Michael Osadciw
Screenwriter
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- Michael Osadciw
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss
The Cat’s Playhouse
Studio: Columbia TriStar Home Video
Year: 2003
U.S. Rating: Not Rated
Canadian Rating: G
Film Length: 72 minutes
Genre: Children
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
Subtitles: None
Release Date: NOW
With everyone excited about the upcoming theatrical release of the film Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat starring comedian Michael Meyers, it’s no surprise that other Seuss stuff would find it’s way coming to DVD. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is releasing the children’s episodes of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.
There are three episodes on this disc. The first one is The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act (24m00s). The funny cat looses his tie in his messy playhouse that prompts a cleaning day inside. We see others clean up too! Kangaroo down the street has her real messy leafy tree replaced for the sake of convenience with an industrial ‘turtle tree’ that sheds no leaves. Here we learn that nothing man made is as good as the real thing. The other story is about a boy who needs to clean his room. …I think they made that one after me…hmmm…
The second episode is The Cat in the Hat’s Indoor Picnic (24m00s), where Cat’s outdoor picnic fails because of stormy weather. But leave it to Cat to save the day and have a fun picnic indoors and have his best friend make a giant green ham sandwich for everyone…except Terrence McBird because he’s a stubborn one and a whiner too. He’s such a mama’s bird, but can Cat convince him to have fun?
Lastly, in The Cat in the Hat’s Big Birthday Surprise (24m01s) Terrence McBird thinks everyone has forgotten about his birthday and he gets stubborn again. At his rate I’m not sure if anyone would want to celebrate his birthday. Sure enough Cat has a plan for McB that will surprise him enough to lay an egg.
In these episodes there is lots of fun, rhyming, singing, and whining (McBird). But of course there are plenty of surprises with the typical Seuss style of distorted objects and dimensions that would geometrically confuse any child watching it.
Video Quality? :star: :star: :star: :star:/:star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
I was surprised to see such great resolution and colour! It is bright and very three dimensional that I wasn’t expecting to see such a great transfer. Accompanying this wubbulous picture is very interesting and exciting camera work for a puppet action show – it’s simple but effective. There is just a little bit of noise in some scenes with minor compression artefects on background images.
Audio Quality? :star: :star:/:star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
This Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack is mostly dialogue that is integrated nicely with the odd effects and the occasional musical sequence. Overall the sound is quite thin because of a dominant midrange and treble. Surely this will still have the kid’s singing along.
Special Features? ZERO/:star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
There is nothing on this disc with features. A dedicated sing-along station option with lyrics to the songs and a little insert mimicking a Dr. Seuss book would have been cool at least…
Thoughts…
I’m not sure what the retail price is on this, but for only three episodes and no features I wouldn’t pay much more than $10 for it. I can imagine there will be much more in the way of Seuss to come. At least this could keep the kids occupied for a little while, or you could just have them go outside to play in the autumn leaves instead.
03.11.08
Michael Osadciw
