‘The Cat in the Hat’ reminds kids and parents that it’s okay to make a mess
Warner Bros.’ animated film The Cat in the Hat opened in Philippine cinemas on November 4. PUSH ABS-CBN caught an early screening of the movie at SM Mall of Asia before it hit local theaters.
Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja wrote and directed the film, the first full-length feature released under the relaunched Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. Bill Hader, of Saturday Night Live and Barry fame, lends his voice to the Cat. Also in the cast are Xochitl Gomez, Tiago Martinez, America Ferrera, Giancarlo Esposito, Quinta Brunson, Paula Pell, Bowen Yang, Tituss Burgess, and Matt Berry.
Forget the stranger who just appears at the door on a rainy day. In this movie, the Cat is an employee. He works for the Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC, which goes by I.I.I.I. The company’s job is to send its magical workers into our world whenever a child needs a bit of happiness.
He is great at making kids smile, but he also leaves a disaster behind wherever he goes, and that has put his job on the line. His boss, Mr. Hoogeboom (Giancarlo), is about to let him go. His friend Sherri from HR (Quinta) steps in and talks the boss into giving him one more try. The catch: he has to handle one of the hardest cases on the company’s list.
That case involves a brother and sister, Gabby (Xochitl) and Sebastian (Tiago). Their mom, Carmen (America), recently landed a hospital job, so the family packed up and now lives in Highland. It’s a situation many Filipino families know well, where a parent’s work decides where everyone ends up living. Sebastian takes the move in stride, but Gabby badly misses the life they left behind. The new apartment also comes with its own headache: Patty (Paula), a fussy landlady who won’t allow any animals in the building. That means the family’s goldfish, Waffles (Matt), has to stay a secret.
When Carmen heads off to her shift, the Cat pops in through a tiny magic door, and the kids’ plain afternoon goes out the window. He has also brought something he sneaked out of the office: the Go-Backer, a stopwatch that can rewind time. Gabby sees her chance. If time can be turned back, maybe the move can be undone too.
Things don’t go as planned. The watch drops into one of three moving boxes the family brought along, and no one knows which. Worse, the Cat’s spell has turned each box into a world of its own. To get it back, the Cat, Gabby, Sebastian and their goldfish hop on the family couch, which can now fly, and search the boxes one by one.
Sebastian’s box comes first, packed with his toys. There they run into the Psychic Narwhal (Tituss), who is in such a slump that he won’t share what he knows until the group lifts his spirits with a circus act. Meanwhile, a monster the Cat has named “the Something” keeps coming after them. Readers who grew up with the book will also spot the Things, Dr. Seuss’s blue-haired mischief-makers, adding to the mess.
As they search, Gabby discovers that her mom wasn’t always the busy, no-nonsense parent she sees every day. That surprise helps her understand that the Cat’s idea of fun isn’t only about turning a house upside down.
Behind the noise and the chaos, the movie has a simple lesson for children and parents: learn to enjoy where you are now, and don’t be scared of a little mess.
The Cat in the Hat is based on the 1957 children’s book by Dr. Seuss, the pen name of American author Theodor Geisel. The rhyming story of a cat who turns a dull, rainy day upside down for two bored kids remains one of his best-known works.
The character has appeared in earlier adaptations, including a 1971 TV cartoon special and a 2003 live-action movie starring Mike Myers. Critics panned Mike’s version, which holds a score of just 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Audrey Geisel, the author’s widow, later decided she would no longer allow live-action versions of his books. This is the first time the Cat has starred in a feature-length animated movie.
Getting it to cinemas took longer than expected. Warner Bros. first scheduled it for March 2026, moved it a week earlier to late February, then pushed it back to November so it would open closer to the holiday season. The film had its world premiere at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, on October 25.
It is also the first of several Dr. Seuss animated films that Warner Bros. Pictures Animation is making with Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Next in line is “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”, directed by Jon M. Chu of “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Wicked” with Jill Culton. Ariana Grande and Josh Gad are part of its voice cast, and it is set to open in March 2028.
The Cat in the Hat is now showing in Philippine cinemas, including IMAX screens.