The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat (2003)

48 mistakes - chronological order

(7 votes)

Continuity mistake: When Conrad, Sally and the Cat come out of the bedroom after they have first met, the camera zooms on Sally. The door behind her is closed. Goes to wide shot-Conrad is still walking out the doorway and the door is open. After that, the door remains closed.

The Cat in the Hat mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where the cat cuts off his tail, when he first hits it with the knife it bounces off but in the next shot it went through.

Continuity mistake: The pipe on the side of the house that Lawrence came out of as the house went back to normal, doesn't exist at any other time in the movie.

Movie Nut

Continuity mistake: In the wide shot of the countryside, when Joan and Lawrence are going to Joan's house, you hear the police siren, but you don't see the police vehicle. Suddenly, there are no other cars, and there's the Things posing as motorcycle cops right behind Joan.

Movie Nut

Other mistake: When the Cat is using the periscope to look at Nevins, the range on it reads between forty-nine point two meters, and fifty-two point four meters. These distances translate into just over one hundred sixty-one, and one hundred seventy-one feet respectively. The kids and the Cat were no more than about fifty to sixty feet at best away from Nevins.

Movie Nut

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Its more plausible the device isn't calibrated properly, after all it's not like they're going to lob something that requires pin point accuracy such as a bomb for example. That and the fact the cat is keen to make a huge mess at every opportunity suggests he probably made a mess of calibrating the periscope too.

Neil Jones

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the FUN song, Cat has a bottle of milk on a silver tray balanced on his foot. When the camera is looking at Sally, the bottle on the tray comes up into view, but now, there's a glass of milk on it that wasn't there before.

Movie Nut

Continuity mistake: When Lawrence comes in and sees Conrad and Sally jumping on the couch, he goes into the kitchen to nick all the food. He has a sandwich in this right hand, but after he starts sneezing to leave the house, the sandwich is on the left hand.

Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie the polka dots on Joan's dress are big, then when the cat in the hat takes the dress out of the closet to clean the mess on the walls from the cupcake batter exploding from the oven, they're smaller.

Cat in the Hat: Don't worry, I have three plans. Plan A: Mess up a perfectly clean house. Done that! Plan B: Cut your losses and ditch the kids. That could work.
Sally: What about that one?
Cat in the Hat: Plan C: Trick Mom's boyfriend into handing over dog and lock. I don't know. I still like Plan B.

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Question: What year is this film set in? The clothing and architecture don't make it clear. Is it meant to be timeless?

Luka Keats

Chosen answer: Theodor Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Suess as we know him, published most of his books between the late 1930's and the late 1980's. "The Cat in the Hat" was first published in 1957. Dr. Seuss' works generally tell the stories of fantastical characters in imaginary places, meant to be timeless. Illustrations and animated adaptations show buildings and objects with unusual proportions, odd shapes and bizarre functions. The live action film of "The Cat in the Hat, " however, is rooted to reality by its decidedly human child protagonists in an ordinary house in an ordinary neighborhood. The production design, costume design and set decoration of the 2003 film seem also to have the goal of achieving a certain timelessness. No date reference is given. However, there a decidedly stylized quality of 1950's-1960's suburban architecture and design, complete with its generic forms, chimneys, picket fences, and colors such as yellows and avocado greens, reflecting the common decor of the time. Similar to the 1971 TV short, which seems to provide a reference point for the design aesthetic of the film, nothing appears exceedingly futuristic nor rooted in period styles like victorian or colonial. I have also posed your question to Rita Ryack, the film's costume designer, whom I found on Facebook. If she sees my questions and decides to respond, I will add her insights to this answer.

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