Posts Tagged ‘The Cat In The Hat’
4 items.
Today’s comic was almost sacrilege in my house. Cami is a dyed-in-the-wool, hard core Mike Myers fan from way back. So I Married An Axe Murderer is one of her favorite movies.
I’m not without my loyalty to Myers. I’ve often enjoyed his work all the way back to his days on Saturday Night Live. Like everybody else, I was totally swept up in Austin Powers-mania, doing horrid impressions each summer a new movie was released.
But as time goes on, one begins to realize that Myers has consistently cannibalized his own work. Despite his great ability to introduce and engrain catchphrases and characters into the pop culture lexicon, he will often grab hold of a concept or a character and ride it into the ground. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to watch Shrek and hear the voice of Fat Bastard coming out of his mouth. You couldn’t do, like, a squeaky voice, or something?
Things get complicated in that respect when you learn that Myers originally recorded all his dialogue for Shrek WITHOUT the Scottish accent and later convinced the producers to let him re-recorded the character WITH the accent. This was done at great expense to the animators eventually costing the production millions of dollars to reanimate the main characters lips.
Most don’t know that Myers has a reputation for being difficult – an exacting perfectionist. That rumor gained steam during the pre-production of the failure Dieter project, which Myers walked off of due to what he thought was a sub-standard script. Both Universal Studios and producer Brian Grazer sued. Eventually it was settled out of court.
Things must be peachy-keen between all three players now considering Myers is their lead in the big screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat. I don’t know if I care to see it this weekend or not. Frankly, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Jim Carrey’s outing in The Grinch, and most of the art direction crew on that film has returned for The Cat.
There’s something about the make up in these movies that just unnerves me. That funny snout apparatus on the actor
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Nov24
Myself, Cami, Jared and his wife Patti didn’t actually see The Cat in the Hat this weekend, so maybe it isn’t fair to bash it. But if most of the reviews are correct (as I believe they are), I think we’re in pretty safe waters.
I’m not particularly impressed that the movie made over $40 million this weekend. Expect that number to drop off dramatically in the next two weeks. At the end of the day, it just isn’t a smart idea to make a feature-length movie out of a children’s book with only 200-some words in it. There’s a lot of extra exposition to fill.
I was watching Ebert & Roeper this weekend and they both panned the film. No surprise, but they made an interesting observation: The people who made The Cat in the Hat also produced The Grinch. What they fail to realize is that people don’t want to see Mike Myers or Jim Carrey buried under mountains of make-up and special effects. As two of the most able comic actors currently on screen, they themselves are the special effect. Handicapping them with prosthetics and fur suits prevents them from trumping the material and bringing it up a notch.
There aren’t too many movies I’m worked up for right now. I’ll admit that I’m interested in seeing Ron Howard’s The Missing, but mostly because I’m a big fan of Tommy Lee Jones. The Haunted Mansion comes out this week, but I don’t think that looks very good. Neither does Timeline (admittedly, I’m not much of a Michael Crichton fan).
Bad Santa has been getting some interesting reviews. Apparently the subject matter of the film is quite adult. I was all but ready to write it off because of it’s awful trailer, but that was before I found out that Terry Zwigoff directed it. Zwigoff also directed Ghost World and the documentary Crumb. He’s a bit of an odd-duck, but I think his sensibilities are similar to mine. If they can get the word out that a first draft of the Bad Santa script was handled by Joel and Ethan Cohen, I think it’ll build more buzz.
Speaking of buzz, if you guys could throw a little vote-love my way over at buzzComix, that would be great. We’re kind of teetering on the cusp of the Top 10 and are in danger of falling off without a little support. I’d like to hang in there before the month ends. I promise to kick off December with more great voting incentives.
Like the rest of you, I’m gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday, so my head is in quite a few places at the moment. Holidays always have a way of throwing your routine into upheaval. But don’t worry. You can expect strips on Wednesday and Friday – even if I AM swimming in a cloud of turkey-induced tryptophan.
If you haven’t already, you should really check out the forums. We’ve seen a recent influx of people registering. It’s a good time to join!
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Let me lay down a quick disclaimer: I enjoyed today’s strip very much. That being said, it is all wrong.
Panel #1)
I did not see any animals wearing hats this weekend. I will wait for the DVD rental.
Panel #2)
I’m not certain where Tom got the oysters thing, but he actually stumbled upon a family tradition. Every year for Thanksgiving, the fam gathers and oyster stew is served… to a select few. I do not partake in the eating of the “bugs.” I usually eat pizza or beef stew.
Panel #3)
I do not sleep on that side of the bed.
Panel #4)
Well, I guess it’s not all wrong!
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Horton Hears A Who was number one at the box office this weekend with over $45 million in earnings. That’s fairly substantial, but no entirely a surprise. Kids rule the box office. Parents will take then to see anything.
I’m kind of non-plused about the whole affair for reasons outlined in the comic. I recognize that Horton Hears A Who is getting good reviews, but there are just as many bad reviews and I feel like I’ve been burned before. I thought the live-action version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas was grotesque and the live-action version of The Cat in the Hat completely glossed over what made the book so endearing by adding it’s own unneeded elements. I suppose you can give a tip of the hat to Horton for avoiding the temptation of live-action. I’ll admit that the CG looks good. But isn’t there some kind of emo-kid that lives in Whoville? I could have swore I saw one in the trailer. Is this what Ted Geisel had in mind?
I realize that after a certain point and author’s creation is taken out of his hands and adapted to fit the sensibilities of a modern audience. Clearly all great tales do this. Their themes may be universal, but the details are tweaked to make them modern.
At the same time, the inventive mind of Dr. Suess was so completely beyond timeless, I think any attempt to anchor it to modern sensibilities is a mistake. You should breathe life into what was on the page but not give people cell phones, or whatever. I think that’s why the Chuck Jones’s animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas endures year after year after year. They didn’t see a need to embellish it. The story was perfect as it was.
Quibbles, I’m sure. I doubt anyone is losing sleep over my concerns. I know there are no longer any sacred cows. But, for me, Dr. Suess is deeply entrenched in my childhood memories and those books played a major influence in my life. If you’re going to adapt them for the screen, stay faithful to them so the next generation can be equally inspired.
Just my two cents.
Be sure to tune in to The Triple Feature podcast this evening where we’ll be talking about Horton Hears A Who and its diametrical opposite, Doomsday. The show starts at 9:00 PM CST over at Talkshoe.com. Just follow this link to be taken there 15 minutes before the show starts.
See you there!
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