Any children's movie that carries a PG rating should be viewed with suspicion. Indeed Bo Welch's The Cat In The Hat makes a bizarre showcase for Mike Myers' lewd brand of humour, and was consequently panned by US critics. Still it did pretty respectable box office business in the States - where the books of Dr Seuss are a veritable institution - and for those with a skewed sense of taste, it's also "a brilliantly bad kamikaze movie".
Catnip
In place of a long-winded 'making of' featurette, there are nine punchy two-to-three minute snippets breaking down the key aspects of the movie with soundbites from cast and crew - including director Bo Welch, star Mike Myers, and child actors Spencer Breslin and Dakota Fanning.
If you click on the splatter at the foot of the special features menu, you'll also find The Dog In The Hat featurette, comprised mainly of Alec Baldwin bitching about the special treatment lavished upon the kids' pet pooch.
Cat Goes Splat
The 16 deleted scenes are contained within one reel and mostly feature Mike Myers getting thrown about and abused in increasingly more violent and perverse ways. Talking of perverse, party girl Paris Hilton also appears in (what else?) a nightclub scene dancing seductively with The Cat (incidentally, kids can learn the steps to 'The Cat Groove' in the Dance-Along featurette). The most superfluous of these deleted scenes involves Alec Baldwin (as Quinn) buying a TV, which, as it happens, is just about as exciting as waiting in line to buy a TV.
Conversely, Baldwin is the life and soul of the audio commentary. When Bo Welch starts to waffle aimlessly, he intercepts with a few light-hearted observations and the odd vocal impression - he does a mean Barry Sonnenfeld. Unfortunately both men take to praising Dakota Fanning every time she appears onscreen, which is quite a lot. "Isn't she adorable?" says Welch. "She is Mozart, and I am Salieri," effuses Baldwin, adding, "She's so real!"
The Baldwin brother emits more burbling sounds in a five-minute outtakes reel, but the biggest laugh comes courtesy of Spencer Breslin, who manages to trip up and fall flat on his face during a chase sequence. Is that cruel?
On the face of it, this is a generous package of extras, but a commentary by Myers as well as thorough investigations into the various design aspects and visual effects are sorely lacking. Still, there are just enough tricks in this hat to keep the kids from straying.
EXTRA FEATURES
