Meet the Cat in the Hat you don’t know!
In the wonderfully whimsical tradition of Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat comes to the big screen in his animated theatrical feature film debut – an all-new, epic adventure with an edge, where mischief, magic and mayhem reign supreme.
Doing what he does best, the Cat (voiced by Bill Hader) spreads joy to kids in his hilarious, signature and singularly irreverent way, transporting them and audiences on a fantastical journey through a world they’ve never seen before. In the film, our hero takes on his toughest assignment yet for the I.I.I.I. (Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC): to cheer Gabby (Xochitl Gomez) and Sebastian (Tiago Martinez), a pair of siblings struggling with their move to a new town. Known for taking things too far, this could be this agent of chaos’s last chance to prove himself…or lose his magical hat!
As the trailer for The Cat in the Hat releases, Peter Gray was invited to a global launch to preview the teaser alongside Warner Bros. Pictures Animation head Bill Damaschke, The Cat in the Hat directors Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni, and the Cat himself, Bill Hader, to hear them discuss the making of their film, modernizing their story for a new audience whilst keeping the heart of the original, and just how exactly Hader manifested this role through his work on SNL.
A new era of re-imagined Warner Bros. Pictures Animation is being introduced. Bill, I’d love for you to talk about your fundamental guiding principles and what it means to you to be debuting The Cat in the Hat as the very first theatrical feature for the studio.
Bill Damaschke: Animation has always been a cornerstone of Warner Bros., but in this next chapter, called Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, we’re really kind of doubling down on that commitment to original stories, as well as really innovative takes on some of our beloved characters and worlds. For The Cat in the Hat to be our first film just seems like the perfect project, because it’s all those things at the same time. It’s a completely original take on a character that, I think, a lot of people have a connection to, but as handled and brought to life by our filmmakers and a very singular actor who plays the cat. It just comes out in a way that’s bigger, better, more amazing and more whimsical than you could ever imagine.
I think The Cat in the Hat, as a property, is really emblematic of all those things. It’s zany, but it’s a classic.
Bill Damaschke: Everyone loves The Cat in the Hat, and everyone has a character like The Cat in the Hat in their own lives. That was the bigg opportunity to go far beyond the book and create something that was truly a big cinematic adventure. I’d love to introduce you to the filmmakers, because they’re going to tell you the real stuff about it, and it’s been a joy for me, because I’ve been able to reunite with two creators who I’ve worked on and off with for over 20 years! Our writing, directing team is Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni, and they’re going to take you through everything. And we have someone so singular, the only person you could ever imagine to be The Cat in the Hat. Bill Hader.
The Cat in the Hat is such a classic figure and story. How did you both keep the heart of the original, whilst modernizing the movie for a new audience?
Erica Rivinoja: Look, The Cat in the Hat is a very beloved character. He’s classic and iconic, and everyone has a relationship to him, because he’s really this sort of wish fulfillment character. We call him “the agent of chaos”, and it’s just sort of what every kid loves and wants, to have this day of craziness and chaos. We really tried to bring in what people love about the original book, which is that a cat shows up and everybody goes crazy and has fun.
Alessandro Carloni: Yeah, and then we kind of used the book as more of a jumping point for us. In the sense that the book became a question for us, which is, “Is this cat really just out there to have a good time for himself and making a mess, or is there more to it?” We look at the book and realise at the end that the kid seems to be a little more confident in himself. Could it be that a cat is actually the greatest child psychologist? So, we basically use the book as our starting point. That’s how our movie starts, and then it becomes an expansion on that adventure. We decided to follow him at the end of the book to find out where he goes, and we discover the truth that it’s his job.
We’ve seen the Cat in the Hat as a character before, but this is the first time seeing him in an animated feature. Dr. Seuss comes with such an iconic visual style and it’s been translated here in a really unique way. You both have history in animation. What do you think makes storytelling and animation unique?
Alessandro Carloni: Much like in live action, we have amazing performers creating the characters with us. But then it becomes about, truly, anything can be created from scratch. Everything is open for us to imagine. What could it look like? You get a lot of stuff for free, in a way. You shoot something, there’s a tree in the background, you get that tree for free, because it’s there. You have to build a tree and shape each leaf and building everything in the world, which means that you can do anything you want.
And that’s why we end up creating movies like the one we have created, which we’re so excited about, where we can actually get to explore fantastical, incredible worlds that we’ve never seen before. The unique thing about this book that Erica and I took advantage of, is that it’s the only Seuss book where a Seussian, magical, whimsical character enters the real world to meet children. So we decided to try and embrace that and enhance that, so every time the cat enters from his world into the real world, we created entirely different looks of pictures. Entirely different aesthetics. Entirely different animation styles. So our world in the movie is based on many, many different worlds and aesthetics.
Bill, you’ve portrayed the Cat in the Hat on Saturday Night Live, and you spoke at CinemaCon about actively chasing this film. What is it about the character and his fun-seeking, living-in-the-present, anything-can-happen whirlwind of a presence that appeals to you so strongly?
Bill Hader: The SNL thing, they didn’t write that because I love Cat in the Hat. It was more they think the writers were going through an issue in their marriage, and they decided to use the Cat in the Hat as a way of indirectly commenting to their spouse at home. I think that was what was happening. They find the tools as a sketch writer. Like everybody, I remember reading that book as a kid, and then reading it to my kids. I worked with these guys before on different projects, and I’ve known them forever. So the combination of these two and the chance to play such an iconic character was, you know, I did chase it.
Did you channel any of the skills you gained from SNL for this role?
Bill Hader: Well, yeah. Maybe a little. They were so loose with this incredibly funny script they wrote, and sometimes you do these things and you’re like, “Oh, man, I really gotta improvise a lot and try to make it work somehow.” But this was not like that. The script was so insanely funny. And on top of that, they said I could try stuff. So there were some little improvs here and there. Some of them (worked), some of them didn’t. I would improvise sometimes, and you could see them go, “Let’s do another one”, or “Let’s do one as written.” You try a lot of things, but they’re very good at communicating at what the scene is and here’s the emotion of it, and here’s what we need to try and convey. As far as SNL? I guess that taking of material and then improvising on top of it…you know, maybe.
Obviously one of the things noticed in the trailer is the Cat in the Hat’s job. There’s this industry of rhyming animals and objects. Like, we have the Yak with the Pack. Are there lots of different characters there? Is there anything else we should know about this world of characters?
Alessandro Carloni: The thing is that as we follow the cat at the end of the book and we discover that entertaining children and sad kids on rainy days is the easiest job. There’s a whole corporation, basically an institution, that created this. We know there’s Cat in the Hat, but we meet Pig in a Wig, Yak with a Pack, Ox in a Box, Owl in a Towel, Goat in a coat, Bug in a Mug. And this one called Right in a Bat, and you know when you complain about the fact that, “Oh, my God, Cat in the Hat makes such a mess, but you don’t want to get right with a bat.” And there’s Sherri from HR, who is (voiced) by Quinta Brunson.
Bill Hader: She’s really funny.
Erica Rivinoja: She’s hilarious. And getting to see Bill and Quinta in the room together was just like…comedy icons.
There really is a fantastic voice cast assembled here.
Bill Hader: Yeah, we have Berry. One of my idols, Matt Berry. Paula Pell. I worked with Paula on SNL. She’s unbelievable. So funny. So hilarious. Bowen Yang. Unbelievable.
Was most of the recording done all together? Were you able to be in the studio together?
Alessandro Carloni: It’s a rare thing. The thing with animation is that you don’t get to book your actors all at the same time. But we still insisted on wanting Bill and his character to play against something, so Xochitl Gomez, who plays Gabby, and she’s such a breath of fresh air when she comes into the room, watching her come in, and watching Quinta come in, it was this master scene come to life.
Did exploring the physicality of the Cat in the Hat help you find layers to your vocal performance?
Bill Hader: I don’t know…they were shooting me for some of my stuff. I don’t know if they used any (of it).
Erica Rivinoja: Yeah, we did. We shoot something called Lipstick Cam, which is where we have the actors performances recorded, just because it makes it so much easier for the animators, especially doing lip sync and to get expressions. We used a lot of Bill’s physicality for that.
Alessandro Carloni: It’s interesting, because if there’s a slight difference between direct and live action, animation is also a little bit of that once the performers have created the role in a booth. How do you then transform into a character running or jumping or doing something? I think the reason why people call us in animation “industry nerds” is because we have to become hyper focus with minutia, and understanding what does it mean to perform something with your elbow close to your ribcage, as opposed to open or leaning forward. You find yourself hyper analyzing everything because you have to recreate the mannerism of a character.
Bill is in the booth performing something, and his face gives you so much information, but it’s not like can run around on set, so if you have to translate that, it becomes quite a task to know exactly what are the mannerisms of this character. How does it do something magical or supernatural? That kind of translation becomes where a lot of the job is in animation for the animator specifically. To truly understand the mannerism and physical language of a character.
And one of the things about The Cat in the Hat is that it has this sense of humour that resonates with adults and children. It’s always been a little bit tongue-in-cheek. Dr. Seuss wrote political cartoons too. He was a very smart guy. That humour is universal, but it also taps into something really specific. The teaser trailer feels like we’re getting a bit of that humour too, something that’s really accessible to everyone. What was it like crafting the comedic tone for this? And how much were there outside references that you wanted to lean into?
Erica Rivinoja: I think the important for (Alessandro) and I was definitely (that) we wanted to make ourselves laugh with it. We have long histories in comedy, and I think a lot of people can think, “Oh, it’s for children, so you have to talk down and make it not sophisticated and smart.” But we wanted to make it really, really fun for literally the whole family. There’s some sneaky stuff in there for adults. There’s some really funny physical humour for everyone. There’s a lot of very classy fart jokes in it. I’m not above a fart joke (laughs).
Bill Hader: Let’s be honest, when we were recording, everyone was laughing.
The Cat in the Hat is scheduled to release across global theatres from February 25th, 2026.
