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Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
Universal Pictures


1.8

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 97 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG for mild crude humor and some double-entendres

Starring Mike Myers, Spencer Breslin, Dakota Fanning, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Sean Hayes, Candace Dean Brown, and Paige Hurd

Mike Myers stars in the title role of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, a film adaptation of the beloved literary classic. (Universal Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Adventure \| Comedy \| Family/Kids \| Fantasy
WRITTEN BY:	Alec Berg David Mandel Jeff Schaffer Dr. Seuss (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Bo Welch
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 16, 2004 Video: March 16, 2004 Theatrical: November 21, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	78 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

So good it breaks your heart for not being better. It is kept from brilliance by a soggy climax and a clumsy central narrative device.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Myers' Cat, with a voice that crosses Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion with Mel Blanc's Bugs Bunny, is generally fun, possessed of an anarchic playfulness that balances his sometimes bawdy tendencies.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's another overwrought clunker like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," all effects and stunts and CGI and prosthetics, with no room for lightness and joy.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Long on visual dazzle but short on warmth, and the humor is excessively raunchy for a family film.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Attractively designed, energetically performed and, above all, blessedly concise, this adaptation of one of the most popular American kids' books of all time walks the safe side of surrealism with its fur-flying shenanigans. The younger the viewers, the better reactions are bound to be.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's moderately engaging for the first half-hour, somewhat trying during the second half hour, and virtually unbearable over the final twenty minutes. It's a marginally recommendable film for kids, but not necessarily for parents.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Myers is the movie's fatal flaw, squeezing out the other characters who fatten the plot, mostly with an eye to parents.

Film Threat Kevin Carr

Left me feeling empty inside. There’s no warmth and character from the original Dr. Seuss book, and there’s no substance or soul in the story elements.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Emerges as a lackluster and nearly charmless affair.

Empire Anna Smith

A few laughs come from Alec Baldwin as Mom’s posturing, deceitful boyfriend, but attempts at inserting risqué modern humour sit uneasily with the playfully innocent surrealism of Seuss’ famous characters.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A semi-intriguing abomination, the movie The Cat in the Hat takes a piece of classic childhood Americana and turns it into something garish, dumb, ugly and senseless.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Although a literal movie adaptation of Seuss' 1957 classic "The Cat in the Hat" might have run 20 minutes, is it too much to ask that the filmed material preserve the author's sensibility?

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Very young children, it should be said, probably won't have any problem with the movie. It's bright and perky on the surface. But for anyone mature enough to pay closer attention, it's going to fall short of expectations.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Grazer's writing team has filled up the film's 82 minutes with winking product placements, SNL-type goofs, PG gags premised on not quite cursing, a Smashmouth cover of the Beatles' "Getting Better," and a lame subplot about a scuzzy lothario (Stephen Baldwin).

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is gorged with shtick and gadgetry. When it comes to highlighting everything better left in the dark, it makes even the Matrix sequels look like works of genius.

San Francisco Chronicle C.W. Nevius

It is an embarrassment and an insult to a character that has been beloved by kids for 45 years.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Everything to treasure about that magical, slightly malevolent feline of childhood verse is obliterated in the coarse, charmless Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Talk about your quick-buck exploitation.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Someone (Myers?) came up with the bright idea of turning the Cat in the Hat into the worst Vegas nightclub spritzer of 1958. He's become a furry version of Rip Taylor: a walking, talking vaudeville idiot box.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Where "The Cat" book was anarchistic but ultimately sweet-spirited, this movie is ugly, dumb and colossally mean-spirited.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

As a British politician said of a corrupt but articulate peer, "The Cat in the Hat" is like a rotten mackerel seen by moonlight: It shines as it stinks.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Charmless and grating and immediately forgettable.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

It pains me to tell you, But really, it's true: The Cat in the Hat Is a piece of dog doo.

Christian Science Monitor Gloria Goodale

It's a sort of soullessly cheerful cynicism that is about as far from Seuss as one can imagine.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

A vulgar, uninspired lump of poisoned eye candy.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

The movie is crass and vulgar almost beyond belief.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Frenetic and cheerless action aside, the film's real problem is the Cat, who looks most unmagically like a second-string college sports mascot and conducts himself like a risque baggy-pants comedian.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

If the producers had dug up Ted Geisel's body and hung it from a tree, they couldn't have desecrated the man more.

Premiere Susannah Gora

I do hate to say it -- it's really a drag, but why did they let this Cat out of the bag?

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

They've taken a classic and they've battered it senseless and, boy, does it stink. It’s so bad it’s amazing it's being released, and box office-goers might soon end up fleeced. And annoyed and bewildered, perhaps even creeped-out by this cacophonous mess which is awful throughout.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Critics are paid to suffer bad art, no matter how icky it is from the start. So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Such a remarkable rift between its charming source material and its heinous cinematic realization that the producers may as well have skipped the hassle of securing licensing rights and simply called this mess Mike Myers: A--hole in Fur.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The ongoing cinematic desecration of Dr. Seuss' legacy continues with The Cat In The Hat, a clattering abomination that makes it depressingly likely that an entire generation of reading-averse children will know The Cat In The Hat as that obnoxious character Mike Myers played in that horrible movie.

Slate David Edelstein

Like being run over by a garbage truck that backs up and dumps its load on top of you. It's a sloppy and vulgar burlesque, one of the most repulsive kiddie movies ever made.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

The narrative itself, attributed to three former "Seinfeld" writers who also worked on "The Grinch," reeks of desperation.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Comes scarily close to being the most unendurable Hollywood creation of the last dozen years.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

An abomination, impure and simple.

The average user rating for this movie is 1.8 (out of 10) based on 97 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

xyz gave it a0:
Alec Baldwin picking at his belly button lint, Enough Said!

Skye B. gave it a1:
I would've given this a zero, except for Dakota Fanning. This movie is an unforgivable insult to Dr. Seuss and if he was here to see this film he would give up writing in order to hunt down and murder the writers, director and Mike Myers. Preferably by slow, painful, bloody methods, such as draw-and-quartering, disembowlment, and/or stabbing in non-vital but painful areas that would eventually lead to death by bloodloss.

Mark K gave it a0:
Dr. Suess must be turning in his grave!

Oscar P gave it a1:
Not enjoyable at all,it's a mockery to the average film these days,but since it was developed in the 2003...il spare the 1...(horrible movie in total)

Stabs M gave it a0:
Thank you, Mike Myers, for destroying a little piece of my childhood.

Jake H gave it a2:
this movie was full of mature themes and it wa creepy! If they want to make a film wwith a talking cat, use animation!

Always Right gave it a0:
This is the most awful movie I've ever seen. The only people i can see enjoying this movie is 0.01% of adults and 0% of kids. How can it be for children? Its perverted. How can it be for adults? its rediculous. Anyone who gives it a good score is deaf and blind. One guy said it reminded him of his childhood. Dude, if dirty hoes and cats talking about sex remind you of your childhood, you are one sad individual. And the worst part is, some of these "adult jokes" don't even go over kids' heads. I'm sure most kids have heard of the B**** word, and when the cat screamed it out right as the bleeper went on, thats totally obvious. Sick and wrong. DON"T LET YOUR KIDS SEE THIS MOVIE!

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat Universal Pictures

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
Universal Pictures