ABOUT THE FILM

ALTHOUGH THEY DON’T REALIZE IT, today is a very special day for Conrad and

Sally. After all, what’s so special about being left with a sleepy babysitter while your mum goes to work? And how special is it if you are not allowed to do anything that is fun! As Sally and Conrad sit staring out the window at the rain outside, today seems boring, not special. No, nothing special happening here … that is until a six-foot-tall talking Cat (Mike Myers) wearing a red-and-white-striped stovepipe hat, a jaunty red bow tie and a super-sized fondness for mischief arrives in their house. Now that’s starting to seem special!

Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin), different as black and white, have pushed their mum, Joan Walden (Kelly Preston), to the limit. Conrad’s endless rule breaking has his mum seriously considering military school for her son—an idea planted by her slimy neighbour and suitor, Lawrence Quinn (Alec Baldwin). Sally, perfectionistic and well behaved, has

bossed away every friend she has and divides her time between chastising her brother and putting new To Do lists into her junior palm pilot.

All the while their mum tries to keep domestic peace and balance a suc-cessful career as a real estate agent for her germophobe boss, Mr Hum-berfloob (Sean Hayes). But on the Saturday she is to host her company party, Joan’s preparations have fallen prey to Conrad’s mischief and she has laid down the law. Sally and Conrad are not to leave the house while she is at work and are forbidden from mak-ing a mess or misbehaving in any way. The kids are left sitting and staring out the window while their babysitter, Mrs Kwan (Amy Hill), dozes the day away. Until their unexpected guest—the original party animal himself—arrives to turn their world upside down by showing them that ‘it’s fun to have fun … but you have to know how!’

USING THE CAT IN THE HAT IN THE CLASSROOM

The film version of The Cat in the Hat is a crafted and highly-stylized,

magical world where an uninvited visitor turns the ho-hum world of two bored children into an adventure-filled trip through a fantasyland inspired by the visionary author Dr Seuss and brought to life on the big screen by award-winning filmmakers.

These notes have been developed to help teachers enhance the viewing experiences of children in middle and upper primary school years. Informa-tion and ideas for learning activities provide a range of options from which teachers can select to suit student needs and interests. Activities provide opportunities to develop learning outcomes across Key Learning Areas, but in particular English, the Arts, Health and Studies of Society.

BRINGING THE CAT IN THE HAT TO THE SCREEN

Brian Grazer, the producer, read Seuss books as a child and com-ments, ‘ … because they have such universal themes and the illustrations ignite such fantasy in your mind … I was willing to do anything to bring them to the screen.’

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Mike Myers (the Cat) also has nostalgic Seuss memories and recalls,

My mother was an actress in England, and she would read the books to me and other kids who came by to listen because she was so good at it. My earliest memory of Dr Seuss is The Cat in the Hat, which I loved—it’s my favorite book. I loved the illustrations, and my mom read it with a Liverpool accent. That may be why it’s my favorite book of all time.

Myers believes that when Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat in 1957, he was making a point about having responsible fun; he thinks the book is even more relevant today, with all the high-tech distractions available to children in the twenty-first century. Grazer agrees,

The Cat comes along and shows bored kids how to have fun without the usual distractions. He shows that the power is within you and you simply must appreciate it. What he does is ignite excitement and joy within these kids for the things they have taken for granted.

Grazer’s respectful handling of Dr Seuss Enterprises’ property during the transition of The Grinch from page to screen proved him a worthy caretaker of the author’s work. So the decision to entrust him with the movie rights for The Cat in the Hat was a simple one.

BEFORE VIEWING THE FILM

Graph

Create a class graph to show who has already read The Cat in the Hat book. Read the book together as a class, then discuss what you like or do not like about the story.

Memories and maths

Read about the memories of the film’s producer and main star in the section above—‘Bringing The Cat in the Hat to the screen’. Encourage students to find out if their parents and grandparents read The Cat in the Hat. What memories do they have of Dr Seuss books? Show students how to use the imprint page to find out when The Cat in the Hat was written (1957). Calculate the number of years people have been enjoying this book.

Morals and messages in the book

Read The Cat in the Hat again and list the messages you think Dr Seuss in-tended readers to gain from his book.

As a class discuss the meaning of the following quote from Dr Seuss:

A person’s a person no matter how small. Children want the same things we want—to laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted.

Do you agree with its sentiments? Do you think the Seuss books achieve what Seuss intended according to this quote?

Graffiti wall

Create a graffiti wall (from butcher pa-per) where students can list Dr Seuss titles read by themselves, their parents or grandparents. Encourage them to record thoughts, feelings and memo-ries about the work of this author and illustrator across the generations.

Character traits

Create and display a large matrix like the one in Chart 1. List the characters who appear in the book and write descriptive words beside each name to describe the personality of each character. Leave two blank columns into which information can be added after viewing the film.

CHARACTER BOOK FILM - BEGINNING FILM - END

SALLY Well-behaved, orderly, tidy, task oriented, scheduled, rule governed, bossy, serious, sensible

CONRAD Not named in book Rule breaker, fun loving, impulsive, irresponsible

CAT

FISH Nervous, uptight, nagging, the voice of reason

THING 1 AND THING 2 Gymnastic mischief makers, unintelligible

MOTHER Only seen as legs at the end of the book

Joan Walden, real estate agent in the film. Well organ-ized, competent mum

MR HUMBERFLOOB Not in the book Joan’s boss. Demanding, germ phobic

MRS KWAN Not in the book Babysitter. Overweight, sleepy

LAWRENCE QUINN Not in the book Neighbour. Phony, two-faced, smooth talker, tries to appear sophisticated but is a slob, gold-digger

CHART 1

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Plot profile

Create a plot profile showing high and low points of key events in the book then use it to help chart cause and effects within the narrative.

Book language

Dr Seuss was challenged to write a story using 220 key words. Write your

own story based on the fifty most used words when reading and writing. (Vary the number of words according to abilities of individual students e.g. 100, 125, 150, 200)

Screen language

The filmmakers let their imaginations run wild in the film version of The Cat in the Hat. They began with the book

and used a magical palette of candy colours to bring the Cat, the children, Thing 1 and Thing 2 and the Fish to life.

Like books, films can use language to help tell a story but they can also use the camera to create all sorts of meanings. In a film like this nothing seems impossible!

Using the camera to create meanings

As a class discuss in detail the meanings and ideas created by each of the following shots. Explore different interpretations, acknowledging the different perspectives brought by individual students.

See photo 2

A long shot can help to set the scene, showing where the action in the film is to take place and often when it takes place. It can also be used to show when the film’s action has changed to another location, as in this shot when

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the action moves outside the house.

See photo 3

Medium shots are usually head and shoulder shots that provide the viewer with information about the action taking place. Often the action will involve more than one character doing something or talking.

See photo 5

A close-up shot enables the viewer to see important details. A close-up shot can be used to help convey a charac-ter’s emotion to viewers.

See photo 6

A shot like this one can provide a character with a sense of power. The camera is placed down low and the viewer looks up at the character. A shot placed up high looking down at the subject can make it appear small, weak or insignificant.

Book to screen

Imagine you were planning to make The Cat in the Hat book into a film. What would you add to the story to make it long enough and exciting enough to be a feature length film? Write three or four sentences describing one of your ideas.

Storyboard

Create a storyboard with four to six frames for the idea you have described. You need to think carefully and select shots to draw that will convey your ideas best. Storyboards are quick sketches to help guide filming, they are not works of art.

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AFTER VIEWING THE FILM

What did you think?

Discuss reactions of class members to the film. Share the scenes that students found most enjoyable, funni-est, scariest, rudest!! Discuss how the type of shots helped to create these moments. Ask students if they think Theodor S. Geisel (Dr Seuss) would have enjoyed the film. Have them explain why or why not.

Capturing the world of Seuss’ Cat in the Hat

The film’s director, Bo Welch says,

To be able to translate The Cat in the Hat for the screen—it’s an invitation into a great world where you can let your imagination run wild and you are not restrained by physics. There’s just a silliness and a joy to it that we worked to capture in every aspect, from the acting to the design. Every aspect has to fit into Seuss’ immaculate universe.

As a class, discuss whether you think Welch captures the world of Dr Seuss with the film version of The Cat in the Hat. Provide reasons for your opinion.

DAKOTA AND SPENCER ON SALLY AND CONRAD

Dakota Fanning (Sally) describes Sally as ‘a scheduled person who keeps track of everything. Everything for her has to be perfect, every hair in place, no spots anywhere. I can understand her but I certainly don’t want to be her.’

Breslin liked the dangerous side of being Conrad. He says, ‘The stair luge was one of the best days I had. They had me riding a cookie sheet down the stairs in the house, and I was covered with all of this padding that I got from the kitchen. Man, I would have never thought to do something like that—it’s actually a

cool idea.’ He is quick to caution and adds, ‘And you should not try it at home!’

Character comparison—book to film

Review the matrix of character traits created before viewing the film. Place a tick beside the characters included in the film. Add any ‘new’ characters to the list. Compare the traits of the book characters with the film characters, both at the beginning of the film and at the end of the film. Complete the chart by adding this new information. Read Fanning and Breslin’s ideas (above) about the characters they play. Would you expect them to say these types of things?

Conrad and Sally: chalk and cheese

The screenwriters created each child’s character to represent opposites. Sally is orderly and task-oriented. She is such a control freak she has driven away all her friends; Conrad will try anything so long as it’s fun, even if it means crossing boundaries and safety rules. He thinks nothing about destroying the kitchen in search of protective gear (a colander helmet, marshmallow bag and loaf of bread padding) for his latest adventure.

Discuss how the use of oppositions helps lead viewers to the film’s mes-

sages. Consider the ways in which each character changed by the end of the film. What had Conrad and Sally each learned?

THING 1 AND THING 2

The filmmakers cast four eight and nine-year-old actors with dance or gymnastic training as the Things. Because of shooting restrictions (children’s working hours are closely monitored and limited), they employed two pairs of Things and staggered work schedules to allow filming to take place throughout the day.

Stunt coordinator Jack Gill exploited the girls’ gymnastic and dance training and (using stunt rigs) literally had them walking on walls during the scene where the Things are released from their red crate, eventually destroying the house. For the demanding scene within the sequence, when the pair attempt to evade capture by scamp-ering on the ceiling and around the chandelier, the magic of CGI supplied computer-animated stunt doubles.

Edge FX created the makeup for the Things. Johnson kept the makeup thin around the eyes and movement areas in the face to allow the girls’ person-alities to show. Johnson considers the success of the faces was due to the girls loving the makeup. To add to their ‘Seussian’ appearance and make them look less like children he used dentures to stretch their mouths, add-ing to the facial distortion.

The twin mischief-makers, Thing 1 and Thing 2, warbling their own indecipherable language literally leap from one catastrophic fun-making adventure to another. The Things end up making Conrad’s messy attempts at fun look like … child’s play.

The ‘Things’ one can do to have fun!

Compare Conrad’s attempts at fun

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safe and responsible totally irresponsible

RIDING THE STAIR LUGE

CHART 2

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with those of the Things. Create a rat-ing scale, for example see Chart 2,

Work in small groups to rate the vari-ous adventures and fun-filled activities of Conrad and the Things. What do you discover about the consequences of having fun?

Conrad, consequences and a caring neighbour—not!

Conrad’s desire to have fun with-out thinking about consequences is constantly pointed out by next-door neighbour Lawrence Quinn. The char-acter of Lawrence Quinn has been added to the film version of The Cat in the Hat. What do you think was the purpose of adding this character to the film version of the story?

ACTING THE PART—BALDWIN AS QUINN

Alec Baldwin delighted in playing the part of Quinn and comments,

What’s fun about Quinn is that he is not what he pretends ... He presents himself to be caring, sophisticated, educated and he’s really just a

complete slob and pig. He’s just pathetic and sad. So it was almost like playing two parts.

The screenwriters depict Quinn as a seemingly successful businessman and stand-in paternal figure for Joan’s children who uses his proximity and wily charms to court his attractive neighbour. Underneath his smooth talk and glistening smile (ting!) lies a near-bankrupt, gold-digging slob, out to snare Joan’s house and income and send her son off to military school.

Wanted—sophisticated slob!

Write a list of descriptive words and phrases to compare the character-istics of Joan and Quinn. Discuss how the oppositions between these characters also helps to lead viewers to the film’s messages.

Imagine you were the casting agent looking for an actor to play this part. Write a description of the character-istics required of the actor. Turn your description into a ‘Wanted’ poster or a newspaper advertisement.

Germophobe and pernickety fish

Another really interesting character added to the film is Mr Humberfloob. Discuss the personality of Mr Humberfloob and his contribution to the story-line through his preoccupation with being germ free. Discuss how this characteristic helps to highlight the mess created by the kids, the feline visitor and Thing 1 and Thing 2.

The actor who plays Mr Humberfloob, Sean Hayes, also supplies the external nagging conscience of Sally and Conrad—through the voice of their anxious, fussy pet Fish. The nervous Fish with the power of speech repeatedly warns the children of the rules they are breaking, the trouble they are causing, and of the dangers that can arise from having fun. Priding itself as the voice of reason, the Fish nags and cajoles, finding myriad ways to say, ‘I told you so!’

Explain how Hayes conveys the nervous, uptight personality of the

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Fish. What does the Fish add to the story? How does this character contribute to the messages of the film?

Plot—cause and effect

Discuss how sub-plots were used in the film version of The Cat in the Hat to help make it enjoyable as a feature length film. Create new cause and effect charts to show the sub-plots within the plot, for example, see chart 3.

Use both sets of the cause and effects charts to highlight and discuss the similarities and differences between the book and film. Explore the way each version, the book and the film, tells a story in its own right with its key messages.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

For Grazer and his team, the major difference between realizing The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat for the screen lay in the setting. While the former exists in a fantasy world of its own, The Cat in the Hat is a caution-ary tale set in a place not too far from

the world as it exists today. Where the Grinch came to life before the cameras on a soundstage, the Cat would be strutting a lot of his stuff on location, in the visually arresting town and suburbs of Anville.

Colour comparisons

Screen the animated scenes from Mary Poppins set in a fairground. Discuss the similarities between The Cat in the Hat and Mary Poppins. Consider the colours used, the action of characters and the props used by live action char-acters and in the animated sequences.

In The Cat in the Hat two separate colour palettes were created: one for the Cat and another for the world he drops into. The red, white and black of the Cat and his hat are seen only on him or his props (with some metal and natural woods on the Cat’s vehicles). The remainder of the film is draped in yellows, greens (the interior of the houses), lilac (the house exterior) and other ice cream/pastel colours, with the addition of the bold, simple colours used for the town.

Colouring the film’s messages

Why do you think the filmmakers selected particular colour palettes for each film? How do the colours enhance the story in both of these films? You might also compare the colours featured in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

ABOUT THE LOCATIONS AND SETS

You need a context for a character like a six-foot-tall talking Cat. The subur-ban neighborhood where the movie begins and the kids live needed a fantasy element—a believability within its own hyper-realistic world, but also a uniformity, so the children’s bore-dom when staring out the window would make sense. Before filming began, Welch guided production de-sign by describing the neighborhood on a scale of zero to ten, with zero being absolute reality and ten being absolute fantasy. At the beginning of the movie he was looking for it to be about four, toward the end he was looking for ten.

The filmmakers selected a rural valley

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near Simi Valley, California, where twenty-four houses were constructed. Reinforcing the symmetrical look, the houses all had four windows and were designed with the clean lines found in children’s drawings. Three streets encircling the houses were paved; fences were constructed for the backyards; and the surrounding area was hydro-seeded providing a lush, green appearance. The set took four months to build and once the houses were painted their distinctive lilac colour (with blue roofs), was visible from a freeway some distance away. Observant viewers will notice that everyone has the same house, curtains, front yard, trees (with ‘mullet’ tops) and foliage with only slight variation. Most large trees were eucalyptus trunks with artificial Seussian tops, while the shrubs and flowers were all real and maintained by the busy greens department.

Cars driven around the neighbour-hood are Ford Focuses painted to match the colour palette. Having the same model car was part of the phi-losophy (or the joke) that everything is repeated in the movie.

The production was shot on location in Simi Valley before moving to the city of Pomona and its antique district. In the oldest part of Pomona, the fa-cades of two blocks of antique shops became the town of Anville, which adjoins the suburbs where the movie begins. The facades were fitted with gigantic symbols of the items sold within the store (e.g. the ice cream parlour had an oversized styrofoam ice cream cone; a hammer and nails represented the hardware store).

The Pomona stores remained open during construction, on weekends and during non-shooting hours. With the publicity accompanying filming, the traders recorded their usual sales (and some even outperformed) their sales compared with the same time the previous year.

The interior of the Walden house was constructed on Stage 28 of the Universal Studios lot. Most of the furniture was supplied by leading furniture designer, artist and self-

taught architect Roy McMakin. Furnishings on the set are reminiscent of the 1930s and 1940s, with more of a 1950s kitchen.

ABOUT THE PROPS

Early in pre-production, Welch sketched something that was part car, part plane and part boat. It eventually became the S.L.O.W., the ‘Super Luxurious Omnidirectional Whatchamajigger’. The S.L.O.W. was custom built from the ground up and was electrically powered by a dozen 12-volt batteries. The fibreglass body had a sprayed aluminum finish, accented by African mahogany paneling that made it resemble a Chris-Craft speedboat from the 1940s. The shape of the S.L.O.W. (which could reach speeds up to 75 kph.) gave it a zeppelin-like appearance.

The S.L.O.W. was piloted blind by a driver hidden behind the front seat. The rear-view mirror was actually a camera connected to a monitor be-side the driver. Outside the S.L.O.W. another technician communicated with the driver by radio, advising him of objects outside the camera’s field of vision. The external technician also triggered various effects such as flames and smoke.

After the Cat and Things wreaked havoc they use the D.I.R.T. (Dynamic Industrial Renovating Tractormajig-ger) to clean the house. Unlike the S.L.O.W., the three-wheeled cleaning D.I.R.T.s were powered by motors from electronic wheelchairs and di-rected via remote control. Fabricated arms were inserted into nine recepta-cles in each machine with additional hands and arms supplied courtesy of the wizardry of Rhythm & Hues.

The Phunometer, the fun-measuring device used by the Cat, was comprised of hundreds of moving parts and was the result of more than two months of design work. Bellfx Design & Fabrication created the Phunometer’s dial to register varying stages of “fun” (e.g. Control Freak, Rule Breaker, Just Right). Fitting the idea that more is indeed more, it has a telescoping unit and is constructed with gold-plated aluminum. Like much

CHART 3

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Conrad wants to have fun

slides down stairs

creates mess and mayhem

requested not to make a mess by

mother

Sally wants to be

‘perfectly good’

Quinn tries to win over Joan

expects Conrad to receive

consequencesbalancing fun and

responsibility

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of Seuss, it is over-evolved, clunky, indiscreet—the opposite of today’s sleek, high-tech world.

Bellfx Design also created the Kupkake-inator. Like many other props, indirect and inefficient in its intended task, it’s a marvel of whimsy and like the D.I.R.T., was operated by remote control.

Many of the props and vehicles resemble the designs of Rube Goldberg (Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, sculptor and author whose ‘inventions’ created difficult ways to achieve easy results). According to director Bo Welch, the film is not too far from that thinker’s philosophy.

SOME FUN (FACTUAL, USABLE NUMBERS, FUN) ABOUT THE CAT IN THE HAT

The Google web site has a terrific function to help you perform all sorts of calculations. The Factual Us-able Numbers (FUN) below provide interesting information about the sets and props from The Cat in the Hat. However those that involve measure-

ments have not been provided using the metric system used in Australia.

Google FUN

Have some fun converting FUN using Google. For example, to convert the height of the chimneys listed below, type ‘52 feet to metres’ into Google search and Google will perform the calculation and arrive at 52 feet = 15.8496 meters. Keep an eye on the spelling used by Google (metres not meters)!

Create a class word bank of words you might need such as hectares, litres, metres, kilometers, kilograms. http://www.google.com.au/help/features.html#calculator

The Suburbs Around Anville (The Neighbourhood in Simi Valley, California)

o 24 houses and 22 garages built.o Height: 52’ to top of chimney. o Width and depth: 26’ x 26’ (not

including front and back porches). o 18 acres around the houses were

hydro-seeded and 220,000 sq. ft.

of sod was laid.o One mile of fence was built.o 7,000,000 gallons of water kept

the area green during building and shooting.

o 12 miles of pencil steel was used to help sculpt the Suessian trees and bushes in Simi and Pomona.

o 500 gallons of lilac paint was used for the houses.

Town Centre in Anville (Pomona, California)

o 24 storefronts were dressed with paint and styrofoam icons.

o 60,000 cubic feet of styrofoam was used to create the icons on the storefronts.

o The lollipop was 10 feet in diam-eter.

o The bride and groom were 14 feet tall.

o The hot dog was 26 feet long.o 600 gallons of paint were required

to redress the storefronts.

S.L.O.W.

o The S.L.O.W. measures 22 feet long by eight feet wide.

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o Weight: 3,500 lbs.o Built completely from scratch us-

ing one great plan.o Can drive as fast as 47 mph.o The wood is African mahogany

(okay, no number there, but cool anyway).

o One propane tank in the rear cre-ates the flames.

o One driver sits behind the front seat and drives by looking at a monitor (that’s hooked up to a camera disguised as the rear-view mirror).

o The driver is connected by radio to a partner outside the car, who controls flames, smoke and gears via remote control.

Cat Suit and Makeup

o Three Cat suits were made out of angora/human hair.

o Each weighed three pounds. o Tail and ear movements courtesy

of one battery pack (in the suit over Myers’ stomach).

o It took Myers two-and-a-half hours to get made up, 10 minutes to get into the Cat suit, and 15 minutes to remove the makeup.

CREATING A TALKING CAT IN A HAT

Special makeup effects artist Steve Johnson and his company, Edge FX helped create this amazing Cat. After many prototypes, the final Cat suit was made from angora and human hair, weighing less than one and a half kilograms. But there’s more to a Cat than its skin, and Myers found himself wearing padding, a metal plate on his head (to hold the infamous red-and-white-striped hat in place via magnets) and assorted battery packs inside the suit to power the remote controlled tail and ears.

‘I had more stuff in different parts of my body than I care to talk about pub-licly,’ he jokes. ‘My ears were remote control, my tail was remote control—I don’t know how they did it. I really felt that NASA was probably involved somehow.’

As some filming took place in exterior location shots (where the tempera-ture was often more than 30 degrees Celsius), the suit was designed with a port for a hose from a portable air-conditioning unit. On particularly

oppressive days, an additional cooling device—a vest containing circulating cold water—was also worn by Myers … to keep a cool Cat really cool!

Cool Cat inventions

Create some other inventions to keep the Cat ‘cool’. You may define the word ‘cool’ as either the opposite of hot or to do with the Cat’s style!

Several ideas for the Cat’s makeup were tried before selecting the final design. Johnson remembers,

In filmmaking, everything is an extremely collaborative process. Designs get changed until the right one is found. We first tried some very realistic approaches to the Cat’s face, including electrostatically flocking the face, attaching short hairs all over it—it was very soft and very cat-like. But Bo ultimately wanted something very graphic, the body slightly characterized and black and white lines on the face. In the end, we found a design that worked and really fit with the overall Seuss-inspired designs. I mean, the best thing about the Cat’s face is that

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it’s Mike Myers, who really is a man of a thousand faces. Our designs got smaller and thinner, something that best suited Mike’s face when he performed. Now the Cat’s become another one of his great characters, a blending of performer and look, not just a rubber mask applied to an actor.

The appliance that covered Myers’ nose was made of foam latex and was glued to his face, as were blender pieces (incorporating the hair used on the Cat suit) to help meld the makeup into the suit and blend the Cat’s face in with his body.

Filmmakers and crew were able to transform Seuss’ illustrations into the filmic Cat, using a three-dimensional suit and makeup, with one exception. Johnson observes, ‘One thing that was impossible to achieve was the long neck on a human as Seuss drew the Cat. But all of us were very happy with the final look. It recalls the book character and allows Mike to also shine through.’

Do you like my hat?

The object so central to the Cat—his hat, the source of his amazing reper-toire of tricks and astounding feats—also needed plenty of pre-production time as the filmmakers worked to create not only the Cat’s basic, all-purpose, everyday hat, but the myriad of other hats. While the basic hat was the primary creation of costume de-signer Rita Ryack, the specialty hats that transformed into more than a hat, including a CD player hat, a periscope hat, a hat that held tennis balls and a microphone hat, all fell under the domain of the prop makers. To keep the hat on the costume, powerful magnets were sewn into the hat that attached themselves to the metal skull plate under Myers’ costume.

Design some more way out multi-purpose, wacky but useful hats for The Cat in the Hat. Incorporate magnets into your hats that have some purpose other than holding it on the Cat’s head. Choose one of your designs and construct the hat. Hold a

hat parade and invite another class to vote for the most creative hat.

SOMETHING FISHY

Apart from the Cat, Sally, Conrad and their mum (or rather, her legs), Seuss created only three more characters within the pages of The Cat in the Hat: one nervous, talking Fish and Thing 1 and Thing 2. Casting for the Things created some challenges (more below), but for a talking Fish the filmmakers needed animation and visual effects.

Rhythm & Hues (an animation and visual effects company) created the Fish. This unique character has no shoulders, no hips and doesn’t walk, so the performance had to come from the eyes, head and fin. Rhythm & Hues also assisted in creating the Cat’s astounding juggling scene and the vortex that emerges from the Things’ red crate.

CATTY CHARACTERS

And then, there’s the character at

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the centre of it all—Seuss’ original creation, part furry Mary Poppins, part Willy Wonka, one hundred per cent Seuss … the Cat in the Hat. At first enchanted and entranced by the Cat, Conrad and Sally are drawn in by his exuberance—their day, all of a sud-den, doesn’t look so boring (even the rain stops and the sun begins shining). But things (and Things) soon get out of control, the house is wrecked, Nev-ins the dog runs off and Quinn begins sniffing (and sneezing) around, certain that this time, he will catch Conrad out and will finally win Joan over.

Surely there’s a lesson to be learned somewhere in all this …

One of Myers’ talents is his ability to play a myriad of characters. In the film the screenplay calls upon him to not only play the central character, but to play various character spin-offs. While the design of the Cat focuses on signature colours of black, red and white, Myers’ other characters draw upon colours across the spectrum to highlight their action. The combination

of these characters and the use of colours are great devices to help Sally and Conrad (and the viewers) tune in to the messages of the story on their paths to understanding themselves, each other and some lessons about fun!

That’s impossible!

Discuss the messages students can recall during scenes involving extra ‘Cat’ characters including ‘Carmen Miranda’, a bull fighter, a civil protestor, a crazy infomercial chef and his ridiculous sidekick (the one in the awful jumper who asks all the obvious questions).

Asked why the Cat becomes these different characters, Myers responds,

In traditional mythology, a catalyst character that comes along to wreak havoc on the hero—or, in this case, two little heroes—will often change his shape in order to confuse or disorient the hero into crossing the threshold from the known world into the unknown. That is the long answer.

The short answer is it was fun to wear different costumes.

What thresholds did the two little he-roes (Sally and Conrad) cross? What did they learn in this process?

MESSAGES AND THEMES

The message behind planned chaos

‘The genius of Seuss,’ comments Welch, ‘was that his stories al-ways had a message but they were wrapped in magic and comedy, which gave them an ‘anything goes’ qual-ity—enough of a balance where a talking cat seems natural.’

The mayhem and chaos of The Cat In The Hat is chaos with intent, since the lesson Conrad and Sally learn is one their mother has been reiterating until she is (practically and proverbi-ally) blue in the face.

So, while the Cat causes a great deal of chaos, ultimately, you realize that

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he created chaos with a purpose—to restore this family.

Discuss the lesson the children’s mother wants them to learn. How do the actions of the Cat help the chil-dren to make some discoveries about it being OK to have fun—but you have to know how.

Family roles and responsibilities

In the book, the mother is no more than a leg as she enters the door at the end of the kids’ adventure. Often, the ‘mum’ of a movie’s central child blends into the background—but when The Cat in the Hat became a movie, the mum became Joan Wal-den, caring single parent trying hard to raise her family well.

Compare the mum in the book and the film. In what ways are they similar and different? What are the character-istics of each of these mums? What roles do they have in their families and how do they manage their responsi-bilities? What messages does this film give about mothers and also about

being a responsible family member?

Fun today

Work in small groups to list all the things you can do to have responsible fun in

a) your houseb) your gardenc) a playground

Share your lists as a class.

Imagine there is a power failure, review the lists and blu-tac a strip of paper over all the things on your lists that require electricity. Display lists in the classroom.

Fun in the past

Choose three things from the lists displayed in the classroom that do not require electricity that would be the most fun for you. Paint a picture showing you doing one or two of those things and write a sentence to accompany your painting explaining why it would be fun.

Interview someone who was growing up in the 1950s, when The Cat in the Hat was written, to find out what sort of fun kids had in this era. Take turns to share what you have discovered with the class. Make a list of games, toys and activities played in the 1950s.

Organize a Playtime in the Past Day at school and invite grandparents and other older community members along to teach you to play games from their childhood such as Jacks and skipping games.

ABOUT THE BOOK AND THE AUTHOR

First published in 1957, The Cat in the Hat is one of the most well-loved children’s books ever written and remains in the top ten best-selling hardcover children’s books. In an unusual co-venture for the time, publishing houses Houghton Mifflin and Random House commissioned Theodor S. Geisel (Dr Seuss) to create a ‘reader’ for children using a vocabulary of 220 basic words; Houghton Mifflin intended the book for classroom use, while Random House 14 15

was interested in the home market. Although schools were reluctant to adopt the book, The Cat in the Hat took off with families and Geisel became firmly established as a key children’s book author and illustrator.

Born Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1904, Geisel signed his early drawings ‘Dr Theophrastus Seuss’ to give them a scientific air. Later, this became Dr Seuss (his mother’s maiden name) with his first book, And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1937.

His forty-four clever books includ-ing Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hatches the Egg and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! capture the spirit of modern living, mirroring our strengths, weakness, desires and fears while subtly providing important and enter-taining morals for children and adults.

Dr Seuss was granted doctorates in literature and fine arts by seven uni-versities and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. Although he died in 1991, he continues to be the world’s best-selling children’s author, having sold over 250 million books.14 15

For parents

Today’s children live in a dynamic, highly interactive world of multimedia. Most days they are exposed to vast quantities of information and ideas with messages and value systems that frequently challenge those of their fam-ily. It is not surprising that, like previous generations, children turn to popular culture to help them make sense of their place in school and the wider world. For this reason it is important that, to some extent, we too engage with the literature, the films, the games and the music of their world.

Our engagement may involve shared activities or simple conversations with our children. Such interactions can help us to guide the thoughts and decisions made by our children and the values that will remain with them throughout their lives.

The Cat in the Hat is an irreverent romp through the lounge rooms of today, where, despite CD and DVD players, computers, cable TV, video

games and all types of electronic media the kids of today, just like we did, still complain they are bored! The film through its madcap mayhem and somewhat risque humour uses the main image of Geisel (Dr Seuss)—the Cat balancing on a ball, with a rake and a cake, the Fish, an umbrella and all the rest of that stuff—to present what Myers sees as the main message—the importance of getting everything in balance.

This study guide was written for ATOM by Christine Evely, Education Programmer, ACMI. For more information about ATOM study guides, The Speakers’ Bureau or ScreenHub (the daily online film and television newsletter) visit our web site: www.metromagazine.com.au or email: damned@netspace.net.au

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