Dr Seuss would be revolving on spin cycle at the thought of his work being mangled to the extent of this 'entertainment'.
The much loved cat of our youth being brought to 'life' in the form of Mike Myers giant furry suited prankster.
We are encouraged by the posters to give the kids a treat and bring them along to theatre, however a more suitable reward may be to send them to bed with no dinner and believe you me they will respect you more for the latter.
The Plot!
Conrad and Sally are brother and sister. He an unruly sort constantly disobeying house rules and she a control freak eager to please only those that count and dismissive of her imperfect and increasingly distant friends.
When their mother is called away to work and they are left in the irresponsible hands of ever tired emergency babysitter Mrs Kwan, their inquisitive natures get the better of them as they seek to unearth the cause of the noise in the cupboard!
There they meet the lifesize (if not lifelike) talking cat who will lead them into a host of (un)funny situations as they break every house rule possible.
In the quest to prove to the cat that they are fun, the children sign a contract to abide by the cats advice and this leads to their pet dog running away, the introduction of the cat's helpers (chief troublemakers Thing 1 and Thing 2) and the family home being trashed just hours before their mother hosts a work party that she is reliant on being a success to keep her job.
The supposedly fun three set off to find the dog (carrying the key to return everything to normal) , persued by Quinn the amourous but slobbish next-door-neighbour (superbly played by Alec Baldwin). He hopes to send the son off to military camp and pave the way to marrying the childrens beautiful and highly eligable real-estate queen mother (played in her sleep by the Stepford-like Kelly Preston).
The story then lurches from one unconvincingly dull set-piece to another before reaching the obvious (hollywood) conclusion and hammering home the morale of the story - sibling love greater than any other etc yawn..
Director - Bo Welch PG 82 Minutes Cast - Mike Myers, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Sean Hayes.
The colours are bright and the characters busy and in your face and the kids may be distracted enough by this you hope, as Myers plays the cat to the adult audience far to often for a PG movie and stops short of rude endings to his limericks painfully close at times and offers mild curses at other points.
His cat is not a loveable one and you can't help thinking that his humour is too adult (hard to believe I know) for the target audience. This will not stop this being a huge success though, as the school holiday release time will pack them in, whereas poor word of mouth will have no impact, when the choice is this or Scooby Doo Doo.
The acting plaudits should go to Baldwin in another low-key bad-guy role not too disimilar from his annoying-boss in Along came polly, but the others are too sickly sweet and it all tastes very unconvincing.
Sean Hayes (better known as Jack in Will & Grace) raises a small smile as the mothers fastidous boss Mr Humber-(unpronouncablename) and covers the second base of second most annoying talking creature in this motion picture, by voicing the Goldfish - hollywood stardom beckons!
Kick the cat gleefully in to touch and give the kids a different treat this break. If they have to see it, wait til it comes out on hire and sleep through it in the luxury of your own home.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1993 - Family - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Michael Caine, The Muppets, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, David Rudman, Steve Whitmire
I've had the misfortune of seeing this and agree with you, there is rarely a good word to be said about it. Jenn
Myopinionscount 08.04.2004 11:08
I went to see this film yesterday with my kids and their friends (at their suggestion) and I totally agree with your comments. Although Alec Baldwin does provide a couple of really funny moments, the innuendo content was a bit too close to the mark for my liking and the overall film was disappointing - one to rent (not buy) on DVD at a later date, I suspect. Then again, perhaps I'm just getting old ...?
AimeeLouise18 06.04.2004 10:07
This film appealed to me before I saw any previews of it.That was only because Mike myers was in it and he wasn't too bad in austin powers.However after reading a few opinions on it and watching it's previews I've come to the conclusion that I definitely don't want to watch it.It just looks too silly for me but it might appeal to the kids maybe?
Aimee xxx
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![Cat In The Hat, The [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78496498.jpg "Cat In The Hat, The [DVD] [2004]")
Apr 4th, 2004
(Apr 6th, 2004)
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