Warner Bros. officially announced its' development of Cat in The Hat (2026) recently, confirming that the decades-old property is returning to the big screen. It's set to release early next year. It already has fans of the beloved Cat talking, and now we know that the hilarious Bill Hader is attached.
With that said, we shouldn't forget the classic and perhaps the most notable Cat in The Hat, and perhaps, we even owe him a little respect for an unforgettable childhood experience: Mike Myers's Cat in the Hat (2003).
Okay we can be real here, it does feel like a fever dream. A neon-colored, off-the-wall, chaotic fever dream. But let's get one thing straight: this is not a bad movie. It's just a misunderstood, bold and bizarre hour and twenty-two minutes of chaos.
Yes, it's loud. Yes, it's weird. And yes, the humor sometimes feels like a deleted scene from an Will Ferrel movie, but underneath the neon set pieces, chaotic one-liners, and that the costuming, lies a film that had something most kids movies are afraid of now: guts.
When Mike Myers accepts a part, he fully commits to it. His version of the Cat is unhinged, theatrical, and endlessly quotable. Every nickname Myers makes up for Conrad is pure comedy and they have to be mostly ad-libbed. Ultimately, the film doesn't tiptoe around whimsy, but instead, it dares to be absurd in a big way and feels unapologetically strange. It's not trying to be a quiet, homage to Dr. Seuss—it's trying to be an amusement park ride, and guess what? It is.
Sure, parents hated it. Critics destroyed it. But, for a certain generation of movie watchers, myself included, The Cat in the Hat is iconic. It's a meme-worthy festival of weird, dark funny that's fitting of Dr. Seuss. Bear in mind the movie never tries to win an Oscar—it's trying to blow your mind with a talking fish, a terrifying babysitter, and a Cat that looks like he escaped the weirdest costume party in the city. And honestly? We respect that. Bizarre works in this day and age.
Granted, it's not the Grinch or the Lorax, but it doesn't need to be. Not every Dr. Seuss adaptation needs to be soaked in Christmas spirit or cute cuddliness. Sometimes, it just needs to be strange, a little weird, and completely unforgettable.
So, maybe it's time we stop pretending The Cat in the Hat is some cinematic train wreck and admit the truth, because deep down we all know, the Cat didn't just cross an imaginary line in the sand. He tap-danced over it, becoming cult-classic gold—all the while wearing fuzzy red boots and that glorious stovepipe hat.
Cat in the Hat releases in theaters on February 27, 2026.