Happy Toot Fart Day (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot)
Starring: Bill Hader, Matt Berry, Xochitl Gomez, Quinta Brunson, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Tiago Martinez, Bowen Yang, Paul Pell, Tituss Burgess
Directors: Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rating: PG for Surprisingly Frightening Action and Some Cheeky Dialogue
Release Date: November 6, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: That irrepressible fancy feline is back on the job, but this time he’s on the thinnest of ice! That’s right, the Cat in the Hat (voiced by Bill Hader) is quite the notorious employee at the Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration. He can brighten up childrens’ days like nobody else, but his reputation for leaving behind a mess is even more off the charts. So his boss, the two-dimensional Mr. Hoogeboom (Giancarlo Esposito), gives him one last assignment to save his job. His clients are Gabby (Xochitl Gomez) and her younger brother Sebastian (Tiago Martinez), who are reeling from the disruption of moving into a new apartment after their mom Carmen (America Ferrera) got a new nursing job. Gabby would like nothing more than to just go back to their old life, so she gets pretty excited when she discovers that the Cat has brought along a time-manipulating device called the Go-Backer. But abusing the Go-Backer could rip apart the entire fabric of reality, as could a looming dark entity from the Cat’s past.
What Made an Impression?: The Seuss is Loose: While The Cat in the Hat is certainly one of Dr. Suess’ most famous children’s books, it doesn’t have much of a plot beyond “anthropomorphic kitty and kids have a silly day of messy fun.” So any feature-length adaptation can quite reasonably expand on those bare bones. But I certainly wasn’t expecting such a deranged end product that had me doing, “What in the Multiverse of MacGuffins?” It also gets quite dark in a way that had me legitimately worried we were heading in a much deadlier direction. I guess the target audience is people whose emotional age is simultaneously 5, 13, and 65.
Would Aesop Be Proud?: Before we meet Gabby and Sebastian, The Cat commences this cinematic adventure by making his way into a dour, gray house populated by a couple of seemingly paralyzed kids staring slack-jawed at their screens. It looks like the message of this adaptation is going to be a warning about the pitfalls of modern technology as fun-sucking devices. But then that idea isn’t really present in the rest of the movie at all. Honestly, I have no idea what the intended message is supposed to be. Something about friendship? Some worthwhile lessons might be lurking if you keep out an eagle eye, but The Cat can be credited for them only insofar as he chaotically stumbles into them.
Please Make Me Laugh: You know how movies ostensibly made for kids often feature jokes that only adults are going to get? There’s some of that in Cat in the Hat, particularly when the Cat asks his colleague Sherri (Quinta Brunson) if her dad went on long business trips when she realizes that she might have secret siblings. But those moments are few and far between. At least Matt Berry voices a mildly annoyed goldfish. That was fairly amusing.
The Cat in the Hat (2026) is Recommended If You Like: Tapping your cheeks to make sounds, The cardboard box industry, Unreasonable behavior
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Messes
