What Parents Should Know
This movie isn't for the kids who are reading the book -- in
its quest for a commercially-rewarding PG rating it has aged
itself out of the youngest audience. It's not right for your
five-or six-year-old. There is surprisingly rude and crude
humor including double entendres and almost-swearing, potty
humor, and other bodily function jokes. The Cat picks up a
muddy garden implement and refers to it as "a dirty hoe" and
spells out the s-word. The Cat is hit in the crotch. There is a
lot of comic peril that may be too intense for younger
children. An adult character drinks beer.
Families who see this movie could talk about why Sally had a hard time with her friends and why Conrad had a hard time following rules.
Common Sense Media Review
The great thing about the irrepressibly anarchic Cat in the
Hat is that even Hollywood can't contain him. They can stretch
out the story with filler that ranges from the superfluous to
the distracting and once in a while reaches the level of
oh-no-not-that-again. But every time the Cat takes over, it is
entertaining. Mike Meyers, as mischievous as the Cat himself,
is a perfect choice for the role. His Cat seems to be a master
of vaudevillian shtick with a few of the voices from
The Wizard of Oz and a sort of demented Mary Poppins
thrown in for what turns out to be very good measure. His
energy and audacity -- and his astonishingly animated
expressions under all that fur -- keep the movie on track.
This is important because very little of what is added to the story is worth the effort. Dr. Seuss was much too smart to try to insert any kind of a moral into his stories or to give us too much detail about the lives of the children the Cat comes to visit. This left his story universal and subject to interpretation.
But it would not fill even the short 82 minute running time of this feature film. So, this version makes the Cat into an "I'm here to teach you a lesson," sort of guy. Conrad (Spencer Breslin) has to learn to follow the rules and Sally (Dakota Fanning) has to learn to loosen up and not be so bossy. And they have to learn to appreciate one another. Awwwwww. We also get a completely gratuitous menace in Alec Baldwin, a neighbor who schemes to marry the kids' mother and have Conrad sent to a military boarding school. None of this is very original or interesting, but fortunately it does not take too much time away from the real story, which is the absolute chaos created by the Cat and the reaction of the kids -- a mixture of horror and delight, with delight winning out. And why not? Who among us does not thrill to see that "don't you touch anything" living room covered in splotches of purple goo?
And it is that undeniable pleasure that keeps this movie working. Those jellybean-colored sets (and Mom's just-dry-cleaned dress) are cheerfully destroyed along with, Mom's rules, some of the kids' ideas about themselves, and, apparently, the laws of physics. We get both the fun of imagining all of that and the satisfaction of a happy ending. And Meyers is simply a hoot to watch, with able support from the kids (especially Fanning) and the fish (voice of Sean Hayes).
Parents should know that this movie has some surprisingly rude and crude humor for a PG, including double entendres and almost-swearing, potty humor, and other bodily function jokes. The Cat picks up a muddy garden implement and refers to it as "a dirty hoe" and spells out the s-word. The Cat is hit in the crotch. There is a lot of comic peril that may be too intense for younger children. An adult character drinks beer.
Families who see this movie could talk about why Sally had a hard time with her friends and why Conrad had a hard time following rules. They might also like to pretend they are Thing One and Thing Two (or Chocolate Thun-da) and do the opposite of what they are told.
Families who enjoy this movie might want to read the book and its sequel and some of the other Seuss classics like "Horton Hears a Who" and "The Sneetches".
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
