Cat in the Hat
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The Cat in The Hat
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Review by Demetrius Payne
for Reel Movie Critic
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HHH
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Cast
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Mike Meyers
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The Cat
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Alec Baldwin
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Quinn
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Kelly Preston
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Mom
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Dakota Fanning
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Sally
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Directed by Bo Welch. A comedy, fantasy, adventure, for the family. Rated PG (for mild crude humor and some double-entendres). Universal Studios & Dreamworks LLC. Running time: 74 minutes.
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You would like this in a box; you would like this with a fox!
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Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin) are Joan's children. Joan (Kelly Preston) is a hard-working single mother and successful real estate agent, and on this day the most important dinner party of her professional life is fast approaching. Conrad and Sally are complete opposites, Conrad is a perennial rule breaker and Sally is a 9-year-old who acts more like a 29-year-old, she's as serious as her brother is a goof. Conrad is such a goof that Joan's boyfriend, Lawrence (Alec Baldwin) takes every opportunity to suggest to Joan that he be sent away to military school.
While mother is away the number one expressed rule of the house is that the living room must not be touched, under any circumstances. A daunting task for Conrad, not so much for Sally, or so it would seem until things took a bit of a turn. Out of nowhere, just like that, appeared a six-foot tall, talking cat in a hat (Mike Meyers). Where it came from no one is sure, but he comes bearing a guarantee, that he will allow - and join in - all the fun the kids want to have and nothing bad will happen. Sounds like a great deal, especially when that guarantee comes with a contract. The kids and the cat embark on a few hours of frivolity, until one thing after another begins to go wrong; with each wrong being more wrong than the wrong before; proving that all play and no work just does not work.
I liked this movie a great deal and it's due in large part to my life-long love for Dr. Seuss books. I can't imagine there are too many children who don't own a Dr. Seuss book, or many adults who weren't raised on them. This movie does a wonderful job keeping the soul of the book in tact, although personally I thought it would have been awesome if all the dialogue rhymed, but maybe that's asking too much. The sets and costumes were all in the colorful palette Dr. Seuss' books are known for, and a lot of the contraptions used by the cat had the nonsensical names we have all come to love from Dr. Seuss stories as well. This movie has all the eye candy for the children and brings back a lot of good memories for the adults.
