Tries to be Beetlejuice, but Suess is for FOUR YEAR OLDS.
Oh my god.
As I write this, this HAPPENS to be "Dr. Suess Week" at my boys PRE-school. I borrowed this because I thought it would be "appropriate"....
THEY ARE FOUR. *THAT'S* WHO READS DR SUESS - *NOT* THIRTEEN YEAR OLDS.
The self-absorbed a-wipes who had to make it 'interesting' for themselves don't have a CLUE as to who DR. SUESS appeals to! I KNOW the teens are buying the DVDS, but The Cat In The Hat ain't a teen book!
It's PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that they wanted to making another Beetlejuice, right down to casting Alec Baldwin, but with this book they've been sitting on, and came up with THIS?
I can only thank God that I didn't PAY to see the 5 minutes I did, ESPECIALLY at the theaters.
But what I hated the most, however, about this is how MEAN SPIRITED it all was (also like Beetlejuice, but Tim Burton gets away with it).
With all the money and talent behind it, they had an INCREDIBLE opportunity here. They decided to play it safe and do the jokes that everyone else is doing, and it DOESN'T WORK without a frame of mind which one isn't prepared for.
ON THE OTHER HAND, it is VERY well MADE, but TERRIBLY conceived. Tweak it, make it "Felix the Cat" and I could forgive its themes.
If they had a GIANT DISCLAIMER at the beginning with something like, "Everyone grew up with Cat In The Hat, this is for those older kids (wink) who remember that story..." I could hold back my DISGUST for it.
As it is, I'm very happy it's (now) rated PG-13...