The Cat in the Hat
Universal Pictures | Release Date: November 21, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
19
METASCORE
Overwhelming dislike based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
9
Negative:
27
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
So good it breaks your heart for not being better. It is kept from brilliance by a soggy climax and a clumsy central narrative device. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Myers' Cat, with a voice that crosses Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion with Mel Blanc's Bugs Bunny, is generally fun, possessed of an anarchic playfulness that balances his sometimes bawdy tendencies. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's moderately engaging for the first half-hour, somewhat trying during the second half hour, and virtually unbearable over the final twenty minutes. It's a marginally recommendable film for kids, but not necessarily for parents. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It's another overwrought clunker like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," all effects and stunts and CGI and prosthetics, with no room for lightness and joy. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Long on visual dazzle but short on warmth, and the humor is excessively raunchy for a family film. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Attractively designed, energetically performed and, above all, blessedly concise, this adaptation of one of the most popular American kids' books of all time walks the safe side of surrealism with its fur-flying shenanigans. The younger the viewers, the better reactions are bound to be. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Myers is the movie's fatal flaw, squeezing out the other characters who fatten the plot, mostly with an eye to parents. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Emerges as a lackluster and nearly charmless affair. Read full review
40
Film ThreatKevin Carr
Left me feeling empty inside. There’s no warmth and character from the original Dr. Seuss book, and there’s no substance or soul in the story elements. Read full review
40
EmpireAnna Smith
A few laughs come from Alec Baldwin as Mom’s posturing, deceitful boyfriend, but attempts at inserting risqué modern humour sit uneasily with the playfully innocent surrealism of Seuss’ famous characters. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Although a literal movie adaptation of Seuss' 1957 classic "The Cat in the Hat" might have run 20 minutes, is it too much to ask that the filmed material preserve the author's sensibility? Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A semi-intriguing abomination, the movie The Cat in the Hat takes a piece of classic childhood Americana and turns it into something garish, dumb, ugly and senseless. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Very young children, it should be said, probably won't have any problem with the movie. It's bright and perky on the surface. But for anyone mature enough to pay closer attention, it's going to fall short of expectations. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Grazer's writing team has filled up the film's 82 minutes with winking product placements, SNL-type goofs, PG gags premised on not quite cursing, a Smashmouth cover of the Beatles' "Getting Better," and a lame subplot about a scuzzy lothario (Stephen Baldwin). Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Someone (Myers?) came up with the bright idea of turning the Cat in the Hat into the worst Vegas nightclub spritzer of 1958. He's become a furry version of Rip Taylor: a walking, talking vaudeville idiot box. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorGloria Goodale
It's a sort of soullessly cheerful cynicism that is about as far from Seuss as one can imagine. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Talk about your quick-buck exploitation. Read full review
25
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
As a British politician said of a corrupt but articulate peer, "The Cat in the Hat" is like a rotten mackerel seen by moonlight: It shines as it stinks. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Charmless and grating and immediately forgettable. Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
It pains me to tell you, But really, it's true: The Cat in the Hat Is a piece of dog doo. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Where "The Cat" book was anarchistic but ultimately sweet-spirited, this movie is ugly, dumb and colossally mean-spirited. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Everything to treasure about that magical, slightly malevolent feline of childhood verse is obliterated in the coarse, charmless Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is gorged with shtick and gadgetry. When it comes to highlighting everything better left in the dark, it makes even the Matrix sequels look like works of genius. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleC.W. Nevius
It is an embarrassment and an insult to a character that has been beloved by kids for 45 years. Read full review
20
The New York TimesDana Stevens
A vulgar, uninspired lump of poisoned eye candy. Read full review
20
SalonCharles Taylor
The movie is crass and vulgar almost beyond belief. Read full review
20
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Frenetic and cheerless action aside, the film's real problem is the Cat, who looks most unmagically like a second-string college sports mascot and conducts himself like a risque baggy-pants comedian. Read full review
12
Boston GlobeTy 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. Read full review
12
PremiereSusannah Gora
I do hate to say it -- it's really a drag, but why did they let this Cat out of the bag? Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
They've taken a classic and they've battered it senseless and, boy, does it stink. It’s so bad it’s amazing it's being released, and box office-goers might soon end up fleeced. And annoyed and bewildered, perhaps even creeped-out by this cacophonous mess which is awful throughout. Read full review
10
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
Such a remarkable rift between its charming source material and its heinous cinematic realization that the producers may as well have skipped the hassle of securing licensing rights and simply called this mess Mike Myers: A--hole in Fur. Read full review
10
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Critics are paid to suffer bad art, no matter how icky it is from the start. So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit. Read full review
10
SlateDavid Edelstein
Like being run over by a garbage truck that backs up and dumps its load on top of you. It's a sloppy and vulgar burlesque, one of the most repulsive kiddie movies ever made. Read full review
10
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
The ongoing cinematic desecration of Dr. Seuss' legacy continues with The Cat In The Hat, a clattering abomination that makes it depressingly likely that an entire generation of reading-averse children will know The Cat In The Hat as that obnoxious character Mike Myers played in that horrible movie. Read full review
0
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Comes scarily close to being the most unendurable Hollywood creation of the last dozen years. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
An abomination, impure and simple.
0
New York PostMegan Lehmann
The narrative itself, attributed to three former "Seinfeld" writers who also worked on "The Grinch," reeks of desperation. Read full review
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