NEED TO KNOW
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The Cat in the Hat, an animated film starring Bill Hader, will be released on Feb. 27, 2026
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Audrey Stone Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, was highly critical of 2003’s live-action version of The Cat in the Hat
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At that time, Geisel proclaimed that her late husband’s works would never again be adapted into live-action films
The Cat is back where he belongs: in animation.
On Tuesday, the new trailer dropped for next year’s animated film The Cat in the Hat. Starring Bill Hader, the movie introduces new characters into Dr. Seuss’s world via different styles of animation, and “the cat has been reimagined in a way that’s hilarious and unlike anything you’ve seen before,” the film’s star shared in a teaser.
For Audrey Stone Geisel, the widow of Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, the new adaptation of the film based on the classic 1957 children’s book of the same name would have been a welcome one, as she was less than pleased with 2003’s live-action The Cat in the Hat movie starring Mike Myers, implying that Universal Pictures insisted that the Canadian comedian play the role.
“I never saw Austin Powers, but I knew ‘Yeah, baby!’ ” she once told Today, referring to Myers’ famed dialogue from Austin Powers, “and I didn’t want ‘Yeah, baby!’ at all.”
Kevin Winter/Getty
Audrey Geisel in 2008
The movie starring Myers was widely panned by critics and audiences, with many opining that the cat character came off as creepy. The movie’s failure hit particularly hard because the character is the business’s “spokescat,” Geisel once said, later proclaiming that her husband’s works would never again be adapted into live-action films.
“The layers of skin … have to get tougher,” she added. “And you’ve got to be able to say, ‘I’ve got my cat back out of the litter box. It’s no big deal.’ And we march on.”
Geisel died 2018, 27 years after her iconic husband died of cancer in 1991.
“ ‘I’ve had a wonderful life,’ ” Geisel recalled her husband saying near the end of his life. “ ‘I’ve done what I had to do. I lived where I wished to live. I had love. I had everything. But … now my work will be turned over to you. And you will have to deal with those consequences.’ ”
“And oh-ho,” the heiress of the Seuss world said, “has that been true!”
Following Theodor’s death, his wife became fiercely protective of the Seuss brand and created Dr. Seuss Enterprises in 1993. She served as the president and CEO of the company until her death.
While the Seuss world is incredibly imaginative, playful and youthful — and a large segment of its fans are children — Theodor wasn’t exactly fond of children, fearing their unpredictability. (He didn’t have children of his own, though Audrey had two from a previous relationship.)
“He was afraid of children to a degree,” Audrey told Today in that 2004 interview. “What might they do next? What might they ask next?”
She added of the Seuss creator, “No, he couldn’t just sit down on the floor and play with children. It was none of that. He just had to do what he had to do, and they loved him. And he loved them for loving what he did.”
The Cat in the Hat is in theaters Feb. 27, 2026.
Read the original article on People
