The Cat in the Hat (TV special)

Plot

As the story opens, it is too rainy and cold to play outside, so Sally and her brother, Conrad sit bored and look out the window. Their mother announces her departure, tells them to have fun, and says she'll return at 3:30 sharp. While their mother is out at a job interview, they have no other choice but to wish they had something to do.

The mysterious, quirky Cat in the Hat suddenly enters with a bump and fools around a bit. The family goldfish named "Karlos K. Krinklebine", demands that he must leave, but instead the Cat plays a game which he calls "Up, Up, Up, With a Fish", placing the fishbowl on top of a stack of bubbles. The girl notices that the Cat is making the house a little dirty, and the boy recalls their mother's projected return at 3:30. Noting their objections, the Cat bows to the voice of the majority and dejectedly states he's going to Siberia. Immediately after leaving, however, the Cat bursts back in claiming that his "moss-covered three-handled family gredunza" has been stolen. The Cat accuses Mr. Krinklebein of being the thief, and sings a ballad about the loss of his treasured keepsake.

The Cat then leads the kids on a search for the missing gredunza using his method of "Calculatus Eliminatus," in which random numbers and letters are drawn anywhere the gredunza should be to mark that they have already checked there. This makes a mess of everything, and Mr. Krinkelbein once again demands that the Cat leave. Ostensibly to gain sympathy, the Cat sings a pessimistic song to convey his low self-esteem, then puts Mr. Krinklebein to sleep by singing a lullaby. Having made a miraculous recovery from his bout of depression, the Cat brings out Thing One and Thing Two to aid in the search for the gredunza, singing to the kids that they can find "anything under the sun." Instead of being productive, however, the Things play a variety of sports using Mr. Krinkelbein's fishbowl, noting that every house they visit has a pessimistic fish. Mr. Krinkelbein becomes angry and accuses the Cat of not being a real cat ("Whoever heard of a six foot cat?!"), and his hat of not being a real hat. But the Cat indignantly asserts his legitimacy by singing his name in several languages, all of which are real and fictional. The song becomes so catchy that everyone, even Mr. Krinkelbein, joins in and contributes. (An interesting point to note is that in the Russian portion of the song, the Cat describes himself as a "chapka in a shlyapa", which translates to "Hat in a hat" instead of "Cat in a hat.")

As the song ends, Mr. Krinklebein spots the mother coming home. The Cat exits, leaving behind an extremely messy house. He quickly returns, however, using a motorized vehicle to tidy things up. He departs for good, hinting that he may return someday, before the mother returns. She asks the kids how their day was, and tells them that she just saw a cat in a hat "going down the street with a moss-covered three-handled family gredunza". The exact identity of the item has never been revealed, but this indicates that the gredunza was never really lost, and the Cat simply wanted an excuse to have more fun. Sally and Conrad look out the window much as they did at the beginning of the special, and watch as the Cat walks off to his next adventure.

Differences with the book

The plot of the special differs significantly from the original book. Among the many deviations, the sequence in the book where the Cat balances all sorts of objects while standing on a ball, only to overdo it and come crashing down, is left out. The closest equivalent is the fishbowl and bubbles sequences.

Also differing is the role of Thing 1 and Thing 2; in the original book, they were simply things the Cat brought along to demonstrate fun, but in this special, they are commissioned to help find the cat's "moss-covered three-handled family gredunza." The vocabulary used in the special is also of a higher level than the book, though still in Seuss' trademark rhyme.

Home video releases

The special was originally released as a VHS videocassette on the CBS/Fox Video label's Playhouse Video imprint in 1989. It was later released as part of the Dr. Seuss Sing-Along Classics release from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with CBS Video and Fox Kids Video in the mid 90's. It was later released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on October 7, 2003. Warner Home Video released the special on Blu-ray and DVD on August 7, 2012.

The Cat in other TV specials and series

Although the original book's sequel The Cat in the Hat Comes Back did not receive an animated adaptation, the character went on to appear in several more Dr. Seuss specials. In 1973, there came Dr. Seuss on the Loose, where Sherman reprised his role as The Cat in the Hat. Here, The Cat in the Hat appeared in bridging sequences where he introduced animated adaptations of three other Dr. Seuss stories: The Sneetches, The Zax and Green Eggs and Ham. In 1982's The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat, the character, now voiced by Mason Adams (Sherman had died shortly after Dr. Seuss on the Loose finished production), meets the title character of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and sets out to reform his new green adversary. In 1995, the Cat appeared again, this time with the voice of Henry Gibson, to narrate Daisy-Head Mayzie, a special based on a posthumously published Dr. Seuss book. In 1997, a puppet version of the Cat starred in The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, where he was voiced by Bruce Lanoil and Martin P. Robinson. The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, an educational animated series based on the Random House Library series, premiered in September 2010; the Cat is voiced by Martin Short.

Cast

Credits

Production

The production began at Chuck Jones' MGM Animation Studio in the late 1960s after the studio had finished The Phantom Tollbooth and another Dr. Seuss special, Horton Hears a Who!. After MGM stopped animation production and closed down its animation department for good in 1970, production was moved to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (marking the company's first Dr. Seuss television special), which was run by Jones' fellow Warner Bros. Cartoons alumnus Friz Freleng and WB's last original production executive David DePatie.

Although Chuck Jones and his staff were retained by DePatie-Freleng in the production of the special, Jones left the studio and did not work on any other Seuss projects after The Cat in the Hat. Other staff members that have worked with Jones such as Dean Elliott and Maurice Noble eventually stopped working on Seuss projects also. DePatie and Freleng were credited together as executive producers, while Jones was credited as producer with Seuss (under his actual name). For the next three Dr. Seuss animation specials, Freleng and Seuss (again using his real name) were credited as producers, although separately.

DePatie-Freleng animated a new Cat in the Hat Productions logo for this special, which would be used in the next three specials. The pace and rhyming sequences of several of the songs (particularly "Calculatus Eliminatus") led many to believe that they were composed by Sherman, since they closely resemble his earlier song parodies, however only Seuss is credited.