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Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
Universal Pictures

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 19 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
1.9 out of 10
based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 91 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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 

What The Critics Said

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...

70
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.
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58
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.
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50
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.
Read Full Review
50
USA Today Claudia Puig
Long on visual dazzle but short on warmth, and the humor is excessively raunchy for a family film.
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50
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.
Read Full Review
50
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.
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40
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.
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40
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.
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40
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Emerges as a lackluster and nearly charmless affair.
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40
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.
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38
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.
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38
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?
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30
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.
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30
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).
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25
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.
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25
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.
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25
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.
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25
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Talk about your quick-buck exploitation.
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25
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.
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25
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Where "The Cat" book was anarchistic but ultimately sweet-spirited, this movie is ugly, dumb and colossally mean-spirited.
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25
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.
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25
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Charmless and grating and immediately forgettable.
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25
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.
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25
Christian Science Monitor Gloria Goodale
It's a sort of soullessly cheerful cynicism that is about as far from Seuss as one can imagine.
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20
The New York Times Dana Stevens
A vulgar, uninspired lump of poisoned eye candy.
Read Full Review
20
Salon.com Charles Taylor
The movie is crass and vulgar almost beyond belief.
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20
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.
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12
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.
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12
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?
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11
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.
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10
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.
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10
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.
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10
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.
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10
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.
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0
New York Post Megan Lehmann
The narrative itself, attributed to three former "Seinfeld" writers who also worked on "The Grinch," reeks of desperation.
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0
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Comes scarily close to being the most unendurable Hollywood creation of the last dozen years.
Read Full Review
0
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
An abomination, impure and simple.

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 1.9 (out of 10) based on 91 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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!

Cody M. gave it a0:
If there was a -100, I'd give it that. The animation was so cheesy, you could tell that the girl in the cloud of purple smoke was, "DIGITALLY" "LEVITATED". The joke

Louis's brother gave it a0:
If Dr. Seuss was still alive to see this, he would shoot everyone in Universal Studios and then himself. This is truly the biggest loogie spat in the proud punch bowl of Mike Myers and the cinematic world. The worst part is the humor. I can see why a lot of people would think it's immature, but that's not why I hate it, it's more because they're only "trying" to be funny.

Samuel L. gave it a0:
The combination of an arguably classic children's book with risque adult humor, anarchistic Shrek-esque children's humor, gratuitous cheesy content, and screaming in your ear for the next 45 minutes results in a uniquely abominable extravaganza that just doesn't seem to work (and really shouldn't in the first place.) Please spare yourself and your children. Don't see this movie.

Karen S gave it a10:
This movie was great...You people need to lighten up....my kids 7, 11, 13 all enjoyed it. If your young children even got any of the adult humor....then you had already exposed them prior. This movie was mild compared to what your kids see on the Disney Channel Videos....or hear on the radio. I Welcome a Cat in the Hat 2.

Jeremy E. gave it a0:
Spicegirls is no longer the worst movie ever made.

Boneho C. gave it a0:
The most controvsial film ever made. I watched a lot of this on telivison, hopefully to find something to laugh at...and the whole time I keep pressing the Info button on the remote to see if it really is PG. These jokes don't even fly over the kids' heads. They're in your face kind of humor. And the story! Two kids are trying to stop their mom from marrying the world's biggest jerk, who wants to punish the boy and send him off to military school and some crap like that... It's terrfying.

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