Plot
At the town of Anville, Hank Humberfloob is planning to have a party hosted by his worker Joan Walden's house. He warned her that if her house is messed up because of her children Conrad and Sally, she would be fired. At the house, Conrad likes causing trouble while Sally likes enforcing the rules. Their shady neighbor Larry Quinn wanted Conrad to go to military school for all the trouble Conrad does. Since Joan is working, she hires a babysitter named Mrs. Kwan to take care of the kids. As Mrs. Kwan falls asleep, a giant black cat wearing a red and white arrives to the house. The Cat wanted to have some fun inside the house. The Cat figures out that Sally is a "control freak" and Conrad is a "rule breaker". Conrad and Sally's talking pet fish doesn't like the Cat and wanted the Cat to be out of the house. The Cat does a musical number about being fun, cheering the kids up. The Cat wanted to leave but the kids wanted him to stay for the day. The Cat let them sign a contract so they'll have tons of fun. The Cat makes some purple cupcakes with the Kupkakeinator and accidentally cut his tail off like an informercial. The oven opens up with the splatter from the cupcake frosting making a mess in the kitchen. The Cat finds Joan Walden's dress and tries cleaning the mess up with it. The Cat decided to help the kids remove the mess by bringing in a red crate that contains Thing 1 and Thing 2. As the crate opened and the Things were released, Conrad wanted to take a look at the crate. The Cat only has one rule and it's never opening the crate. So, the Cat put a crab lock on it so it would stay closed. The Things took Joan's dress and spread the purple frosting all over the house and destroying plates in the process. Conrad unlocked the crate, with the crab locking getting caught on the Waldens' dog Nevins' leash. The Things do the exact opposite of what others say and because of this, they didn't listen to the children. They grabbed Nevins and let him out the house. Since the crate was unlocked, a mother of all messes is getting ready to be unleashed in the house. At the street, Larry Quinn found Nevins and kept him in his car. The Cat shows the children his vehicle called the Super Luxurious Omnidirectional Whatachamajigger or S.L.O.W. so that the three of them including the Fish could rescue Nevins and get the lock. The S.L.O.W. crashed in the middle of the city. The Cat posed as an animal advocate so he can take Nevins from Larry. Larry chased the kids and the Cat to an underground rave party. The Cat lost his hat and found another one. At a corner of the city, the Cat thinks that the extra hat has none of the features of his old hat. Conrad decides to tell the Things to not help them and not stop Larry, to which the Things got Larry's car. The four of them and Larry went back in the house and became a mother of all messes: a merging of the Cat's world and the real world. They decided to ride on Mrs. Kwan to put the lock back on the crate. As the crate is sealed, the house is destroyed with Larry covered in purple goo. The Cat admitted that he planned the whole day, with the exception of him cutting his tail. The kids realized that they had too much fun with the Cat and wanted him out the ruined house. The Cat returned to the house and notes that in his contract since Conrad turned things around, the Cat and the Things helped clean up the entire house. The Cat and the Things left the house as Joan returned. Larry came in and tried to convince her that the house was ruined. Larry got evicted for being unclean and Joan started hosting her party with Mr. Humberfloob.
Production
Tim Allen was supposed to play the Cat, but dropped out to do The Santa Clause 2 (2002). The writers shoehorned in plenty of adult humor because the executives thought that the Ron Howard Grinch film succeeded because of it. Audrey Geisel was so appalled by the mature humor that she prevented future live-action films of Dr. Seuss being made. Director Bo Welch and Mike Myers decided to do the film as an agreement with Universal Pictures after a film adaptation of Saturday Night Live's Sprockets was scrapped.
Reception
The film was a financial flop and got plenty of bad reviews. Many didn't like how adult-oriented the humor was and that some critics thought that the film would have been rated PG-13 or R instead of PG. Many critics unfavorably compared Mike Myers' performance as the Cat to Jim Carrey's performance as the Grinch, which the latter was more well-received. Some felt that the makeup for the Cat and the Things were uncanny and unsettling. It is considered one of the worst films based on a children's book. As a result, Audrey Geisel cancelled a planned sequel to the film. By the late 2010s, the film became a source of internet memes because of how funny the film is despite being a bad Dr. Seuss adaptation. It even helps that the writers who shoehorned the adult humor also wrote the more well-received EuroTrip (2004) as well as several episodes of Seinfeld (1989-1998).
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