Review
THE CAT IN THE HAT
Starring Mike Myers, Alec Baldwin and Kelly Preston
Directed by Bo Welch
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The Cat in the Hat isn’t quite the painful perversion of Dr. Seuss that How the Grinch Stole Christmas was. Where The Grinch inflicted upon us Whoville key parties and a Grinch with a heart of gold, the Cat in the Hat movie attempts, at least nominally, to align itself with the idea of the book and execute a simple fun-based agenda.
As far as the look of the film goes, you can’t fault it. All the craftspeople responsible for bringing the visual world of Dr. Seuss to life did as good a job as anybody could, using stark pastel colour schemes, going hog wild on building the bizarre props, and animating the various wild ’n’ wooley set pieces. Directed by Bo Welch, who came to the director’s chair as one of Hollywood’s premier art directors (Men in Black, Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns), The Cat in the Hat is the perfect platform to put together a spacey dreamland of visual oddities.
However, most of us go to the movies for more than just show reels of weird production design. It is supposed to be fun. Of course, The Cat is the Hollywood version of Dr. Seuss fun, so it must sass things up, load the film with contemporary references, treat us to scenes of the Cat leering at the kids’ mother and cutting ironic winks at the audience.
Yes, cool as it looks, there’s a rather desperate quality to the "fun" that we’re supposed to be having. Within minutes of his arrival as the Cat, Mike Myers performs a song on the subject of fun, forcing the reluctant kids to sit down and listen, roll their eyes and grimace and be not-entertained as we are not. And, as if the filmmakers aren’t sure we’d get which parts were awesome, one of the kids has to yodel out "Awesome!" at the conclusion of every scene, just so we’re clear.
The Cat in the book is slyly sophisticated and coolly debonair as he sets Thing 1 and Thing 2 loose to tear up the home. The Cat in the movie is, as you’d expect, a joke-cracking goofball – an overheated pastiche of random Mike Myerisms. You’ll hear Austin Powers, a touch of Fat Bastard and Wayne from Wayne’s World worming their way into the Cat’s routine.
It’s not terrible comedy. As we know from Austin Powers, Mike Myers is a funny guy. Certainly he’s doing what he’s being paid to do, which is to cram in as many jokes and bits as he can, whether or not they play towards any kind of coherent or respectful interpretation of Dr. Seuss’s Cat.
The screenwriters did what they could to expand the story as they take the action out of the house for a brief spin through Anville before heading back home to confront the trans-dimensional danger of the Cat’s unleashed crate of superfun. As Hollywood Seuss desecrations go, The Cat in the Hat functions and even minimally entertains. It’s just not very, y’know, good. |
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