The Cat in the Hat is an American animated musical television special originally broadcast March 10, 1971 on CBS. It was based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss children's story of the same name, and produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises.[1] With voices by Allan Sherman and prolific vocal performer Daws Butler, this half-hour special is a loose adaptation of the book with added musical sequences.[2]

Cast

Allan Sherman as The Cat in the Hat/Narrator
Daws Butler as Karlos K. Krinklebein
Tony Frazier as Conrad
Pamelyn Ferdin as Sally
Gloria Camacho as the Mother
Thurl Ravenscroft as Thing One
Lewis Morford as Thing Two

Production

The production began at Chuck Jones' MGM Animation/Visual Arts in the late 1960s after the studio had finished The Phantom Tollbooth and another Dr. Seuss special, Horton Hears a Who!. After MGM stopped animation production and closed down its animation department for good around 1970, along with Seuss being dissatisfied with Jones' style in the previous TV specials, production was moved to DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (marking the company's first Dr. Seuss television special), which was run by Jones' fellow Warner Bros. Cartoons alumnus Friz Freleng and Warner Bros. Cartoons's last original production executive David H. DePatie, due to DePatie's agent asking him if he was interested in taking over the special's production.[3]

Although Chuck Jones and his staff were retained by DePatie–Freleng in the production of the special, as a storyboard artist and the producer along with Ted Geisel,[4] Jones left the studio and did not work on any other Seuss projects after The Cat in the Hat. Other staff members that had worked with Jones, such as Dean Elliott and Maurice Noble, eventually stopped working on Seuss projects also. DePatie and Freleng were credited together as executive producers, while Jones was credited as producer with Seuss (under his actual name). For the next three Dr. Seuss animation specials, Freleng and Seuss (again using his real name) were credited as producers, although separately.

DePatie–Freleng animated a new Cat in the Hat Productions logo for this special, which would be used in the next three specials. The pace and rhyming sequences of several of the songs (particularly "Calculatus Eliminatus") led many to believe that they were composed by Sherman, since they closely resemble his earlier song parodies; however, only Seuss is credited.
Differences from the book

The plot of the special differs significantly from the original book. Among the many deviations, the sequence in the book where the Cat balances all sorts of objects while standing on a ball, only to overdo it and come crashing down, is left out. The closest equivalent is the fishbowl and bubbles sequences.

Also differing is the role of Thing 1 and Thing 2; in the original book, they were simply things the Cat brought along to demonstrate fun, but in this special, they are commissioned to help find the cat's "moss-covered three-handled family gradunza". The vocabulary used in the special is also on a higher level than the book's, though still in Seuss' trademark rhyme.
Home media
The special was originally released as a VHS on the CBS/Fox Video label's Playhouse Video imprint in 1989. It was later released as part of the Dr. Seuss Sing-Along Classics release from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with CBS Video and Fox Kids Video in the mid-1990s. It was later released on DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment/Universal Studios Family Productions on October 7, 2003. Warner Home Video released the special on Blu-ray and DVD on August 7, 2012.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daUVsrpXv3g