Review: The Cat in the Hat offers up a mixed bag of tricks

The wonderful worlds of Dr. Seuss are often seen as prime real estate for movie and TV adaptations. This, despite the fact that a lot of the stories are quite simple, and maybe not primed to be stretched out to 90+ minutes. Despite that, we've seen plenty of Seuss on the big screen in both live-action and animated forms. Weirdly, it isn't until now that Seuss's (arguably) most famous character has gotten the feature-length animated treatment. The Grinch, the Lorax, and even Horton and the Whos beat The Cat in the Hat to the medium. But now, the feline prankster with the striped hat is here in all his big-screen animated glory, and this outing is a lot of fun.

And, to be frank, pretty exhausting. From the trailers, you might have gleaned the tone of Warner Bros. Animation's The Cat in the Hat. It is a sugar rush of a film, the kind of movie where you get the sense that everyone was allowed to throw in ideas, and almost none were turned down. And I love it for that chaotic energy. There is boundless creativity and imagination at play here, different animation styles, a truly insane cast of characters. It's a lot, and all the better for it. But yeah, it does definitely skew younger. Like, I'm obviously something of a kid-at-heart, especially when it comes to my movie watching. But even I was like...worn out by the end of this thing.

However, I'll take that unfettered mayhem over the flip side, which is the film's emotional core. As you might imagine, this is where the film doesn't quite find its footing. It struggles to makes the characters' personal journeys feel meaningful or interesting. It's pretty basic thematic ground, and not even tackled with much of a unique spin, which is weird in a movie that is otherwise packed with unique spins.

So let's get into it.

I was lucky enough to attend a screening on the Warner Bros. lot last night, and the theater was decked out with photo opportunities, standees, and (afterward) cute blind boxes containing miniature Thing figurines. Before the screening, a brief message from the film's directors played. They said that they weren't trying to reinvent the Cat in the Hat, but rather expand him. They were going to the core of what has made the book such an enduring classic, an evergreen childhood favorite. And they have really succeeded on that front. This really does feel rooted in the original book, while building out a larger world, adding some additional character motivation, and coloring outside the lines where possible. There's nothing wrong with making a mess on the way to happiness, right?

The Cat in the Hat, we learn, is just one rhyming-named animal character working to bring happiness to kids around the world. His coworkers include Bug in a Mug (the reigning Employee of the Month) and Pig in a Wig, to name a couple. After finishing a job, each employee gets scored on two main metrics: how much happier did they make their kids, and how much of a mess did they make while getting the job done? The Cat, as you might imagine, scores very very high on both scales. He's maybe the master of making kids happy, but he makes such a mess while doing so.

Such a mess, in fact, that the company's CEO has it out for the Cat. Per HR, though, he can't outright fire him. Instead, he has to give the Cat one last job to prove himself. If he can handle a super difficult case (these kids are very unhappy) without making a big mess, he can keep his job. But, to make sure the Cat fails, the CEO tricks our feline hero into grabbing a time-traveling doohickey that is sure to cause a lot of trouble, not lease because it brings with it a monstrous Something that will pursue said doohickey at any cost.

The Cat ends up being assigned to Gabby and Sebastian, two kids who have just moved into a new apartment with their single mom. Gabby is beside herself because she misses her old school, house, friends, etc. Sebastian is generally happier, but he misses when Gabby would play with him. And the mom is obviously stressed since it's a new apartment, Gabby is so forlorn, and she's got a new job. Plus, the landlord is a busybody nightmare. A lot to deal with.

The main thrust of the narrative is that the time-travel device gets lost in one of the moving boxes, so the Cat and the kids (and their now-talking fish, Waffles) dive into the worlds of each box, each one assigned to one of the human characters. Sebastian's box is full of toys, Gabby's has a bunch of sheet music, and Mom's is mostly documents and receipts and other boring grown-up stuff. These worlds come alive and unfold in exciting and unusual ways, like Sebastian's toys becoming the performers and audience of an underwater circus (with his underwear swimming by like manta rays). 

It's a solid set-up, and a good structure. The cardboard boxes being portals to these magical worlds is a run little nod to the Cat's species (what cat doesn't love playing in a box?), and each one provides additional insight into the respective characters. Sadly, the human characters in this movie are pretty thinly drawn, and the kids are especially bland (and honestly kind of annoying). They feel like such stock characters popped into a world that is otherwise so colorful and zany. Like, I get that they're ultimately the straight men to the comedic chaos, but I wish they had more personality than angsty middle-schooler and bright-eyed little bro.

The family's emotional arc is also limp. It's stuff we've seen so many times before: siblings reconnecting, kids learning that a move isn't the end of the world, kids learning to see a parent as a person with an interior life. All fine and good, but I can't say any of it landed particularly well, or that any of it is tackled with much voice. It's some cookie-cutter human junk in the midst of fantastical animal adventures. It feels like a boring movie being forced into the trappings of a fun one. But, sure, I can forgive it pretty easily since these are all good lessons for kids, and they're ultimately the target audience for this one.

The way the movie looks is, again, a bit of a mixed bag. The Cat's world has a cool almost fuzzy quality to it, like the world isn't bound in by strong lines. There's a freedom to it, the color boundless, a lot of interesting shapes and sizes to things. The human world, understandably, is much more "normal" looking, meaning it looks like any other mainstream animated movie that isn't influenced by Spider-verse. Not bad-looking by any means, but definitely less exciting to look at than the fantasy worlds.

There are some real stand-out performances here, particularly Bill Hader's work as The Cat in the Hat. He brings a brilliant energy to the role, and adds in the perfect amount of self-awareness. Sure, the Cat is an agent of chaos, but Hader makes you feel like he's never out of control, however it looks. His comedic timing and line deliveries are perfection, and he has great support from the likes of Paula Pell as the landlady, Quinta Brunson as the Cat's bestie at work, and Matt Berry as Waffles the goldfish. A lot of really wonderful performances.

And, I would be remiss not the mention the Things, who are understandably a pillar of the film's marketing. As you've seen in the trailers and posters, there are way more than two Things this time around, and they come in all shapes and sizes. They communicate via slaps and taps and other noises, and their scenes are so delightful. I love all their different designs, and the way they naturally fold into the story. Special shout-out to the especially adorable Thing 3, with his big-ol' glasses. He's adorable! The Minions better watch their backs.

If you catch The Cat in the Hat in theaters, you'll also be treated to the latest Looney Tunes short, titled Daffy Season. Daffy is my favorite of the bunch, so I was glad to see him in another starring role. This time around, he's excited to be back in the spotlight as Rabbit Season turns to Duck Season, but just as he's ready to get into some antics against Elmer Fudd, he realizes that the bumbling hunter is nowhere to be seen. He heads to Elmer's house, where he finds that the dude has become addicted to soccer. Soon, other characters like Bugs and Speedy Gonzalez show up, and they all have soccer fever, too. Despite his best efforts, Daffy cannot get Elmer away from the TV.

It's a very fun short, full of classic humor (and featuring, of course, great voice work by the late Eric Bauza, who also provides additional voice work in The Cat in the Hat) and a lot of beloved characters. My only gripe with it is how it looks. The art style is somewhere between traditional hand-drawn and full CG, and it just doesn't hit my eye particularly well. Some of the characters look downright bad (like, what did they do to Lola?), and the way they move sometimes has a weird weight to it. Shame that the visuals are off-putting, because it's a well-written and -performed short, and gives more bang-for-the-buck than the feature it's paired with, for my money.