The Cat in the Hat

Review by Clint Morris

There once was a Grinch who made hit films look like a cinch. Within a year, the cat got the clear, but it’ll be far from a hit, because well, it’s just so sh...

Grinch producer Brian Grazer and director Bo Welch bring Dr Seuss’s eternally popular “Cat in the Hat” book to the big screen. And boy, is it a feeble effort.

One-trick-pony Mike Myers suits up the Cat. A Hat-wearing, talking magical meower who mysteriously appears in the home of a couple of kids [Dakota Fanning & Spencer Breslin] to teach them how to have fun, and mess up the house, before helping to clean it. Ah, surely a lesson they could have done without?

The Cat’s out of the bag.

Film’s second attempt at Dr Seuss is as wilted as a decrepit moggie. And there are predominantly two reasons for the label. One; Mike Myers.

Proving once again he only has about three facial expressions and an even smaller array of voices (how many more times do we have to hear that Scottish accent?! or "Yeah, Baby, Yeah!"), Myers destroys what could’ve been a much more tolerable movie in someone else’s hands.

Whilst Jim Carrey was unbelievable – and almost animated – as The Grinch, Myers is evidently no more than Austin Powers in a Cat Suit. And, first and foremost, he’s just not funny.

He tries, sure, but in upshot only gives the audience either a headache or a reason to ditch the flick. In fact, whenever Myers disappears from the screen for a second or two, the movie’s all the more tolerable. He’s that annoying.

The other reason this Cat’s worth putting out is the storyline. There doesn’t seem to be one. It’s the old "it seemed a good idea at the time" scenario where a studio has came to the conclusion that doing another Dr Seuss movie, especially after the success of The Grinch, would be a top idea.

But The Cat in the Hat, as a book, possesses nothing that would even seem to make it a good movie. It’s a kid’s book, plain and simple. There’s little narrative, just rhymes, hence the hackneyed substitute for a storyline that’s on show here.

It’s minimalist at most and about as fascinating as watching paint dry. Why on Earth Brian Grazer and the gang at Imagine went for it is beyond comprehension.

The production design is quite good, and Alec Baldwin seems to have the role of the film’s token bad guy down pat, but the film’s about as far away from “Purrfect” as possible. Awfully unacceptable considering it’s one of the year's big titles.

Let’s hope the Cat in the Hat doesn’t strike back.

1 out of 5

The Cat in the Hat
Australian release: Thursday April 1st
Cast: Mike Myers, Spencer Breslin, Dakota Fanning, Alec Baldwin, Sean Hayes.
Director: Bo Welch.
Website: Click here.

Brought to you by MovieHole