Netflix just added The Cat in the Hat back to its catalog, and to many viewers’ surprise, it skyrocketed back to the Top 10 list. The 2003 adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ 1957 book stars Mike Myers and is considered by many a bizarre meme at best. Whether ironically or otherwise, this movie is now No. 8 on Netflix’s Top 10 list for kids’ titles.
The Cat in the Hat is a slim, simple children’s book, so naturally, this movie needed to take a lot of creative liberties to stretch it out into a feature-length film. The results have been almost universally despised for about two decades now. On Rotten Tomatoes the movie has 9 percent positive reviews out of 163 verified professional critiques. In recent years, the user review has climbed up to a much more respectable 54 percent positive rating, but much of that is due to nostalgia and irony. Some fans were disappointed when The Cat in the Hat left Netflix back in December, and now that it’s back they are clearly giving it another chance.
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“The Cat in the Hat is so god awful it’s comedy gold,” one person tweeted as the movie rejoined Netflix’s catalog. Another wrote: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and The Cat in the Hat (2003) are essential vulgar auteurism texts but some of y’all ain’t ready for that conversation.”
The original Cat in the Hat book is a short, surreal story where an anthropomorphic cat comes to entertain two bored children on a rainy day while their mother is out. Their talking pet goldfish warns them that the cat’s antics will get out of hand, and sure enough, they realize that the house is a complete mess just before their mother is due home. However, the cat returns with an imaginative machine that magically puts their house back in order just before their mother arrives.
The story teaches kids to think creatively and trust the impulse towards fun and novelty, even if things don’t go exactly right on the first try. The movie version loses this moral somewhere between the addition of a lazy babysitter (Amy Hill), a prospective stepfather (Alec Baldwin) and an inexplicable cameo by Paris Hilton as herself, among many other ludicrous elements.
Still, the movie has its die-hard devotees – not least of all because of how insane it seems to be. Many have been posting their fondness for the movie online, which could explain the surge in viewership on Netflix. In fact, some have even made comments about trying to share the movie with their young relatives.
