Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss’ real name) is among my inspirations in both my artistic and writing careers. While I don’t rhyme as simply as him nor write such fantastical children’s books, I still greatly admire his effortless ability to bring silliness and imaginative creations to life so charmingly.
After the last disc in this new rush of Dr. Seuss release fervour, The Cat in the Hat I had my trepidations regarding the quality of this vehicle. I was pleasantly surprised then by the quality and production values of the various transfers of Seuss’ books to animation here.
By now a million films have included this all time favourite children’s book in slight reference here and there (though the only one that springs to mind is The Sixth Sense right now). It details the persistance of Sam I Am in making this other dude enjoy green eggs and ham. Is it a document on making kids eat their greens? Is it a method for forcing mouldering food on the hapless, regardless of their aversions to it? Or is it, more likely, just a fun and simple story with no redeeming message at all but its own silliness?
While only running for a sleek 8:36, this highlighted short film is not necessarily the highlight of the disc. There are four separate cartoons included here with The Sneetches (12:11) being a story of conformity gone mad and a forceful statement about both the need to conform and the need to break away, while also giving a humble anti-racism message.
The Zax (3:43) is a simple message about the foolishness of pride getting in the way of life itself, which of course doesn’t wait for anyone.
Halloween is Grinch Night (25:21) runs the longest and most intricately and brings that ever popular bad dude The Grinch to the town of Whoville to ruin Halloween for the residents therein. There doesn’t seem to be any redeeming message here at all, but is just a fun and brightly fearsome story for children.
This series looks so much better than the previous The Cat in the Hat DVD release and I am more impressed by the overall content. It’s still a relatively small collection, but still around twice the size of that last disc. It’s overall a much better presentation with some incredible mixtures of colours in the palette bringing the story to real cartoonish fantasy life. The kids won’t have any trouble understanding the meanings hidden in the silliness and will no doubt enjoy the fun style and true cartoon feel.
Well, as just noted, the colours are the first and strongest thing that will smack you in the face. Everywhere the disc is bursting with bright, evenly saturated colours and nice clean lines. Blacks are true and while only delivered in 4:3, the animation (made in 1973) has been laid out well to accommodate accordingly.
Audio is provided care of Dolby Digital stereo and is a roundly balanced mix with clear dialogue, chirpy (yet hopelessly dated) songs and music and comedic (if rarely used) sound effects. Dean Elliott is to blame for this very ‘70s song and music mix and this is about the only thing I found extremely wince-inducing about the overall presentation. However, there are no doubt those who will love it for its authenticity.
As to extras, there are just two versions of included songs with karaoke lyrics inserted and these are He Will Eat Them and Grinches Inches Closer. There are also song selections which are basically just chapter headings to any of the long list of songs in the shows, but no karaoke here.
An inspired madman, Theodore Geisel has created a series of characters and stories that will live forever due to their silliness, their intellect and their plain old originality and here some of those books have made the leap to animation in style. This collection way outshines The Cat in the Hat released as part of this series and contains a better selection of stories and style without the sell job of the movie featurette included on that one.
If you’re tossing up which is the better choice (although there are more to come yet) this is most definitely the winner and my recommendation for anyone who enjoyed the original books.
