The Cat in the Hat, 2026.
Written and Directed by Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni.
Featuring the voice talents of Bill Hader, Xochitl Gomez, Tiago Martinez, Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang, America Ferrera, Paula Pell, Tituss Burgess, Giancarlo Esposito, Thomas Middleditch, Robin Åkerstrand, Ralph Garman, Daniel Middleton, Roxana Ortega, Jay Pharoah, Wilmer Valderrama, and America Young.
SYNOPSIS:
Assigned his toughest mission yet, the Cat must cheer up siblings Gabby and Sebastian as they adjust to life in a new town. Known for pushing boundaries, this agent of chaos must prove himself or risk losing his magical hat forever.
A quirky busyness is par for the course with anything Dr. Seuss, but this new interpretation of The Cat in the Hat (thankfully animated and not live-action) from filmmakers Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni has whatever its narrative and emotional ambitions are drowned out by a bombardment of puns and visual jokes, all the way to a third-act villain that causes the proceedings to culminate in a large-scale fantastical battle that feels more in place for a Marvel movie. The film rarely slows down to zero in on anything, and mostly coasts along, hoping that younger audiences will find something, anything to laugh at (the children in my screening weren’t). Strangely enough, it’s just not that funny of a movie, perhaps assuming that striving for imagination would be enough.
It doesn’t help that the attempts at imagination are also overcrowded, and amount to filling up the screen with as much sugar-rush and brightly colored stimuli as possible, ranging from a collective of musical instruments working in synchronization to a sight of sheet music charging into battle to dozens of Seuss quips such as “Pig with a Wig” and a major antagonist such as the previously mentioned glowing-eyed dragon on the hunt for the same MacGuffin as our heroes adventuring through these otherworldly, magical areas.
At the center is, of course, the eponymous cat in a red-and-white striped top hat (voiced by Bill Hader, who, if nothing else, captures the chaotic coffee addict-like energy of the anthropomorphic animal), an employee of the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, where agents are tasked with crossing over into the human world to raise the spirits of children (environments drained of color to signal just how sad these kids are and to contrast how whimsical and fun the fantastical worlds appear), whatever they may be afflicted by. This feline is certainly successful at the job, but it typically causes catastrophe on the Mess-O-Meter, which is exactly what it sounds like: a grade for how well some unorthodox being raises the kids’ mood without wreaking havoc or causing some other disaster.
Given one last chance by strict no-nonsense boss Mr. Hoogeboom (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito), the Cat in the Hat is handed what is essentially the hardest tier of cases. This particular one involves heading over to the new home of siblings Gabby (voiced by Xochitl Gomez) and Sebastian (voiced by Tiago Martinez), where the former is moody and lashing out at her mom, Carmen (America Ferrera), over this uprooting, convinced that she is misunderstood. And there is a lot of Gabby to be confused by; she’s a band girl artist but is apparently up in arms that those days are behind her, even though Carmen has clearly made some sacrifices to move to this area so her daughter could play.
The odd plotting is confusingly conveyed, but more importantly, it consistently makes Gabby come across as selfish. Yes, this is a kids’ movie, meaning that learning lessons is ultimately the point, but characters should also be somewhat likable; still, there are some worthwhile lessons here for children, such as the importance of standing up for one another’s friends. Even the Cat is a bit of a selfish wrecking ball while trying to do his job; what’s fascinating is that watching a story like this from an adult perspective makes him seem no different from any other destructive cat. Well, the only difference is that this one has a job.
Meanwhile, the Cat also slyly brings a cheat device called the Go-Backer, which lets him undo any mess he makes. As for Gabby, she immediately clocks it as the solution to all her problems, determined to use it to go back in time before her family’s move. That is, until it is lost, sending them (and the pet goldfish Waffles, voiced by Matt Berry) on a journey into their imaginations to find the artistic spark and joy to do what they love. The film also includes some surprises along the way, which it handles with a degree of nuance.
Again, though, most of that story is familiar (without even doing anything of note regarding the Hispanic casting or culture), conveys some characters as overly annoying, and disappointingly falls into the trap of believing that bigger and larger is always better, which is an insane notion to even take into consideration for an adaptation of The Cat in the Hat. It’s not even that the animated feature is fatiguing in all its busyness. If anything, it makes no impression at all as it moves through the motions. There is no shortage of imagination or inspiration, but those colorful ingredients are crammed into something bland that can’t get by on frenetic Seuss-ian energy alone.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
