The Cat in the Hat review – Bill Hader brings plenty but this animated rework is a mess

The SNL alum has an appealing energy and this is an improvement on the 2003 travesty but it’s also far too long and strangely corporate Over a long enough timeline, perhaps every living alumnus of Saturday Night Live will play the Cat in the Hat. Mike Myers kicked off this unexpe

The SNL alum has an appealing energy and this is an improvement on the 2003 travesty but it’s also far too long and strangely corporate Over a long enough timeline, perhaps every living alumnus of Saturday Night Live will play the Cat in the Hat. Mike Myers kicked off this unexpected tradition by embodying the furry, anarchic Dr Seuss character for a notoriously, almost defiantly ghastly 2003 live-action treatment. After doing us all the service of killing flesh-and-blood Seuss movies for good, Myers was later followed by a more charming Martin Short (via voiceover on a cute PBS/CBC animated series) and now Bill Hader, stepping into the role for a big-budget animated reboot from the oft-flailing animation division of Warner Bros.

Just to be clear, this is the same studio that passed on releasing not one but two well-liked features starring their trademark Looney Tunes characters in the last few years. (Puzzlingly, a new Looney Tunes short starring Daffy Duck nonetheless debuts in front of this movie.) Warner has one of the most storied animation libraries in American cinema (and, for that matter, plenty of great animated TV shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Animaniacs) but as far as features go, they’ve never settled on a clear creative vision. They seem just as adrift in a landscape crowded with serious competitors as they were back when everyone was imitating Disney.

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