Schager of Nitrate Online (7/0)
            The Cat in the Hat isn't so much a movie as an extremely long commercial for Universal's Dr. Seus...

By Jeffrey Westhoff of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (7/0)
            Myers isn’t playing a character. He’s just doing comedy sketches in a strange costume and makeup ...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Get out the flatware, mother--the Thanksgiving turkey has arrived...a cruelly abrasive, dismally ...

By Tyler Hanley of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            Only Hollywood could turn a straightforward children's book into a frantic feature film.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Jon Popick of Planet Sick-Boy (7/0)
            With the matted fur and white makeup, this Cat looks like a shirtless Robin Williams trying to do...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (7/0)
            Just in time for Thanksgiving: the Paris Hilton movie.

By Sarah Chauncey of Reel.com (7/0)
            When the problem with The Cat in the Hat is the Cat itself, nothing else can save the movie.

By Diana Saenger of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
            A snoozer.

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            There are two, and only two, noteworthy things about The Cat in the Hat. It's visually impressive...

By Forrest Hartman of Reno Gazette-Journal (7/0)
            Comedian Mike Myers creates a cat who is more annoying than charming, and most of the gags are ou...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (7/0)
            A clunky enterprise that shifts tones willy-nilly, jumping from snippets of Seuss poetry to baser...

By Will Evans of Sacramento Bee (7/0)
            Despite the enormous effort and expense that went into this overblown production, the Cat falls f...

By C.W. Nevius of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            It is an embarrassment and an insult to a character that has been beloved by kids for 45 years.

By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            ...a violent, incessantly gross and grotesquely overproduced monstrosity of a movie.

By Mary Brennan of Seattle Times (7/0)
            The movie has some mildly amusing moments, but it completely lacks the wild glee and irresistible...

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            The filmmakers seem to have decided that the Dr Seuss charm was too simple for them, opting inste...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            A disastrously misconceived confection that should easily neuter a few childhood memories.

By Rob Blackwelder of SPLICEDWire (7/0)
            I don't remember a rave scene with a cameo by hoochy hotel heiress Paris Hilton in Dr. Seuss's Th...

By Tony Toscano of Talking Pictures (U.S.) (7/0)
            ...the film’s gags degenerate into a kind of seedy burlesque...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            The Cat In The Hat might make some money, until folks find out it's not very funny.

By Scott Nash of Three Movie Buffs (7/0)
            Just plain awful.

By Kam Williams of Town Topics (7/0)
            Unless you are prone to laugh at endless urination, expectoration, regurgitation, defecation, fla...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide (4/3)
            A truer title would be Mike Myers' Cat in the Hat, since this coarse, loud assault on the senses ...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            ...The Cat in the Hat is long on visual dazzle but short on warmth...

By Michael Atkinson of Village Voice (7/0)
            Comes scarily close to being the most unendurable Hollywood creation of the last dozen years.

By Daniel M. Kimmel of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (7/0)
            What sick mind thought this was appropriate humor for a holiday movie geared to youngsters?

By Michael Szymanski of Zap2it.com (7/0)
            Myers sounds like a cross between Paul Lynde and Austin Powers, and purr like The Wizard of Oz C...

By Steven Snyder of Zertinet Movies (7/0)
            They missed the point, But stole the name / The real question today, Is who to blame?

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By A. O. Scott of New York Times (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            ...a vulgar, uninspired lump of poisoned eye candy...

By Bob Longino of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (3/4) No reference
            This one stars a guy named Mike. This one only kids will like.

By Christopher Smith of Bangor Daily News (Maine) (3/4) No reference
            A flea wouldn't have anything to do with it, but dogs certainly have.

By Michael Tunison of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            While Myers is certainly one of the more creatively gifted comics on the scene today, his charact...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (3/4) No reference
            It's another overwrought clunker...

By Dan Fazio of Citysearch (3/4) No reference
            Almost entirely unrecognizeable as something from the Seuss world.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Mary F. Pols of Contra Costa Times (3/4) No reference
            Let's hope this insult of a movie doesn't taint any child's ability to enjoy the original.

By Vince Koehler of Entertainment Spectrum (3/4) No reference
            Mike Meyers brings this troublesome feline to life in an action packed adventure.

By Kevin Carr of Film Threat (3/4) No reference
            There's no warmth and character from the original Dr. Seuss book, and there's no substance or sou...

By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (3/4) No reference
            [L]ike a forced march through Candyland...

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            You can sum up the worthy aspects of this one in two words -- Mike Myers.

By Louis B. Hobson of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            Only Dr. Seuss in title, not in spirit.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
            The good and bad news about Mike Myers' Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is that it's basically How ...

By Danny Minton of KBTV-NBC (Beaumont, TX) (3/4) No reference
            If you liked Death to Smoochy, you are going to love The Cat in the Hat.

By Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly (3/4) No reference
            Little more than an assaultive sequence of skits meant to showcase Mike Myers’ gifts as a rat-a-t...

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (3/4) No reference
            The film is the kind of betrayal of the book's kooky elegance in which Myers' magical, maniacal t...

By Colin Covert of Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/4) No reference
            This adaptation departs from the kiddie classic with freewheeling abandon, but is faithful in the...

By James Rocchi of Netflix (3/4) No reference
            Another Dr. Seuss classic gets the big-screen treatment ... and it's not that much of a treat.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Jami Bernard of New York Daily News (3/4) No reference
            Fun has never looked so tedious.

By Megan Lehmann of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            ...a nauseating splat of gaudy production design with a distasteful central performance by Mike M...

By Bob Campbell of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
            Flashy but flat.

By John Anderson of Newsday (3/4) No reference
            Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is perhaps the worst holiday movie ever made.

By Shawn Levy of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            Frantic and noisy -- and almost unrelated to the book -- but genuinely fun in spots.

By Jay Boyar of Orlando Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            The movie is so disappointing, in fact, that it makes Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas l...

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Steve Schneider of Orlando Weekly (3/4) No reference
            It's about as bad as you'd fear.

By Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News (3/4) No reference
            The Gigli of Dr. Seuss movies.

By Andrew Manning of Radio Free Entertainment (3/4) No reference
            I remember watching The Smurfs on TV as a kid--that doesn't mean I want to see a film with 100 sh...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (3/4) No reference
            Myers sprinkles in some 'mature' humor to provide a few laughs for the older folk in the audience...

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (3/4) No reference
            It all smacks of exhausted inspiration.

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Too stupid for grown-ups, too gross for the tots, / the movie was really upsetting me -- lots.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune (3/4) No reference
            A brash defilement of Geisel's most famous work, yet so compulsively cheery that people might try...

By Phoebe Flowers of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            A very expensive, 73-minute commercial for related merchandise.

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) No reference
            It's not exactly the story you love, but at least it's a story you'll recognize.

By Josh Larsen of Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (3/4) No reference
            After the wholesale botching of Grinch, The Cat in the Hat feels both faithful and fresh.

By John Venable of Supercala.com (3/4) No reference
            Entertaining? Not very. Bearable? Absolutely. It's a great looking movie that is unfortunately de...

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (3/4) No reference
            A spirited fantasy that doesn't slow down long enough for the viewer to think about its flaws.

                         Reviews of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
By Jonathan R. Perry of Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) (3/4) No reference
            ... a shrill, soulless and disturbing void of imagination that murders the spirit of a beloved ch...

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