Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
During a rainy day, and while their mother is out, Conrad and Sally, and their pet fish, are visited by the mischievous Cat in the Hat. Fun soon turns to mayhem, and the siblings must figure out how to rid themselves of the maniacal Cat.
The 2003 live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss's beloved classic is widely regarded as a misfire. The plot is thin and padded, struggling to stretch a short children's book into a feature-length film by adding crude humor and adult jokes that clash with the source material. Mike Myers's performance as the Cat is polarizing — energetic but often grating and inappropriate for the target audience. The production design is visually busy and garish, capturing some of the Seuss aesthetic but in an overwhelming, headache-inducing way. The film offers little novelty, essentially being a loud, crass reworking of a beloved IP in the vein of other early-2000s live-action cartoon adaptations. The ending is rushed and unsatisfying, resolving the chaos too neatly without real emotional payoff.