Movie Review: Bill Hader's “The Cat in the Hat” Pulls a “Mary Poppins” on a Rainy Day

For the past quarter century, Hollywood has repeatedly tried to turn Dr. Seuss' picture books into feature films, with mixed success. The Cat in the Hat already received a famously bad live-action adaptation in 2003, and the trailers for this new version didn't exactly inspire confidence. Beating the Mike Myers film is easy. The real question is whether Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's first feature, directed by Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja, can hold its own next to the near-perfect 1971 TV special. It comes surprisingly close.

The Cat in the Hat (Bill Hader) works for the Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, an organization of animal agents, each paired with a rhyming red-and-white item, who cheer up forlorn kids on rainy days. His Emotoscope scores are among the best in the company, but his Mess-O-Meter ratings are so bad that his boss, Mr. Hoogeboom (Giancarlo Esposito), is ready to fire him. When his friend Sherri (Quinta Brunson) from HR argues for one last chance, Hoogeboom hands the Cat the toughest case possible. He also has another trick up his sleeve: he warns the Cat to stay out of the restricted section of the organization's endless supply closet. That's where the Go-Backer is kept, a device that can rewind time to lower a Mess-O-Meter score without undoing the Emotoscope rating. As predicted, Cat doesn’t follow orders.

Enter a single mom (America Ferrera) and her two kids, Gabby (Xochitl Gomez) and Sebastian (Tiago Martinez). They've just moved into a new apartment with nothing but one box of belongings each, plus a pet fish named Waffles (Matt Berry). When Mom leaves the kids alone on a rainy day, the Cat comes out to play.

Aside from the exposition about how the Cat finds the kids, the basic premise closely follows the book readers know and love. Staying faithful to the book is exactly where the Mike Myers film fell apart, turning into a meaningless string of slapstick bits and a quest not to get caught by Mom. In this version, the stolen Go-Backer falls into one of the family's three boxes, so the Cat turns the couch into a vehicle that helps him and the kids search through them to find it.

It's hard not to compare the story that emerges to Mary Poppins. Each box plays like one of the magical nanny's outings with the Banks children, a fantastical detour that quietly opens someone's eyes. Here, that someone is Gabby, whose disappointment about the move has caused her to pull away from her mother, her brother, and her passion for marching band. The Cat isn't as omniscient as the "practically perfect" Poppins, but the adventure feels designed to put Gabby's life back on track.

A colorful supporting cast keeps things lively. While the Cat is away, Sherri tries to help him from corporate, using Gary the Intern (Bowen Yang) as a sounding board. Gabby's family faces real-world stakes in the form of their new landlord, Patty (Paula Pell), who is ready to draft an eviction notice at the slightest sound from the apartment. And when Sebastian's toys come to life, his Psychic Narwhal (Tituss Burgess) becomes a perpetual scene stealer, with one of the film's funniest recurring lines.

Comedically, The Cat in the Hat mostly plays to younger audiences. There's enough heart and entertainment to keep older viewers engaged, but expect plenty of underwear and fart jokes. That said, the film has arguably the best fart joke I've ever seen, one built with surprising patience.

The computer animation takes on a painterly quality, settling for a look that is a cross between the classic Seuss illustrations and something that feels current in a post-Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse world. Fans of the source material will love several homages to the book’s look, including a prologue where everything but the focal point is in shades of gray, and some 2D art in the book’s style. Even Dr. Seuss’ real name gets a loving Easter egg for fans to find.

Overall, The Cat in the Hat is an imaginative twist on the classic Dr. Seuss tale, and it's far better than the trailers suggest. The 1971 TV special remains the definitive adaptation, but this is a close second. It belongs alongside Blue Sky's Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and Illumination's The Lorax (2012) among the best Seuss films.

I give The Cat in the Hat 4 out of 5 stars.

The Cat in the Hat opens Friday, November 6, in theaters and IMAX.