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3:41:00 PM EST
Hearing From One -- Ra
The Cat in the Hat Falls Flat
The reviews are in for The Cat in the Hat, and they are, in a word, cruel, including this comment from the Boston Globe's Ty Burr:
"If the producers had dug up Ted Geisel's body and hung it from a tree, they couldn't have desecrated the man more."
Then there's the added insult of a number of reviewers doing their reviews in rhyme, which I imagine seems cute on deadline but which your smarter editors should know better than to let through.
I haven't seen the film yet but I'll have to, as I do reviews of movies when they come out on DVD. This is one I've been dreading for some time, since the producers are the same naughty, naughty people who violated The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. That was an awful, terrible no-good film, but it also made $260 million at the box office, so the signal there was loud and clear that actually making these Dr. Seuss adaptations good is not a box office necessity.
It's a shame. The first book I remember reading was a Dr. Suess book, and of course Athena's bookshelves are loaded with them. And good adaptations of Suess material have been done -- look at the famous TV specials done by Chuck Jones. Not having seen the Cat film, I can't say what its problem might be, although I suspect it's what plagued the Grinch movie -- a lack of faith in the source material. I suppose I'll find out soon enough when I see the flick.
But no, unless the reviews are tremendously wrong (a small but real possibility), I don't imagine I'll show the film to my daughter. I'd prefer she experience The Cat in the Hat the right way. That's parental guidance in action.
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Just goes to prove the producers are idiots, as you say they assumed they'd be fine making another horrid adaptation since they got 260m on the last one. NEWS FLASH, people went to see the last one cos they couldn't believe a seuss adaptation could EVER be this bad, now they KNOW better, therefore, flop.
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I can only imagine what Dr Suess' reaction would be if he saw what they have done. The previews alone had me going, hmmmm.
Smilin Mon -
Well, I saw the movie at the sneak preview the other night. It's pretty disappointing. My 2 year old says she loved it and wants to see it again, but I'm not really sure she knows what she's talking about.
If you love burp jokes, fart jokes, puke jokes, pee jokes and all sorts of stuff like that, then this movie is for you.
I can't say that I'll go see it again or that I'll even consider purchasing it.
Blech.
If you thought the Grinch was bad, this is exponentially -
Totally agree on the recent _Grinch_ fiasco... I didn't even make it all the way through it. It was so twisted, freaky, creepy, and dark that I just couldn't stand it. The original animated version was a standby at home for me (I'm 2 months shy of 23) for many years... completely different. Mischievous, not vicious (or something along those lines).
11/29/03 1:09 AM
But, I am guilty of not being a MIke Meyers fan (no Austin Powers for me), so I probably wouldn't have liked the movie anyway.
Donna