Confessions of a Streamaholic

This movie is a childhood favourite of mine, I have watched it too many times to count, in the house when I fancy a easy watch or even on a long haul flight (not ashamed I was 25 watching this in public). I feel like every time I watch this I pick up something new that only an adult would understand, goes straight over the kids heads, which is similar to Shrek it has innuendos within it too. Some of the lines are iconic and have been seen as memes all over the internet.

The first thing I notice about this movie rewatching and why I think it appeals to children so much is the colour palette lots of Green, Pink, Yellow, Purple and Orange. These colours are fun and vibrant applying these to the set design makes for a very inviting environment, a world I would have been happy to live in as a child, even with the ending of the Mother of all Messes. The contrast when The Cat and Thing 1 & 2 are introduced with completely opposing colours of Red, White, Black and Blue, I think highlights how they are from some where completely different.

The narration throughout the movie I love, trying to rhyme what they say sometimes and in the end you find out it’s been The Cat the whole time. Also, a big fan of Thing 1 & Thing 2 (went as them for Halloween one year, perks of being a short queen), they give me Sims vibes with how they speak. I’m still not a fan of the Lawrence/Larry Quinn (Alec Baldwin) character I’m glad to know that as an adult he is still the villain.

The camera angles in this film I really appreciate, lots of long or movie shots, the angle where it goes through the keyhole in there front door is amazing don’t think I’ve ever seen that done before. The Cat addressing the camera I always thought was very clever, usually with a funny comment. For a children’s film I really liked the music especially ‘Getting Better’ by Smash Mouth and ‘Easy’ by Lionel Ritchie when The Cat is in a dream state after getting hit by a bat. The performance of Fun Fun Fun is hands down my favourite part of the film (apart from them using Mrs Kwan as a rollercoaster) the fruit costume and the lactose intolerant part just always makes me laugh.

I don’t think I’ve managed to write down all the funny moments from this film but a few I love is ‘FIREEEEEEEEEED’ has been used as a meme but his cleanliness with the hand sanitiser after is just hilarious. The cupcake scene along with The Cat cutting his tail, them driving altogether and the distraction to get Nevin’s back. So many fun things they pack into such a short movie, these scenes helped to hold my attention to this as a kid.

The cast is also star studded Mike Myers as The Cat, Dakota Fanning as Sally, Spencer Breslin as Conrad Kelly Preston as Joan Waldon and Alec Baldwin as Lawrence (Larry) Quinn. As a kid I wouldn’t have any idea what these actors had been in or could have predicated how successfully they are/would become. Mike Myers, known for being Shrek, Austin Powers and Wayne’s World, involved in such amazing comedy projects. Spencer Breslin is also in another one of my favourite kids Christmas movies with The Santa Clause 2 & 3. Dakota Fanning has went on to have an exceptional career its weird to see her in a film as an adult when I’m so used to seeing her as a child actor. Paris Hilton pops up in a random scene as well didn’t realise it was her until I rewatched it a while ago.

As I mentioned earlier there is a lot you pick up in this film as an adult which you wouldn’t have when you are younger. A few examples of this is on the phunometer it says ‘serial arsonist’ didn’t understand this as a child but clocked it watching it this time around. During the contract scene The Cat flips a page and there is a neutered certificate, this would have went over my head before but I get it now. In the garden when they are chasing down Nevin’s the Cat steps on a garden hoe calls it something drops it down then picks it back up and apologies to it, hopefully you can read between the lines and get what I understand on this one as an adult. The last one I picked up on was the previous abbreviation for the car as it spells out a bad word associated with going to the toilet.

Overall, I love this film it will always be a staple to my childhood and because its such an easy watch I find myself coming back to it when I fancy some nostalgia. I don’t have a bad thing to say about this film and will be something I’ll be happy to watch time and time again when I have kids but not ashamed to watch it as an adult with no kids.