The Cat in the Hat (2003)

©Universal Pictures 2003

Please forgive my writing. It’s been a while since I have, and forgive the expression, put pen to paper. I have been wanting an outlet recently and I figured this would be a fun way to exercise that. Please don’t expect much.

I chose this film to begin with because every time my girlfriend and I watch it, which is quite often, I log it on letterboxd and am confronted with the absolutely iconic rating distribution that it’s earned. It makes me think how much film and culture (or rather, culture and therefore film) have changed since I was a kid, which in all honesty is not so

long ago. Every generation has their “back in my day” moment when they realize they can no longer connect to their current culture as innately as they once could, but this, like many things right now, feels so much bigger. Like we are stuck in some sort of regressive evolution. While I do think we are in a particularly new era, film is and has always been one of the most accessible and tangible reflections of culture, politics, and society. Even – and you guessed it - The Cat in the Hat. What a tie-in, am I right? It may feel like a stretch, but I promise it’s not as far as it seems.

Somethings that I have always been interested in, likely due to my extensive (single) semester as a film major, are the moving parts which make a film come together. I suppose it’s as good a starting point as any.  In the mid to late ‘90s Mike Myers abandoned a Universal adaptation of his Saturday Night Live sketch Sprockets because of an undesirable script. His departure from that film resulted in Universal suing him for lost production costs and instead of a traditional cash settlement, they came to the agreement that he would star in another Universal Picture: The Cat in the Hat. 

Now if you asked me, I would argue that Universal sued for the sole purpose of attaching Myers to the project. I mean, let’s look at the facts here. Universal made an insane amount of money from How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2000, the equivalent of what would be roughly $658 billion today. Looking at them side by side, they’re carbon copies of one another. A beloved adult comedian in heavy body and face makeup/prosthetics, starring in a live action recreation of a famous Dr. Seuss character orchestrated within a wild amalgamation of colorful sets and wacky costumes.

The biggest differences being the way they approached each film. It looks now like the infamous first and second born parental story: the first was approached with care and resolve, the second was a fuck all. They had an academy award winning director and seasoned writers at the helm of the first project along with a strong front line of producers, cinematographers, and everyone else behind the scenes. The Cat in the Hat director, Bo Welch, has a singular title in his directorial calling card, the 2003 film being it, and the writers which were brought on were the eventual writers of Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2012 film The Dictator. I’ll let you ponder that. Objectively, it looked as though Universal wanted to peddle something out close enough to the release of The Grinch so they could capitalize from it the same way. Hoping that audiences wouldn’t look too closely at what was actually being made and instead just see that Universal was taking a second go at it. Crazy thing for a corporation to do, chasing money? Wild.

Audiences at the time hated it, and while I disagree, that was largely the reception. Many kids my age revere this film and part of that might be due to nostalgia but from some of the conversations I have, it seems like this is something that is still actively enjoyed. It’s just fucking funny. I mean Mike Myers is an absolute legend when it comes to comedy, that is undeniable. I can understand how parents consider it too “adult” in some of its jokes but now in understanding the background, what would you expect? Myers was pissed with Universal forcing his hand to star in another production after the direct acknowledgement that he is not a fan of their writers, or how they wish to structure their pictures. The Grinch is not the comedy Myers wanted to do or replicate and he assumably just did not want to make the movie. The children yearn for Mike Myers. I mean, look at Shrek. He is obviously capable of making a children’s comedy akin to The Grinch, but this production was set up for failure.

Part of this film’s reception, and maybe even memory, I think, is tied to the changing respectability culture that has taken modern media by storm. Any of the movies I have mentioned could not have been made today, for many reasons. Adult comedy aside, it’s hard to find an authentically produced film that plays no hand into AI or even other kinds of digital alteration. Both Seuss adaptations are practical films, in wardrobe, dialect, set, everything. I could cry over it. In this new age where AI is establishing rule of the silver screen, people desperately wish to return to when things felt real. I don’t mean to make this sound like the “conservatives are conservatives because they’re scared of change” association but in some ways it’s true. Jokes written by real people, performed by real actors, with child characters played by actual children, tangible sets, and obviously the most important, Mike Myers. Authenticity will always reign supreme, even if its objectively bad. 

Right now, it’s becoming harder and harder for people to just let films be silly. Stoner comedies are stoner comedies for a reason and what more is that art, especially movies, will always have a string of sophistication. All art serves a purpose, regardless of if that purpose personally benefits you. Does Lars von Trier haunt my nightmares? Yes, but his art means something, good or bad. Think of any medium, what constitutes sophisticated art is the culture which surrounds it - it’s still important to see the beauty, creativity, and connection in a kid’s art class as it is walking around a Museum of Modern Art. It’s meant to be enjoyed, understood as a product of its environment, and survive. Again, it seems silly to connect any of these conversations to a film like The Cat in the Hat but that’s the point! Let it be silly!  Smoke some weed, have a drink, watch something with friends that makes you feel something. Let sophistication have its place but make room to remind yourself that you can find it in all things if you look hard enough.