In the 2000’s for Hollywood it seemed like a good idea to adapt the Dr. Seuss’ books into live action films. How they thought they could adapt a children’s book of only a few pages and barely any sentences in it into an hour long movie when a 22 minute special was already stretching things is something we will never know, we do know that Dr. Seuss’ wife decided not to allow any more live action adaptations after these two movies came out. Are the that bad? They don’t have a great reputation but they are much better than you may think.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
This movie came out in the year 2000 and people were excited since Jim Carrey was at the top of his game and everyone had grown up with the classic Christmas special that this film is also adapting from that same book. The problem is the length, obviously a few things needed to be added to make the movie last as much as a movie needs to.
They opted by giving more of a backstory as to why the Grinch hates X-Mas and it’s not necessarily a bad idea, it’s just an odd choice to make for a kids movie to have a rather dark Batman like origin for the villain. This stretches the movie but it’s also not as interesting as you might expect and in the end it does feel like it just drags a little bit more than when you just want to see the story take place which the TV cartoon special does rather quickly and more efficiently.
The sets and the world of Dr. Seuss is done exceptionally well in live action, it really is a treat to see. The movie isn’t necessarily bad, just feels a bit unnecessary, I remember critics calling the movie bad but people in generally liking it and it seems many do consider it a Christmas classic movie so who knows. I’d say it’s worth a watch even if not in your regular X-Mas rotation.
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat film released in 2003 was a few years after The Grinch but it kept many of the ideas, including having a famous comedian in this case Mike Myers. What we’re left with is also a lot of side plots added to this kids movie, in this case about the neighbor wanting to seduce the mother and the Cat acting a lot more crazy.
The tone of this movie is rather weird, it’s a really trippy movie and it’s full of adult jokes, the target audience for who they made this movie seems more for older people than for kids. I was surprised with how much they were able to get away with and how much of a psychopath the cat was, it really is fantastic. Hell, we even get a RAVE scene with Paris Hilton in the movie.
The movie got panned by critics and people alike which lead to no more live action Dr. Seuss adaptations but it went on a high note. This is not only a great adaptation it’s an overall fun movie, it’s a s if Pee-Wee Herman had raised the ante and we got this to compete with it.
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