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The Cat in the Hat

Score Composed and Conducted by:
David Newman
Score Orchestrated by:
Greg Jamrok
Andrew Kinney
Songs Composed by:
Marc Shaiman


Label:
Decca/Universal
Release Date:
November 18th, 2003


Also See:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas


Audio Clips:

1. Main Title (0:30), 150K cat_hat1.ra

4. Two Things (0:27), 135K cat_hat4.ra

8. Fun, Fun, Fun (0:31), 156K cat_hat8.ra

15. Rescuing Nevens (0:30), 150K cat_hat15.ra



Availability:

  Regular U.S. release.


Awards:

  None.









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The Cat in the Hat

Audio | Availability | Viewer Ratings | Tracks | Viewer Comments | Notes & Quotes
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  Our Price: $18.98
  Used Price: $0.89

  Sales Rank: 151898

  Avg. Rating: 2.50

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Filmtracks Recommends:

Buy it... only if you enjoy the fast-paced, slapstick nature of David Newman's usual children's score writing, or if you seek the musical numbers from the film.

Avoid it... if the highly repetitive orchestral writing for this genre becomes redundant given that this score has no truly unique instrumentation or thematic development.



Filmtracks Editorial Review:

Newman
Shaiman
The Cat in the Hat: (David Newman/Marc Shaiman) After the success of Universal's film adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the studio added Seuss-related attractions to its theme parks and promised a series of live action films that would bring Theodor Seuss Geisel's children's fantasy books to life. The second such adaptation is The Cat in the Hat, the 1957 story about a mischievous feline in a hat visiting two bored kids home alone on a rainy day. The book remains one of the top selling hardcover children's books of all time, and yet, anyone familiar with the story of The Cat in the Hat could easily wonder how the short story could occupy an entire film. Leave it up to studios to "flesh" out these stories however, and much liberty has been taken in expanding the scope and characters of the story. With Mike Myers acting in the same general make-up that the Grinch wore in the previous film, The Cat in the Hat has a sort of Tim Burton splash of coloration and wacky set design. For the music for this rainy day adventure, children's film veteran David Newman writes a score opposite a few song contributions by score and song-writer Marc Shaiman. Newman can easily share the honors with John Debney as a member of that tandem that scores the mass majority of major studio children's films these days. More recently, Newman has been involved in Ice Age and Scooby-Doo, but unlike Debney, whose music often finds CD shelves in either commercial or promotional format, Newman's breakneck speed of output makes his scores a rare find in such releases. But in a similar fashion to Debney's styles for the genre, these Newman scores do begin to all sound alike after a while. All of these scores are orchestrally rooted and instrumentally creative, and yet they don't often distinguish themselves from project to project.

Newman's rousing, slapstick orchestral score for The Cat in the Hat is no exception. In this case, Newman works with a studio orchestra and without the assistance of any really unique instruments (including the lack of a choir). From the opening cue to the finale, the score moves at the overwhelming pace of the cat's personality, immediately moving to a juggling of orchestral motifs to match the actions on screen. A sort of half-hearted theme is established for the two kids at the start of the film, but the pace of the non-stop topic changes in the film doesn't allow for that (or any) theme to be developed beyond the level of a basic motif. The cat's insistence on having fun is portrayed orchestrally by the yielding to barroom band instruments. Occasionally, a loungey rhythm will slow down the pace of a cue, but ten seconds later, the brass is ripping at the pace of a snare, and ten seconds later, the woodwinds are performing a cute little motif to the sound of music box chimes. And five minutes later, the same rotation of ideas is recycled. Perhaps a disappointment is the lack of truly unique instrumentation to represent the cat's many ideas and methods of having fun. A distant, kiddie choo choo train whistle can be heard hooting in "Rescuing Nevens," and yet, with the machinery cleaning the house in the story, one would expect to hear more of this. Marc Shaiman wrote a song (and its reprise of sorts) for the cat's arrival, and due to its big band style and unique personality compared to the some old orchestral slapstick, this song, "Fun, Fun, Fun," is a highlight of the album. Even here, parents might be horrified by lyrics that talk about castration and asses; it's nowhere near as vulgar as the lyrics in Shaiman's South Park songs, but it's evident that the cat in the film is even naughtier than the cat in the book. The Smash Mouth interpretation of the Beatles classic "Getting Better" is an unfortunate deviation from the attitude of the rest of the album. Overall, Shaiman's material is cute, but the score from Newman is simply more of the same adequate, but repetitive slapstick material for cartoonish situations. **

Purchasing Options: CD Universe (New), Amazon.com (New or Used), eBay/Half.com (Used)




   Viewer Ratings and Comments:



   Track Listings:
Total Time: 49:02

    1. Main Title - The Kids (8:07)
    2. Getting Better - performed by Smash Mouth (2:24)
    3. The Cat (3:50)
    4. Two Things/Couch Jumping/Leaky Crate (5:16)
    5. Military Academy Seduction (3:02)
    6. Mrs. Kwan - Mom Leaves (2:12)
    7. Surfer Cat - The Phunometer (2:23)
    8. Fun, Fun, Fun - composed by Marc Shaiman/performed by Mike Myers (2:38)
    9. The Contract (1:53)
    10. Oven Explodes - Clean Up This Mess (1:36)
    11. Things Wreck the House (2:52)
    12. Larry the Slob (3:10)
    13. Birthday Party (2:11)
    14. S.L.O.W. Drive (2:32)
    15. Rescuing Nevens (4:27)
    16. Clean Up - composed by Marc Shaiman/performed by Mike Myers (0:22)




   Notes and Quotes:

    Insert unfolds into a poster, but includes no extra information about the score or film.







All artwork and sound clips from The Cat in the Hat are Copyright © 2003, Decca/Universal. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/8/03, updated 11/9/03. Review Version 4.2 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2003-2008, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved.