Directed By Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja

Starring – Bill Hader, Xochitl Gomez, Tiago Martinez

The Plot – Meet the Cat in the Hat you don’t know. In the wonderfully whimsical tradition of Dr. Seuss, “The Cat in the Hat,” voiced by Bill Hader, comes to the big screen in his animated theatrical feature film debut, an all-new, epic adventure where mischief, magic and mayhem reign supreme

Rated PG for action, some peril, mild adult language and rude humor.

The Cat in the Hat | Main Trailer

POSITIVES

It takes a lot of confidence and even a little audacity to even attempt to restore integrity to what is arguably Dr. Seuss’s biggest character, after the unreconcilable nightmare that was the Mike Myers-starring live action adaptation, and while the inconsistent results with this animated offering are far from perfect, both creatively and characteristically, there’s enough entertainment and enlightenment to endear varietal audiences alike, surmising a more than serviceable family outing during the upcoming holiday season. Considering it isn’t easy to take a 60-page picture book and turn it to feature length, there’s obviously some liberties taken with the story to fill the more than ambitious 102-minute runtime, conveying a creative outline that feels a lot closer to Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ than foreseen, and with the script sifting through sentimental themes pertaining to everything from embracing change and transition, to establishing the irreplaceable value of memories and imagination, to especially the appreciation for family, the film enacts some much-appreciated emotionality to transition away from its comedic dependency, unlocking a superior second half that begins to find its proper footing on the back of an exposition-heavy opening that felt more about the fantastically imaginative world-building rather than the introspective insight of its characters. As a result, the destination of the narrative does feel twice as valuable as the journey to get there, considering the urgency and inevitability that transpire from some unforeseen developments derived from the familial links of its third act, and through the exploratory conveniences of a time machine MacGuffin that allows our characters to vividly explore the assorted histories of their memories and relics, we come to grasp deeper meanings about the selflessness of people who put others first before their own hopes and dreams, cementing effortlessly attainable life lessons for youthful audiences who will hopefully project them into their very own lives, long after the film has concluded. To emphasize the aforementioned fantastically imaginative way of describing the film, the colorfully radiant animation brings a lot of experimental deviation to how it’s contextualized between the worlds of the subconscious and reality, transitioning seamlessly between styles so visually versatile that you can’t help but tip your cap to how they blend so absorbingly with one another. When our characters emanate from the real world, the production utilizes three-dimensional CGI animation, to feel as traditionally grounded and realistic as artistically possible, while the imaginative memory and Seuss worlds conjure these two-dimensionally adjacent aesthetics that exudes a hand-drawn quality to the integrity of the imagery, and despite these styles paralleling each other in ways that are obvious as immediately as the movie makes its first transition into Cat’s Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration headquarters, combined they breed a transfixingly luminating allure that homages the storybook designs of the original with an evolved pallet that conveys what future movies inside of this realm could realize, without any noticeably glaring kind of flaw to the motions or expressions of the characters, who all interact accordingly with the energetic deliveries from this exceptional ensemble. While this is undeniably Bill Hader’s studded showcase, the dependable heart and humanity that screen siblings Xochitl Gomez and Tiago Martinez lend to character are nothing short of authentic, with the two maintaining a vested element of contested sibling chemistry that persists throughout the entirety of the engagement. The film also represents a wonderfully erudite, calculatingly calm, and deeply rational turn from Matt Berry, who as Waffles the talking fish strums a sharp and witty contrast to the manically energetic frenzy of the movie’s dominating tone, allowing for the few effective laughs that resonated significantly with my own experience, but beyond that a concealing vocal range that feels like he’s attempting the sophisticated tones of Ben Kingsley, allowing Berry ample opportunity to eviscerate any semblance of familiarity that could possibly linger with so much screentime. But the biggest question pertains to Hader’s own effectiveness as the iconic titular character, and to the delight of an endearing audience, his portrayal feels like a completely opposite direction from Mike Myers infamous turn, with Hader bestowing an energetically exuberant and tenderly friendly guidance to the foray that charms chaotically without feeling distracting or detracting to a scene’s emotional underlining, gifting Hader endless opportunities to trade in and out of various accents and inflections that synthetically flourish cohesion alongside expressive animation that emphasize the magnitude of the actor’s seemingly limitless range. Aside from everything that the film does well, the movie opens with a Looney Tunes short involving Daffy Duck, that represents one of the final times that the world will ever get to experience Eric Bauza performing, after his recent untimely passing, where Bauza’s zaniness and neurotic impulses as Daffy, Bugs, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig help invigorate a concept that feels rather bare on paper, with five minutes of slapstick comedy that essentially preheats the expectations of the audience in unfair ways that nobody or nothing could ever match.

NEGATIVES

As surprised as I am for just how much beneficially that I received from ‘The Cat in the Hat’, the extension of my praises feel constricted by some turbulent flaws to the screenplay and direction that occasionally made this an aggressively unfunny experience that continuously misfires in the most egregious methods. To be fair, the movie does surmise some solid gags in fourth-wall breaking cinematic commentary that speaks exclusively to the adults in the audience, featuring sequel baiting and shifting aspect ratios that are a direct wink and nod beyond the screen, however the overwhelming abundance of the material feels too juvenile and even repetitious to even attain the generously awkward kind of pitied laughter that is surmised from such overwhelming quietness to their landing, with a few of the designated punchlines prolonged agonizingly to the point of impatient annoyance. While it’s obvious that the consistency of material is paid directly to youthful audiences, as the dependency upon toilet humor, nauseating puns, and loud noises are emphasized as an exclamation point on such unclever material, it’s astounding how irresponsibly unaware that it feels towards those kids-turned-parents in the audience, who grew up reading the story, and while its material isn’t as offensive as some weaker kids movies that I’ve seen this year, it still sags my experiences in the abrasiveness of its articulating, with an already overstuffed runtime prolonging the extent of my impatience. Speaking of overstuffed, the screenplay from three different writers admittedly feels like a Frankenstein project stitched together from the ideas of as many as three different movies, without enough enacted emphasis on editing to make the movie’s pacing flow more seamlessly with an attention-challenged audience at its disposal. While 102-minutes doesn’t feel too demanding in retrospect, the script’s optioning of long-winded exposition dumps during a 30-minute opening act, three different villains, a Minions kind of subplot with the Things, and an array of individually maintained arcs deflate its momentum significantly to offset the movie’s pacing, condemning matters until the second half, where the meaning and magnitude from these arcs converge endearingly with one another. It’s easy to assume that cutting significant chunks of this movie’s finished product could get the job done, especially with an under 90-minute allowance keeping from slipping on the withering attention spans of those audiences, but I think some of the sequencing and editing could’ve been shifted around to make some key events transition all the more effortlessly with its emotionality, instead flatlining sentimental material towards melodramatic, in ways that directly undercut the magnitude of what the ending resolution is attempting to accomplish. Finally, though slightly forgettable with an adolescent protagonist at the movie’s helm, the character of Gabby grated on my nerves with her selfishness bearing down ignorantly on her character’s design, where her unflattering observations about her hard-working and providing mother leave it difficult to relate to her empathetically on a personal level. It’s a bit of a shame that Sophia Bush’s motherly character goes missing from almost the entirety of the film, after her initial introduction, because it leaves Gabby articulating a one-sided argument that morally comes to get the better of her, and while I immediately understood where this arc was inevitably heading, the measures spoken by the immature Gabby feel a bit too personal to write-off as angsty adolescence, requiring a bit more time and patience with the character before I was able to comfortably invest in her.

OVERALL
‘The Cat in the Hat’ is an imaginatively adventurous and sincerely sentimental adaptation that makes up for in humbling heart what it lacks in consistent hilarity, offering a refreshingly humbling approach from its 2003 predecessor that sticks its claws in some hefty themes. Despite an overstuffed script and an overlong runtime, the film is elevated by intricately articulate animation schemes and a manically mischievous turn from Bill Hader providing warmth to the chaos, and while it doesn’t always stick the landing with a demanding opening act that puts a lot of pressure towards a superior second half, the film’s magic resides in its whimsical wonderment, harvesting the very same spirit of Dr. Seuss’ seventy-year-old story, but under a contemporary scope.

My Grade: 6.1 or C