The Cat in the Hat
Short description
The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 family comedy based on the children's book by Dr. Seuss. Conrad and Sally Walden are home alone on a rainy day with nothing to do while their mother is out. Their boredom ends when a giant talking cat in a striped hat appears, bringing games, tricks and two troublesome helpers with him. What starts as entertainment quickly turns into chaos, and the siblings have to find a way to send their visitor away before their mother returns.
Bo Welch directed the film, working from a screenplay by Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg and David Mandel, with Brian Grazer producing. Mike Myers plays the Cat, Dakota Fanning and Spencer Breslin play Sally and Conrad, and Kelly Preston and Alec Baldwin appear as Joan Walden and Larry Quinn. The production had a large budget of about 109 million dollars and returned roughly 134 million dollars worldwide, a modest result against its cost.
On TMDB the film holds a rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 1,887 votes. A film critics' rating of 3.4 out of 10 from 164 reviews is noticeably lower than the audience score, indicating that reviewers judged it more harshly than viewers did. The cast also includes Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston and Amy Hill, with 28 credited cast members and 90 credited crew.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the production of the film, props worth nearly $55,000 were stolen – oversized glasses, an anvil, and a golf ball with a diameter of over two meters. All of it, covered in graffiti, was later found in the trash.
- Regarding Mike Myers' behavior on set, it later became known that he was contractually obligated to appear in the film. The actor strongly disliked the script and the film's concept, and he attempted to withdraw from the project. However, Universal Studios sued him for $3.8 million in damages. Myers filed a countersuit, and eventually the case was settled out of court, but on the condition that Myers star in another project for the same studio. Regardless, both this film and his subsequent one (Marco Schnabel's 2008 comedy "Guru of Sex") were such failures that after them, Myers began to act very rarely and focused primarily on voice acting.
- Amy Hill later recounted that working with Mike Myers was unbearably difficult. During filming, he communicated exclusively with director Bo Welch, and even during breaks, he would isolate himself just to avoid interacting with other actors and crew members. Moreover, he constantly interfered with the filming process, forcing Welch to shoot endless takes.
- Scenes for the city's business district were filmed on one of the streets of Pomona, California, which was home to several antique shops and souvenir stores. After filming wrapped, city officials and residents decided to leave everything as it was, so you can still see buildings of amazing colors and even some markings left over from the filming in Pomona today.
- According to Mike Myers, the fairy tale "The Cat in the Hat" (1957), upon which this film is based, was the first book he ever read.
- The Cat's costume was made from angora wool and human hair and equipped with a cooling system. The Cat's tail and ears were battery-operated.
- Due to the constant fog in the filming locations, the sky and surrounding objects had to be "touched up" using digital technology.
- According to Mike Myers, less than a month before the film's release, producers began considering filming a sequel based on a continuation of Dr. Seuss's book (1904-1991). However, Dr. Seuss’s widow, Audrey Geisel, was so horrified by the film adaptation of her late husband’s book that those plans were abandoned.
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