Barnes & Noble

Give The Cat in the Hat credit: It more than lives up to the Cat's promise to deliver "pure unadulterated fun without any good sense or judgment." This extends to Mike Myers's somewhat desperate performance, as well as this DVD itself, whose bonus features include bloopers in which the adult actors swear when they flub their lines. The profanities are bleeped, but still, this is a family film, after all. Dr. Seuss' wonderful, whimsical, mischievous book is as buried as Myers under all that fur. But critics don't know what the little kids understand: The bright colors, the slapstick and mayhem, the mild profanities, and below-the-belt gags are perfectly pitched to the target adolescent audience. The Cat (voiced by Myers as equal parts Bert Lahr, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Saturday Night Live's "Coffee Talk" hostess Linda Richman), works his dubious magic on two disagreeable siblings, rule breaker Conrad (Spencer Breslin) and control freak Sally (Dakota Fanning). Oscar nominee (but certainly not for this film) Alec Baldwin is game in the thankless role of the smarmy, slimy next-door neighbor with designs on Conrad and Sally's mother (Kelly Preston). It is perhaps a coincidence that he recently vowed to a reporter that he would do no more kids' films. If only the movie was as much fun as this disc's imaginative animated menus, hosted by Breslin and Fanning. The Cat in the Hat may be, to quote the top-hatted feline, "the mother of all messes," but on the "Phunometer," it scores high with the kids who helped make it a $100 million box office hit. It will, no doubt, enjoy more than nine lives on home video. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Following up on the success of 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Imagine Entertainment presents The Cat in the Hat, their second live-action adaptation of a classic Dr. Seuss book. Starring Mike Myers, the film follows the adventures of Conrad (Spencer Breslin) and Sally Walden (Dakota Fanning), a young brother and sister who find themselves visited by the titular mischievous cat (Meyers) and his entourage when their mother (Kelly Preston) leaves them home alone. Also starring Alec Baldwin and the voice of Sean Hayes, The Cat in the Hat is the directorial debut of Oscar-nominated art director Bo Welch. Matthew Tobey

Product Details

• UPC: 025192147623
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Editions: Subtitled, Dubbed
• Time: 1:22:00
• Sales Rank: 6,543

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Family Favorite Treasurs

Features:

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