This past Friday, November 6th, Warner Brothers’ “The Cat in the Hat” was released in theaters.

With a runtime of 1 hour 47 minutes, “The Cat in the Hat” follows the titular Cat in the Hat, voiced by actor Bill Hader (and animated with the thickness of a typical Pixar mother), as he fights to keep his job at the “Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration,” a fictional “Boss Baby”-esque children’s entertainment company filled with similarly gimmicked creatures.

He’s tasked, in a heavily sabotaged manner, with cheering up siblings Gabby and Sebastian, voiced by Xochitl Gomez and Tiago Martinez respectfully, who’ve recently been through a rough move to a different city.

This, of course, is deconstructed into deeper, underlying issues as the three go on a “hero’s quest” to retrieve a dangerous magical item called the “Go-Backer,” which would allow the user(s) to repeat segments of time. The Cat intended to use this item to undo any accidents or messes caused by his hijinx, but was hijacked by Gabby in an attempt to undo the families’ move altogether, before ultimately becoming lost in one of three shenanigan-filled pocket dimensions.

Through this adventure, the kids learn to appreciate what they have and to live in the moment, and The Cat ends up keeping his job and continuing to entertain kids.

My primary gripe with “The Cat in the Hat” is that it’s just sort of boring. Despite my personal desire to remain impartial, I went into this movie anticipating something abysmal.

I expected to see the usual “kids pay too much attention to their phones” bit, overuse of immature physical humor, dated references and general lack of touch regarding what today’s youth is like and/or enjoys.

And I got exactly that. Though, despite this, I wasn’t mad or appalled; I was just bored. I couldn’t bring myself to feel anything passionate about this movie, because I, much like how I assume the writers of the movie were, was uninspired by what was presented to me.

There were only two parts of this movie I legitimately enjoyed, and one wasn’t technically part of the movie at all. The first was the pre-show, a charming Looney Tunes short titled “Daffy Season” and starring the late Eric Bauza, wherein Daffy Duck competes for attention against Soccer Season.

The second was the movie’s primary antagonist, a ginormous dragon-like creature known as the “Something,” which in the end (spoiler alert) turns out to be a disfigured, time-warped Thing 2. I found the “Something” to be truly off-putting in concept and effective in execution, which is a great thing to be when you’re a body-horror-related monster.

I’ll grant this movie one more thing: it had a splendid cast of voice actors; aside from the three previously mentioned, the movie also featured big names like Matt Berry (as Waffles), America Ferrera (as Carmen), Giancarlo Esposito (as Mr. Hoogeboom), Quinta Brunson (as Sherrie from HR), and Bowen Yang (as Gary). This cast did great with what they were given (and I must add, it’s very refreshing to see a recently-made movie– especially animated– without Akwafina in it).

In watching this “comedy” movie, I only genuinely laughed seven times (yes, I counted), and two of those times were only because of specific line deliveries and not any intentional gag or joke. Now, I will concede that I am, in fact, not the target audience for this movie but I still can’t help but feel cheated on behalf of the kids watching. All I could think of while watching this movie in theatres was the other movies I could’ve been watching instead, namely the 30th anniversary screening of “Scream” two doors down the hall.

To conclude, “The Cat in the Hat” was lackluster at least, and alright at most. I got exactly what I thought I would and not much more, and ultimately left the theatre mildly disappointed. Rating it on a scale, I give it a 5/10– an average score for an average movie.

Categories: Arts & Entertainment