| The Cat in the Hat | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Erica Rivinoja Arturo A. Hernandez |
| Produced by | Christopher DeFaria |
| Written by | Maya Forbes Wallace Wolodarsky Erica Rivinoja Arturo A. Hernandez |
| Based on | The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss |
| Starring | Jack Black Owen Laramore Avery Tiiu Essex Michael Keaton Julia Louis-Dreyfus |
| Music by | John Powell |
| Cinematography | Yong Duk Jhun |
| Edited by | Sim Evan-Jones |
| Production company |
Warner Animation Group |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date | January 27, 2023 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90 million |
| Box office | $592 million |
The Cat in the Hat (also known as Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat and credited onscreen as such) is a 2023 American animated comedy film directed by Erica Rivinoja and Arturo A. Hernandez in their feature directorial debuts, produced by Christopher DeFaria, and based on the 1957 children's book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. It serves as the third screen adaptation of the story after the 1971 television special starring Allan Sherman and the 2003 live-action film starring Mike Myers. The film features the voices of Jack Black, Owen Laramore, Avery Tiiu Essex, Michael Keaton, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In the film, two bored kids are visited by a fun-loving and optimistic magical cat wearing a hat, the Cat in the Hat, who intends to show them how to have fun while their mother is away.
The Cat In The Hat was released theatrically in both the United States on January 27, 2023 by Warner Bros. Pictures, after a few delays from a November 2021 release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film became a critical and commercial success, earning $592 million worldwide at the box office and becoming the fifth highest-grossing animated film released by Warner Bros., the highest-grossing Dr. Seuss film adaptation, and the tenth highest-grossing film of 2023. The Cat in the Hat is also the final Warner Animation Group project to be produced under the "Warner Animation Group" name before the animation studio label became "Warner Bros. Pictures Animation" that on June 9 of that same year. At the 96th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Animated Feature, becoming the first Dr. Seuss film adaptation to be nominated for an Oscar in this category. A sequel, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, was released on November 6, 2026.
Plot[]
Outgoing 10-year-old Conrad Walden has a big imagination. However, he is not understood nor taken seriously by either his behaved yet self-absorbed sister Sally Walden and or his single mother Joan Walden, because of his imaginative scenarios' tendency to accidentally make what they view as "destructive messes" around the house, which often gets him into consequent trouble for it, making him wish he could be taken seriously as part of his family. The Williams family live in the countryside near the town of Annville, where Joselyn works as a real estate agent for Harold Humberfloob. Joselyn is also dating their next-door-neighbor Leonard "Leo" Clark, much to Conrad's chagrin.
One day, Joselyn is called back to the office, leaving the kids with babysitter Ms. Quest (after the previous one quit) and forbidding them from entering the living room, which is being kept pristine for an office meet-and-greet party she is hosting that night, which would result in her otherwise being fired. When she leaves, it starts to rain outside. Sally and Conrad meet an anthropomorphic talking tuxedo cat, the Cat in the Hat, with a red-and-white-striped top hat named the Cat in the Hat, who intends to teach them how to have fun, although the family goldfish, Carlos K. Krinklebine, does not want the Cat around when JoAN is away. The Cat leaves a trail of fun and releases two troublemaking creatures named Thing 1 and Thing 2 from a crate he locks and forbids the children from tampering with. Things 1 & 2 cause chaos in the house, as they always do the exact opposite of what they are told. Despite the Cat's warning, Conrad picks the crate's lock in an attempt to put Things 1 and 2 back inside the crate to get rid of them. The lock attaches to the collar of the family dog Nixon. As it has suddenly stopped raining, The Cat, Conrad, and a reluctant Sally then set out to find and retrieve Nixon and the lock.
Meanwhile, Leo is revealed to be unemployed, broke, and lazy, pretending to be a successful businessman to both marry Joselyn for her money and send Conrad Walden off to military school because of the messes his imagination accidentally creates. Leo sees Nixon running across the street and tracks Joan to tell her. Conrad, Sally, and the Cat drive across Annville on the Cat's "Super Luxurious Omni-directional Watchamajigger" (S.L.O.W. for short) in pursuit of Leo and Nixon. As they search for Nixon, Sally and Conrad's backstories are revealed: Conrad showed a creation at school the week before, which went haywire and accidentally made a mess out of the classroom, resulting in him being shunned; Sally had a fun side when she had a best friend named, Maple, with whom she's have some loads of fun times with. However, she then got a new best friend who acted bossy toward Sally, causing her to since lose her friend and interest in having fun after being deserted; Conrad's imaginations has been misunderstood as a mess and Sally has been sometimes bossy ever since. The trio manage to eventually find Nixon and Leo in town and retrieve Nixon, but are too late to intercept Leo and Joan from driving away. Sally's ego overtakes her after a remembrance of Joselyn's party, and she discovers that Conrad broke the rule the Cat gave him about opening the crate. Thinking that her brother betrayed his own family, Sally selfishly lambasts him for ruining their lives and disowns him.
Conrad is wracked with guilt by the damage his recklessness caused everyone. Suddenly, he remembers that Things 1 & 2 do the opposite of what they are told and takes advantage of it to have them stall Joan and Leo. An ensuing chase erupts, all the while unnoticed by Josn, who is occupied talking to Things 1 and 2, who have stopped her by posing as police officers. Having deduced what Conrad was plotting, Leo grabs the motorcycle and pursues him and the Cat across Countyville, telling Joan to meet him at the house. As he gains on them, a reformed Sally, having a change of heart, shows up on motorcycle she created after regaining her sense of active fun and intercepts Leo. She rejoins the group and reconciles with Conrad. When the trio arrive, an enraged Leo cuts them off but sneezes uncontrollably due to his allergic reaction to the Cat. They find out the house has been turned into a surreal realm called "A Messy, Messy Land", with Leo falling into a purple ocean. The trio navigate through A Messy, Messy Land and eventually finding the crate and the "funnel", a purple tornado that is the most dangerous part of A Messy, Messy Land. Sally is nearly sucked into the funnel's black hole, but Conrad locks the crate, saving his sister's life. The house also returns to normal, but then immediately falls apart. Conrad and Sally blame the Cat for the days events and order him to leave the house.
As Conrad and Sally resign themselves to facing the consequences when Joan comes home, The Cat returns with an impressive cleaning invention, revealing the day of having fun was intended for the kids to learn from their mistakes and fixes up the house, even Krinklebine, with the help of Things 1 and 2. Conrad and Sally reconcile with the Cat, who emotionally bids them farewell and departs just as Joselyn arrives. A soaked Leo, having survived A Messy, Messy Land, arrives at the scene, thinking he busted the kids, and tries to tell Joan about everything. However, Joan, seeing how clean her house is, as the Cat had fixed everything before her arrival, does not believe his story and kindly dumps him.
After the party becomes a success, Joan spends quality time with Sally and Conrad, who have now become best friends, while the Cat and Things 1 and 2 walk off into the sunset.
Cast[]
- Jack Black as the Cat in the Hat, a six-foot tall anthropomorphic tuxedo cat. He has an overly-optimistic and happy-go-lucky attitude in a way that he has a positive outlook on life where he enjoys having fun without much on his mind, a flexible versatility (as he can become different shapes), and wears an oversized red bow tie and a magical red and white top hat which can reveal many humorous gadgets.
- Owen Laramore as Conrad Walden, Joan's son and the brother of Sally. He has a big imagination and is caring and optimistic, but also accident-prone, the latter of which is why he and his imagination are not taken seriously, and, in fact, scorned by his family as misbehavior, much to his dismay. He is also the narrator of the film.
- Avery Tiiu Essex as Sally Walden, Joan's daughter and the well-behaved yet cynical younger sister of Conrad. Although she cares about her family and is the best at obeying rules, she can also sometimes come off as egotistical, notably when she shows resentment towards Conrad because of his accidental tendency to make messes when he uses his imagination.
- Michael Keaton as Leonard "Leo" Clark, the Walden family's next-door neighbor who is determined to both marry Joselyn to mooch off her wealth and send Conrad to military school just to dispose of him, because he takes his imaginative lifestyle the least seriously, hugely because of the messes the latter accidentally makes. He is also shown to be lazy, unemployed, debt-ridden, and allergic to cats.
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Joan Walden, Sally and Conrad's workaholic single mother who is real-estate agent working for the Humberfloob Real Estate who is hosting the year's Humberfloob Meet-and-Greet party. Like Sally, she views her son's imagination as misbehavior.
- Bill Hader as Carlos K. Krinklebine, the Williams family's pet fish. Though he cares about the house and his owners, he is also pessimistically sour toward the Cat's fun-loving approach to life, as he dislikes when strangers are in the family's house.
- Hader also voices Harold Humberfloob, Joan's boss.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Thing 1 and Thing 2, two gibbering trouble-making creatures that the Cat brings with him.
- Frank Welker as Nixon, the Whites' pet dog.
- Amy Hill as Ms. Quest, an overweight, elderly woman who was hired to babysit the kids, but sleeps through her job, which serves as a running gag.
- Clint Howard as Kate the Caterer
- Jenna von Oÿ as a secretary who works for Humberfloob Real Estate.
Release[]
The Cat in the Hat was released on January 27, 2023. The film was originally scheduled to be released on November 5, 2021, but was delayed three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first delay to February 25, 2022, the second to September 2, 2022, and the third to the January 27, 2023 date.
Reception[]
Box office[]
The Cat in the Hat opened on January 27, 2023 and grossed $212 million its opening weekend. The film completed its theatrical run on July 4, 2023, having grossed $252 million in North America and $340 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $592 million. It is the highest-grossing Dr. Seuss film and the highest-grossing Warner Bros. animated film. The film's profitability was often attributed to positive word-of-mouth and minimal competition from other family-friendly releases.
Critical response[]
The Cat in the Hat received positive reviews from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 87% approval rating based on 273 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Although The Cat in the Hat may not be the wisest as an adaptation of a classic Dr. Seuss book, it still fosters the right amount of vivid animation, solid storytelling, unforgettable characters, and entertaining comedy to work as a loads-of-fun standalone". On Metacritic, it has a weighted score of 71 out of 100 based on 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Michael O' Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film four and a half out of five stars, writing, "The colorfully-animated The Cat in the Hat will surely please younger viewers, and, more likely, many Dr. Seuss fans". In a 4 star review, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal went on to say that Jack Black's performance of the titular character was superior to that of Mike Myers, and praised the performances of Black, Laramore, and Prince. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a 4-star review, writing, "The Cat in the Hat manages to keep Dr. Seuss' original vision intact, living up to its potential to make Dr. Seuss' source material into something great and fun to watch". Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic went to on to praise the film as being "a film based on a cherished Dr. Seuss book that is definite help for Seuss' legacy to take steps toward Pixar's creativity and emotional resonance".