8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Read the real thing instead!, November 14, 2003
This review is from: The Cat in the Hat Movie Storybook (Hardcover)
This book was awful! Awful, awful, awful! No melody, no rhymes, non of the Seuss magic. I know that Ms. Fontes is not Dr. Seuss, but still. There has to be a better way to get the movie information to the kid. My daughter received this as a gift yesterday (along with the Cat, Thing One and Thing Two - who were quite cute). Both my husband and I read it to her but it was painful. Clumsy, stumbling verbage - much like my review! But hey, no one is paying me for this! The original Cat in the Hat is a joy to read - try that one instead. Sorry Justine...
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not a classic, December 6, 2003
This review is from: The Cat in the Hat Movie Storybook (Hardcover)
"The Cat in the Hat" is a classic. The movie, with its sexual overtones, is like trying to sell me a "paint by numbers" copy of the Mona Lisa and telling me it is just as good. Instead of supplying the images of the characters, why can't we just leave the kids alone to use their imagination?
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
So, Everybody Wants to Be a Cat...., December 5, 2003
This review is from: The Cat in the Hat Movie Storybook (Hardcover)
First, the disclaimer: I am an admirer of Dr. Seuss. Therefore, I expect anything that bears the great Theodor Seuss Geisel's name to be of high quality. The original cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the one narrated by Boris Karloff, is an example. The recent movies, The Grinch and Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat, are not. The unfortunate authors of this book were building on a movie that in itself is a travesty; they should not have undertaken this most unfortunate project.
My daughter wanted to read the book, and I would rather she read a book than watch TV, even if the quality of the former mirrors the lack of that of the latter. First, this book bears little resemblance to The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back; even the few quoted lines of Dr. Seuss's poetry seem stilted and out of place. The characters, nearly every one of them, are highly dislikable; like this retelling, they offer barely a redeeming quality. The story is told from the point of view of Conrad, the boy who with his sister, Sally, is stuck in the house on a dull, rainy day. Conrad could have written the story himself - the narration is pretentious and trite. While the original books were written more than four decades ago, their stories could have taken place yesterday. In this latest incarnation, the book's references to wide-screen TVs, Game Boys, and the like will seem laughingly out of date a mere five years from now!
The purveyors of the crass commercialization of Dr. Seuss's good name should be ashamed of themselves. I recommend readers to stick with magic of Dr. Seuss's poetry, which has inspired generations of people of all ages. This truly is a book you can put down.
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