Real Reason Why We Never Got Another ‘The Cat in the Hat’ Live-action Film is the Boldest Move in a World Infested With Disney’s Incessant Adaptations
- Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat is one of the most popular children's books he wrote.
- The 2003 live-action adaptation of the film upset Dr. Seuss's widow Audrey Geisel and never let another adaptation happen.
- Jim Carrey personally talked to Mrs. Geisel to let him play the role of The Grinch in 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Theodor Seuss Geissel wrote some of the most popular children’s books under the pen name of Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat was one of these many famous books so much so that it was even adapted into a live-action movie.
This adaptation was released in 2003 and in the two decades since then, there have been no other adaptations of the book. It might seem quite unusual that in an industry that is obsessed with multiple adaptations of the same successful stories, The Cat in the Hat has not been adapted for a second time.
Why Has The Cat in the Hat Not Been Adapted for Another Live-Action Film?
Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated more than 60 children’s books which were translated into 20+ languages. Before his demise in 1991, over 600 million copies of his works were sold. Two of his most popular books, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and The Cat in the Hat, were adapted for live-action films by Universal Pictures in the early 2000s.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was the first one to get adapted and it starred Jim Carrey in the lead role. With Dr. Seuss’s widow Audrey Geisel’s blessing, the film turned out to be pretty successful. However, the same cannot be said about 2003’s The Cat in the Hat.
The movie featured innuendos unsuitable for a family film and even made a joke about committing murder. Geisel was unimpressed with this. According to Today.com, she did not even like Mike Myers’ in the lead role.
I never saw Austin Powers, but I knew ‘Yeah, baby!’ and I didn’t want ‘Yeah, baby!’ at all.
The adult content of the film only added to her displeasure with the adaptation which had received mixed to negative reviews. Not to mention the vile treatment of the character that she considered the spokesperson of her late husband’s estate. Speaking about the entire experience, she said:
The layers of skin … have to get tougher. And you’ve got to be able to say, ‘I’ve got my cat back out of the litter box. It’s no big deal.’ And we march on.
According to Time magazine, the primary reason Geisel agreed to the first movie to be made was that she was promised there would be no adult jokes or overtly dark jokes in the film. Doing the exact opposite in the next movie killed the chances of Dr. Seuss’s wife approving another adaptation of the story and rightfully so.
Jim Carrey Was Adamant About Playing the Lead Role in How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Jim Carrey has played some of the most iconic roles in Hollywood. From Ace Ventura to Truman Burbank, there are numerous characters that Carrey is still considered synonymous with. One of these characters is The Grinch from the holiday classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Director Ron Howard revealed to Empire Online how Carrey was absolutely obstinate about playing the Grinch.
Jim Carrey wanted to play the Grinch, and he would get the rights for the whole story and give it to another producer, if that’s what it took.
So, even before he was officially hired for the role, Carrey who was filming Man on the Moon at the time invited Audrey Geisel to the set.
He invited Mrs. Geisel to the set and for a while he was talking to her like Andy Kaufman. And then he’d drop that and turn back to her and be the Grinch for a whole minute of Grinchiness, including the big grin, and she was totally enthralled.
By the time Howard came to her with his idea for the film, she was completely on board and wanted Carrey to play The Grinch. That is exactly what the director wanted to hear because he claimed that he would not have done the movie at all if the Dumb and Dumber actor had been rejected.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is available for streaming on Netflix. The Cat in the Hat is available for rent on Apple TV.
