The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat

Dir: Bill Perez

1982

*****

I couldn't tell you how many times I watched The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat as a child, it was quite a treat at the time to watch both of my favourite Dr. Seuss characters meet for the first time. It's a curious meeting as fans of the author would probably hope for but it's far more emotional than I think many would expect. When it's not making the viewer positively dizzy with its surreal animation, it's making them rather sad and then seconds later, abundantly happy. That's the magic of Dr. Seuss. It's different but every bit as good as the original animations and the new voice actors do rather well at taking the reins from some of the all-time greats. Next time you hear someone say they don't like musicals, point them in this direction and remind them that this is technically a musical. If the psychedelic colours don't hypnotize you, the fantastic music numbers will.

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (AKA How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

Dir: Ron Howard

2000

**

I loved the books of Dr. Seuss as a child and I adored the Grinch and Cat in the Hat stories. Personally I don't think the 1982 animated crossover The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat has ever been bettered but there are things about Ron Howard's live action adaptation that I did enjoy. It's incredibly vibrant (like the books) and extremely detailed (unlike the books) and is beautifully directed for a studio based film. It looks reassuringly expensive, which means they have at least given it some thought. However (and it's a pretty big however to be honest), they got the Grinch wrong. Some would say that that was a bit of an oversight. Jim Carrey was still hot property in 2000 (somehow) and it seems producers didn't have the imagination to consider anyone else in the role, even though I can think of a hundred actors who would have been better suited. It was the story that was criticized the most upon the film's release but personally I thought it was fairly authentic and I'm glad that Dr. Seuss' creation hadn't been too sugar-coated. I can think of many different things they could have tried to improve on the overall feel of the movie but in all honesty I don't know how or why anyone would even attempt to try and better the near perfect animated features.

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
Dir: Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda
2012
**
I much preferred the recent Horton Hears a Who! but it's still a million times better than Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the God awful Mike Myers' The Cat in the Hat. It's perhaps a little over-complicated and not as pure and simple as the original story, the message is still there but as much as I loved the Bears and the Fish etc, they really should come second to the classic story but they don't, they are the best bits. Computer animators may love Dr. Seuss stories just as much as the rest of us but they don't have to make computer animated versions, some things are best left two dimensional.