"Well, that could have been a cat-astrophe."
"Okay, here's the story. It was a windy, rainy day. Then, to everyone's surprise, I turn up and cheer up some kids. But then, what do you know. My magical crate is opened, the lock stolen. Magic leaks out and the whole world is in danger! Thus I, the most stylish cat ever to be seen in a hat - you know me - have to recapture all the loose magic which is transforming the house, and recover the lock from Mr. Quinn, their nasty next-door neighbor who is also trying to collect the magic in order to make himself immensely powerful. Hey, what's this 'him being immensely powerful'? That wasn't in my script! Yeah, okay. So the script's changed. And when exactly were you planning on telling me, the star of this whole adventure? Yeah, you know what, okay, whatever! Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the ride is almost over. Thank you for flying Cat In The Hat Airlines and please, get ready to press the start button so we can get this whole mess tidied up!"
—The game's opening monologue, provided by the Cat himself.
The Cat In The Hat videogame, made by Magenta and published by Vivendi Universal Games, is a 2½D Platform Game that was released in November of 2003 for the Xbox, Playstation 2, Gameboy Advance, and PC. It concerns Mr. Quinn, the next-door neighbor of Conrad and Sally, who steals the Cat in the Hat's Crablock. The Crablock is the lock to the Cat's crate full of magic, and without that lock holding it closed, the magic will corrupt the entire house (and, eventually, the world). You, as the titular Cat, must jump, run, and glide through a variety of colorful levels based on common household furniture to collect the magic (along with anything else you can find) and save the world.
This work contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: While he is not a villain in any form, the Fish in the film is antagonistic towards the Cat, where they are often seen arguing with each other. He plays a bigger supportive role in the game, where he can be seen throughout the various levels giving advice to the Cat (they still have moments of getting at it with each other though).
- Adaptational Villainy: In the film, Mr. Quinn was simply a jerkass who wanted to get Conrad sent away and marry Joan for her money. The game, however, has him collecting magic and trying to kill the Cat so he could take over the world. This was likely intended as a satire of this trope, however, as in the game's intro, the Cat complains about this, and that he was not informed the game was going to turn Quinn into a would-be world conquering supervillain.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Most of the levels in the game, including Boiler Bonanza, Wishy Washy, and Chemical Chaos.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Boss fights with Mr. Quinn require you to fire an enemy into his giant crab-machine's exhaust pipe for massive damage. Then, you have to fire explosive, purple goo at the crab lock itself to end the boss fights.
- Band Land: Musical Madness, a level which takes place inside a gramophone, is full of spinning turntables, accordions, and squawking horns.
- Big Bad: Mr. Quinn, as in the film.
- Big Boo's Haunt: Attic Adventure, while not a standard Big Boo's Haunt with skeletons and vampires, is notably creepy in comparison to the other levels, with its dark lighting and spasming mounted moose heads.
- Bleak Level: Attic Adventure is a little...off compared to the levels that come before it. It's darker and a little moodier.
- Bonus Stage: If you assemble four keys within a level, and take the keys to a secret door, you can complete a bonus stage, which usually involves running from some advancing foe.
- Boss Arena Recovery: Enemies in the arena in which you fight Mr. Quinn can be dispatched to collect health items, such as slices of cake.
- Boss Banter: Comes with all three boss battles with Mr. Quinn.
- Cowardly Boss: After you defeat Mr. Quinn the first two times and acquire a piece of the Crablock, he mutters some angry words and flies off for the next battle.
- Down the Drain: Wishy Washy takes place inside the plumbing of a washing machine, and contains a sewer-like atmosphere.
- Evil Laugh: Mr. Quinn has one, if the Boss Banter is anything to go by.
- Eternal Engine: The level uncreatively titled Grandfather Clock takes place inside a mangle of ever-moving clockwork machinery.
- Mechanical Madness is a literal Eternal Engine - it takes place inside the engine of a car.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In Freezer Burn, snowmen will throw their heads in the Cat's direction. If the camera angle is moved in front of the snowmen, it will appear though their heads are being thrown right into the player's face.
- Floating in a Bubble: Whenever the Cat uses his bubble attack on enemies, they'll be trapped inside it and he can use them as a shooting projectile.
- The Hedge of Thorns: Occasionally, the Cat will be asked to navigate these sections inside of a movable bubble.
- Hub Level: Conrad and Sally's house acts as the in-between point for all the different levels in the game.
- Jungle Japes: Venus Cat-Trap takes place in the jungle-like environment inside of an exotic potted plant.
- Lethal Lava Land: Boiler Bonanza takes place inside a boiler and is filled with boiling lava and steam and suchlike.
- Level Ate: Freezer Burn, while also being a Slippy-Slidey Ice World, parades the player past frozen-over ice cream, vegetables, takeout Chinese food, and canned soup, among many other foods.
- Kinder and Cleaner: The game is notably not profane at all compared to the movie.
- Parasol of Pain: The Cat's main weapon is his umbrella, where he can use it to shoot bubbles to trap enemies and to also ground pound,
- Pivotal Boss: Mr. Quinn's ship is centered inside a ring of platforms. He turns to face you as you run about him.
- Platform Battle: Occurs in all the Mr. Quinn battles. In fact, in the final boss battle, the platforms disappear if you stand on them too long. Don't linger!
- Puzzle Boss: Mr. Quinn cannot be defeated by mere force - you need to hit his obvious weak point.
- Recurring Boss: Mr. Quinn, whom you fight three times in total.
- Rise to the Challenge: Occurs in some of the bonus levels, such as in Wishy Washy and Venus Cat-Trap. The walls of doom here are always some manner of liquid.
- Secret Level: Mystical Mirror is a journey though the house itself rather than one of the objects within, and can only be accessed by collecting the gem in each of the previous levels.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Freezer Burn, a level which takes place inside (yes) a freezer, combines this with Level Ate. Surprisingly doesn't contain ice physics.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: After going through his attack pattern, Mr. Quinn exposes his crab-robot's exhaust pipe as he slowly spins around, allowing you to blow it to pieces.
- Toy Time: The final boss of this game is fought in an arena surrounded by giant toys.
- 2½D
- Wacky Land: The entire game is made up of Wackylands, all of which are themed around household furniture such as refrigerators and grandfather clocks.
