The Cat in the Hat (film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Cat in the Hat
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bo Welch
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Screenplay by	Alec Berg David Mandel Jeff Schaffer
Narrated by	Victor Brandt
Starring	Mike Myers Alec Baldwin Kelly Preston Dakota Fanning Spencer Breslin
Music by	David Newman
Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki
Editing by	Don Zimmerman
Studio	Imagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (North America) DreamWorks Pictures (International)
Release date(s)	November 21, 2003 (2003-11-21) (United States)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$109 million
Money made	$134 million

The Cat in the Hat (also known as Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat) is a 2003 American comedy film directed by Bo Welch in his directorial debut and written by Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer. Based on Dr. Seuss' 1957 book of the same name, it was the second feature-length Dr. Seuss adaptation after How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). The film stars Mike Myers in the title role with Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Amy Hill, and Sean Hayes in supporting roles.

Production on the film began in 1997 with Tim Allen originally cast in the title role. After Allen dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with The Santa Clause 2, the role went to Myers. Filming took place in California and lasted three months. As with the previous Dr. Seuss adaptation, many new characters and subplots had to be added to the story to bring it up to feature-length.

Released on November 21, 2003 in the United States by Universal Pictures, the film grossed $134 million against a $109 million budget and was panned by critics due to its screenplay, humor, lack of faithfulness to the source material and Myers' portrayal of the title character, although the music and production design received some praise. Following its reception, Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel decided not to allow any further live-action adaptations of her husband's works, resulting in the cancellation of a planned sequel based on the book's follow-up The Cat in the Hat Comes Back; all subsequent Dr. Seuss film adaptations were produced using computer animation.

As of 2018, an animated Cat in the Hat reboot is in development at Warner Bros. Pictures through its Warner Animation Group division.

Plot

Conrad and Sally Walden live in the city of Anville with their single mother Joan, who works for obsessive compulsive disorder freak Hank Humberfloob, as a real estate agent. One day, Joan leaves her children at home with their babysitter, Mrs. Kwan, while she goes back to her office, forbidding them to enter the living room which is being kept pristine for an office party she is hosting later that night.

After Mrs. Kwan falls asleep, Sally and Conrad meet The Cat in the Hat, an anthropomorphic tall talking cat with a red-and-white striped top hat and a large red bow tie who persuades them to learn about having fun. In the process, the Cat leaves a trail of destruction throughout the house (such as jumping on the couch, baking gross cupcakes that explode, and even ruining Joan's dress by using it to clean the wall). He also releases two troublemaking creatures, named Thing 1 and Thing 2, from a crate which he locks and forbids Conrad to tamper with, explaining that it is a portal to his world. Despite the Cat's warning, Conrad picks the lock on the crate, which grabs on to the collar of the family dog Nevins, who runs off. The trio then search for Nevins to which they find themselves at a party for Sally's former friend Denise in which the Cat pretends to be a piñata and ends up whacked between the legs (which causes him to daydream that he is a woman in his happy place).

Meanwhile, the Waldens' next-door neighbor Larry Quinn, who Joan has been dating, is revealed to be an unemployed slob in debt pretending to be a successful businessman in order to marry Joan only for her money, as well as to get Conrad out of the way by sending him to military school for the rest of his life. While the kids and Cat spy on Nevins, Larry sees Nevins and kidnaps him, prompting the kids and Cat to chase them into the city with the Cat's super powered car. Larry goes and tells Joan about the situation but the Cat tricks him into giving them Nevins and the Things stall them by posing as police officers so they can beat them home with Larry's car. However while they distract them Larry sees them drive past in his car and realizes what they were plotting so he races after them on a police motorcycle telling Joan to meet him at the house.

When the kids and the Cat return to the house with the lock, Larry cuts them off and orders them inside the house. Conrad tries to warn him of the mess in the house but he nonetheless orders them in anyway. The Cat then surprises Larry who stumbles back sneezing uncontrollably as he is allergic to the Cat with the house falling apart in a paper-like fashion being transformed into "The Mother of All Messes", with Larry falling into a gooey abyss. The Cat and the kids navigate through the surreal house to find the crate and lock it, whereupon the house returns to its normal proportions but immediately collapses. In a heated argument, the kids learn that the Cat planned the whole day and order him to leave.

Conrad and Sally resign themselves to facing the consequences when Joan comes home, but the Cat (having a change of heart) returns with a cleaning invention and fixes the house; Conrad and Sally reconcile with the Cat and thank him for everything before he departs and Joan arrives. Larry, covered in goo, also returns in the belief that he has busted the kids, but when Joan sees the clean house, she doesn't believe his story and dumps him, much to the delight of Conrad and Sally. After the successful party, Joan spends quality time with her kids by jumping on the couch with them while the Cat and Things 1 and 2 walk off into the sunset.

Cast

• Mike Myers as The Cat in the Hat, a 6 ft. tall, anthropomorphic wisecracking cat with a Brooklyn accent who wears an oversized red bow tie and a magical red-and-white striped top hat that reveals many humorous gadgets.
• Spencer Breslin as Conrad Walden, Joan's destructive and misbehaved borderline troublemaker of a son, and the older brother of Sally.
• Dakota Fanning as Sally Walden, Joan's dull, somewhat bossy, well-behaved and rule-obeying sycophant daughter, and the younger sister of Conrad.
• Kelly Preston as Joan Walden, Conrad and Sally's single mother, a workaholic real estate agent.
• Alec Baldwin as Larry Quinn, the main antagonist; the Waldens' pompous, lazy and unemployed next-door neighbor who is allergic to cats, steals food from the Waldens and gets away with it, and is determined to both marry Joan to mooch off of her wealth and send Conrad to military school in order to get rid of him.
• Amy Hill as Mrs. Kwan, an overweight and elderly Taiwanese woman who was hired to watch the kids, though she sleeps through her job, which (as well as her weight) serves as a running gag. She usually sits down on the couch to watch brawling in Taiwanese parliament.
• Sean Hayes as Hank Humberfloob, Joan's zero-tolerance boss, a germophobe who may seem friendly at first glance, but is quick to fire employees for even the smallest infractions, often in an extremely loud tone of voice.
  • Hayes is also the voice of the somewhat cynical, pessimistic family fish.
• Danielle Chuchran and Taylor Rice as Thing 1, and Brittany Oaks and Talia-Lynn Prairie as Thing 2; two gibbering trouble-making creatures that the Cat brings in with him. Dan Castellaneta provided the voices for the Things.
• Steven Anthony Lawrence as Dumb Schweitzer, an intellectually and socially inferior pre-teen boy with a Bronx accent.
• Paris Hilton as a female club-goer.
• Bugsy as Nevins, the Waldens' pet dog. Frank Welker provided his voice. Welker had previously provided the voice of Max the dog from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• Candace Dean Brown as a secretary who works for Humberfloob Real Estate.
• Daran Norris as the Astounding Products Announcer
• Clint Howard as Kate the Caterer
• Paige Hurd as Denise, who no longer speaks to Sally, after she talked back to her. She never invited Sally to her birthday party either since Sally earlier stated that she told Denise not to speak to her anymore.
• Roger Morrissey as Mr. Vompatatat
• Victor Brandt as the Narrator, who tells the story; he is revealed to be the Cat using a voice-changer at the end.

Music

The soundtrack was released on November 18, 2003. Originally, Marc Shaiman was going to compose the score for the film, but due to David Newman already being chosen for the film score, Shaiman instead wrote the film's songs with Scott Wittman. The soundtrack also features a song by Smash Mouth ("Getting Better"), which makes it the third Mike Myers-starring film in a row to feature a song by Smash Mouth after Shrek and Austin Powers in Goldmember. The trailer for the film uses a version of "Hey! Pachuco!" by the Royal Crown Revue. The soundtrack also includes two songs performed by Myers, who plays the Cat. Newman's score won a BMI Film Music Award.

Video game

A platform game based on the film was published by Vivendi Universal Games for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance on November 5, 2003, and Microsoft Windows on November 9, 2003, shortly before the film's theatrical release.

See also

In Spanish: El Gato para niños