I do not like this as a movie; I do not think it will be groovy. (1 Viewer)

[ChrisMatson]

Metacritic reviews are coming in too:
http://metacritic.com/film/titles/catinthehat/
I guess they tried to be more risque than your average kids movie but just ruined it for all.

 

[Brenton]

I'm not being sarcastic at all. It would be easy to get all offended about this movie and feel that the filmmakers are desecrating a classic children's story. But it's important to remember what this movie really is--a Mike Myers comedy--and take it at that. It looks great.

 

[Geoffrey_A]

I just gotta know: Why is Myer's giving the cat the coffee talk ladies voice? Why did he feel that his poor jewish accent was the best way to go with this character? and stupidest of all, did he not realize that his jewish accent is of the stereotypical female jewish variety? Honestly, I'm all for funny voices, but it just doesn't suit the character at all.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Geoffrey, I refuse to defend this abortion on celluloid, but I have to stand by Myers' "stereotypical female Jewish" voice. He's imitating his mother-in-law, Linda Richmond. Have you heard her talk? He's dead on.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Mike Myers needs to really go back to his "54" kind of serious role dabbling, because it's pretty apparent his comedy has nosedived, plowed into the concrete and is kicking up shards of pavement all over the place.

Seriously. All he's got left is poop jokes, easy sex jokes, and they can only be delivered in variatons of his scottish man voice (Shrek, Fat Bastard, the Dad in "Axe Murderer) or his Coffee Talk voice (The Cat in the Hat) and it's all just really, really tired. It's like, lately, he takes an old voice from SNL that he hasn't used yet, and applies it to whatever character he's been hired to play. It's not long until we get Mike Myers as Howard Hawks, using his "Lothar of the Hill People" voice

And this movie was doomed from the start. The fact that Rick Baker ended up leaving the project didn't help any, either. There is absolutely no reason for this to be live action, and once your oscar winning almost legendary makeup artists leaves, there's LESS than no reason to visually realize Seuss' world in live action.

Cat in the hat is a cartoon. Animate it. Don't let chubby, pudgy Mike Myers imitate his mother while popping a hat-boner in front of some kids, as he stares at a picture of Kelly Preston. Hell, the Grinch wasn't entirely successful, and Mike Myers isn't anywhere near the human cartoon that Jim Carrey is.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

I am so offended at what this movie could possibly be that I refuse to go see it or to take my kids, The cat in the hat is sucha beloved part of my childhood like schoolhouse rock and others that i will not let it be ruined by some hack.

 

[Jay E]

I love a good "hit in the balls" joke, and no one was better at mastering this fine art of comedy than Dr Seuss. Thank you Mike Myers for making Theodor Geisel spin even faster in his grave.

 

[Robert Anthony]

The real question is--

--will this movie make people forget that Gigli was released earlier this year?

So far, the only good thing that's come of it's making is that it got Alec Baldwin back on SNL.

 

[Geoffrey_A]

Geoffrey, I refuse to defend this abortion on celluloid, but I have to stand by Myers' "stereotypical female Jewish" voice. He's imitating his mother-in-law, Linda Richmond. Have you heard her talk? He's dead on.

Yeah, I know where the voice comes from, and yeah it's very accurate. That doesn't make it appealing though, nor does it make it right for this character in particular. I have no problem with the voice itself, it just doesn't belong here. I'm almost certain that when people read the cat in the hat, that the voice they hear in their head is not that of Myer's mother-in-law

 

[MartinTeller]

It seems to me that the voice from the trailer is not the Linda Richman voice, but more like a stock "sassy gay man" voice. And that stupid snap-snap-snap bit was played out 10 years ago on In Living Color.

 

[David Fisher]

Quote:

Agreed. The Seuss universe is a rich, imaginative tapestry. If you have to rely on dick jokes to find Seuss' audience, you've failed as a filmmaker. I'll be skipping this one.

 

[Malcolm R]

Where is the Widow Seuss? I thought she was pretty involved in "The Grinch" in order to see that it stayed close to the original story. Where was she with "The Cat"? Did she die?

 

[Robert Anthony]

"Coffee Talk" was probably the inspiration because I believe the only reason this film came about like it did, with the Grazer/Meyers connection, was because their earlier attempt at "Dieter" flamed out mid production. There were lawsuits and all kinds of public fingerpointing, and then it got settled.

This is more than likely the result of the settlement: Meyers fulfills his contractual obligation to IMAGINE, and Grazer uses his Seuss license to put out another kids movie for the holiday. Happy Birthday, Jesus! Here's some CRAP.

And it probably came up when Meyers said "I bet the cat and the hat would be funny if he sounded like a jewess from uptown."

Ta-da.

 

[Joseph Young]

This NY Times Review is funnier than the film itself.

a vulgar, uninspired lump of poisoned eye candy
...
speaking in a voice somewhere between Bert Lahr doing the Cowardly Lion and a third-rate Borscht Belt comedian telling toilet jokes.
...
Mr. Myers, Mr. Welch and a squad of frantic screenwriters throw in disparate elements out of sheer laziness, concocting a grueling, chaotic stew of forced whimsy that utterly lacks imaginative integrity or visual spark. David Newman's score is clever and playful, but it is so catastrophically at odds with what is on the screen that it only makes matters worse, like a noisemaker wielded by a drunken birthday-party clown desperate to prevent his cranky audience from showing signs of boredom.
...
Mr. Myers's manic impishness, which has been quite diverting in other contexts, feels grating and inappropriate here. All he is doing is showing off, and it becomes wearisome in a hurry, especially when he tries to pander to the grown-ups with sketch-comedy parody, like an interminable infomercial sendup. I am tempted to say that this Cat should be tied up in a sack and drowned, but I wouldn't want to condone cruelty to animals, even metaphorically. Cruelty to classic works of children's literature is bad enough.

The trailer looked horrendous.
And seriously, that 'three snaps, girlfriend' routine? So 1991. No longer funny in any context (oops, unless you've been in a coma or incarcerated for the last 13 years, in which case, my apologies for the insensitivity).

 

[Peter Kline]

The grating comment is what struck me about the trailer. The film is only 78 minutes? Must have edited a lot of stuff out. Read the book!

Another quote from the review:

"Neutering, to prevent this beast from spawning sequels, is perhaps the most humane solution. Or maybe it is best to follow the advice of that wise fish: "Make that cat go away! Tell that cat in the hat you do not want to play."

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I'm not being sarcastic at all. It would be easy to get all offended about this movie and feel that the filmmakers are desecrating a classic children's story. But it's important to remember what this movie really is--a Mike Myers comedy--and take it at that. It looks great.

But it's not supposed to be a Mike Myers comedy, and if Mike Myers wants to make a film, he should try not desecrating a classic.

My flatmate is a fan of Dr Suess, and I've reread a lot of his books as a result. And I have been astonished with what a genius he really was. Here I am, I'm 25 years old, anfd I am taking genuine pleasure out of reading a children's book, simply because it is such a brilliant work of art. And the film does not look like it willlive up to that. So why make it.

(Other than money. The love of money is the root of all evil. And this movie really is evil.)

 

[Brian_J]

This movie is just so amazingly wrong that you have to wonder if everyone from the director, to the screenwriter, to the producers at the studio were totally on crack. I mean how could you think its a good idea to cast Mike Meyers in this role? The commercials make me shudder.

Brian

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I wonder how much nepotism is involved when it comes to studio thinking.

Just a rambling thought. I too would like to know how certain things get green-lit.

 

[Brenton]

You know what you guys are doing? You've never even seen the movie, but you are making it impossible for the movie to please you. With attitudes such as these already in place, the movie stands NO chance, no matter how good or bad it turns out to be.

 

[MartinTeller]

I'd say the director, producers, and actors are making it impossible for the movie to please me.