Currently only in theaters
Runtime: 1 Hour and 47 Minutes
Rated PG
"Making a big old mess is part of life. And you, Cat in the Hat, are the best at it."
In
Themes:
Friendship, hats, mischief, imagination, rainy days, messes, rules, moving, starting over, time travel, family, embarrassment, creativity, growing up, lying, a mother’s love, blaming, eviction, being fired, HR, standing up for a friend.
Language:
Crap - 1 Dang it - 1 Heck - 5 Religious Exclamation - 1
The words stupid, toot, fart, and some minor insults (like Band Nerd) are used.
Nepo babies are also mentioned and may be something your child asks about,
Stuff to be aware of: (Some of this is considered spoiler territory, but I try to keep things ambiguous)
Alcohol and Drugs - None
Gross - There is some potty humor and characters trying to eat one another.
Thing 1 and Thing 3 try to eat a talking fish.
There are multiple pictures hanging in a bathroom. The pictures have potty humor puns and phrases on them.
LGBTQ - I am not sure there are meant to be LGBTQ references, but they didn’t fit anywhere else.
A mouse in a dress speaks with a deep male voice.
During a shadow puppet skit, a bald, male-presenting character kisses a female-presenting character named Carmella and then tells her that the baby is hers. While the scene is played as a joke, it seems to insinuate that the two had a child, but the mother doesn’t realize the child is hers. It is very confusing.
The Cat in the Hat says, “You never ask a lady her age.” A little boy replies, “You’re a lady!?!?” and the Cat in the Hat says, “No, it’s just good advice.”
Scary - There is a monster that might scare younger children.
The monster is initially shown as a pair of glowing red eyes lurking behind a gate. When it eventually escapes, it resembles a pterodactyl with a skull-like face. If your little ones scare easily, you may want to Google an image of the creature beforehand to see whether it might be too frightening for them.
Sexual - There are a few butt jokes and some comments that only adults will understand.
One character asks another, “My father had other kids?” The response is, “Did he go on a long business trips?”
Giant underwear swim around like manta rays.
A man and woman kiss.
A character’s butt moves over an opening where characters are trying to go. When the butt starts moving, a character says, “I see a crack.”
Violence/Gore - None
Religion - None
Other - A few final items that didn’t fit elsewhere.
The Cat in the Hat drops “Nanna’s ashes,” breaking the jar and getting the ashes in his mouth.
The Things (like Thing 1) communicate by making noises and smacking one another in the face and butt.
In theaters, there is a Looney Tunes short that plays before the movie. There is a creepy hunter lodge scene with Daffy coming in contact with butcher knives and chains hanging everywhere. Daffy also shows his shoulders off seductively to Elmer Fudd.
Overall:
Seeing It With Your Family
Overall, this movie is pretty tame. The only things I would caution parents about are the monster, which might frighten younger viewers, and some of the movie’s weird, quirky humor, such as Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, and the others slapping one another in the face and on the rump.
What I Thought
Hollywood has finally figured out that Dr. Seuss books are better as animated tales than live-action ones. Yes, The Grinch worked, but there is a reason no one talks about the live-action Cat in the Hat movie. Of course, in my opinion, the best animated Seuss book is the original The Grinch Stole Christmas. They basically just read the book and put animation to it. It’s perfect. However, we apparently can’t do that anymore and have to add additional content to his books to make them into 1.5-hour-long movies or longer.