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rating)
Rated PG; running time of 102 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Written by:Alec Berg & David Mandel & Jeff Schaffer, based on the book by Dr. Seuss
Directed by: Marcus Nispel
Cast: Mike Myers, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Amy Hill, Sean Hayes
WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW.
The Digest
In the small town of Anville he lawn are manicured and the houses are all brightly painted. Everything is vibrant from the clothes to the cars. Within this small town Joan (Kelly Preston) is a star real estate agent who works for the demanding clean freak Mr. Humbberfloob (Sean Hayes). Mr. Hummberfloob as decided that a meet and greet is going to take place at Joan's house and if her house is a mess like it was last time, she will be fired.
Joan rushes home to make sure her kids haven't torn up the house and find her son Conrad (Spencer Breslin) skiing down the stairs and her control freak of a daughter Sally (Dakota Fanning) being her usual bossy self. Joan rushes back to work leaving the kids in the care of a narcoleptic babysitter. Enter The Cat in the Hat (Mike Meyers) the cat determines that Conrad has too much fun and Sally doesn't have enough. He takes it upon himself to make sure they are both fixed until they are just
right.
In the process of making them "just right" they completely destroy the house and raise the suspicions of the slimy next door neighbor Lawrence (Alec Baldwin) who is determined to marry mom and send Conrad to military school.
Can they outsmart Lawrence and get the house cleaned before mom gets home? More importantly have the learned the valuable lessons that the Cat has tried to teach them?
The Dish
I really liked this movie. Make no mistake this movie is more for the parents than the kids. A lot of the jokes will go right over their heads and I noticed tat most of the kids under 8 were a little overwhelmed by it all, but the older kids got it. My own child is 10 months old and she stared silently most of the time only erupting into laughter when I did. Of course I didn't expect her to get it, but I also didn't expect her to be so enthralled by all od the colors and sounds. She usually just falls asleep. Any way, I'm reading that other critics really dislike this movie and I've come to the conclusion that perhaps the reason I loved it so much is because I have absolutely no emotional attachment to the book whatsoever, so the fact that it strayed from the book means absolutely nothing to me. I also happen to really like Mike Meyers, so that could have something to do with it. Having said that, he did recycle quite a few of his voices and at times I thought I was watching Coffee Talk or Austin Powers
I thought both kids were awesome and believable. Alec Baldwin had slimy down to a science. I found Sean Hayes to be hilarious as the fish and Mr. Hummberfloob. Kelly Preston, through no fault of her own, failed to wow me. Her character just wasn't given a whole lot to do and thus didn't make an impact. Amy Hill as the babysitter Mrs. Kwan was really unneeded as was the rave party scene.
I know lots of people are upset by this adaptation, but there is only so much you can do with a book that has maybe 1000 words.
The Directive
I would recommend this for anyone who isn't going to be devastated by the fact that this movie butchers the book. Also keep in mind this really isn't for little kids. I would say 9 years old and up.
Wonderfully colorful and unique take on a Seuss classic.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2003
EMAIL: thediva@3blackchicks.com
ICQ: 8690410
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