New Cat in the Hat movie

That is what happened, actually. But Jones and Seuss clashed quite a bit over Grinch and Horton, so needless to say, when Chuck's studio went down he didn't mind the opportunity to bring The Cat In The Hat to another studio.

Hawley Pratt pretty much redid the storyboard Chuck Jones did, but Jones was still credited anyway.

Seuss had no problems at all with De Patie-Freleng, incidentally.

While the animation was superior for Jones' cartoons, I guess it's that, like with his Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry works, his own style seeped blatantly into that. Both were clearly more a Jones cartoon than a Seuss one aesthetically. I mean the Grinch standalone animation wise is genius but he looks hideously deformed from his book counterpart.

The DPE shorts had lower budget animation but did a better job looking like animated versions of Seuss' books. I think the Grinch vs Cat in the Hat short was the nearest to Freleng's own style taking over (a lot of the Grinch's acting and expressions are very reminiscent of Sylvester) but even then it looked loyal to Seuss' designs.

With that said I heard Suess and Jones were close friends regardless of creative differences.

Edited by Psi001 on Nov 9th 2018 at 12:30:41 PM

Apparently, that's a big part of the reason why Seuss decided to sign over the rights in the first place. (and not without a fair amount of arm twisting on Jones' part.)

Edited by megaeliz on Nov 9th 2018 at 10:27:43 AM

That's it, in a manner of speaking. Chuck Jones had a way of clashing with people on his adaptations at the time; he did so with Frank Tashlin and Walt Kelly as well when he adapted their work. Seuss, himself, was kind of a perfectionist.

But they were still friends after all this and remained so until Seuss died.

Tashlin's case was particularly tragic as it was just one throwaway joke added to his work that seemed to piss him off in particular. Surprised they didn't just edit it out to appease him.

Watching more Wubbulous World I'd actually love to see a movie using that version of Yertle as a Villain Protagonist. There's something about a maniacal turtle trying to manipulate everyone in bids to conquer the world that's freaking hilarious. He probably has more versatility than the Grinch as well, since these days the latter's most connected with the Christmas Special and turning good in the end, hence sticking to remakes that make him more and more sympathetic.

Edited by Psi001 on Nov 9th 2018 at 4:03:28 PM

I'd love to see more Seuss villains in animated form actually. We seen way too much of the Grinch, who is basically one joke until his heart grows in the end of his story. The 2nd-tier villain that had the most exposure is the vulture from Horton Hears A Who!, who has had three incarnations beyond the books.

Do Jane Kangaroo and the Wickershams count? I know they're more redeemable jerks than villains outside the Blue Sky film, but they appeared in three adaptations plus were main characters in Wubbulous World.

I guess the thing is that Seuss seldom focused on bad guys besides the Grinch (though he at least bothered to make new stories to excuse reusing him). Allegedly he wasn't much for comeuppance stories, so rarely focused on nasty characters who couldn't be redeemed for more than one story, where they were usually a plot device instead of the main character.

Edited by Psi001 on Nov 10th 2018 at 2:43:16 PM

There's a reason why the Grinch is the most famous Seuss villain of all time. It's because Dr. Seuss doesn't really have much villains to go by. At worst, they'll be Yertle the Turtle who sits on a huge turtle stack and pays for his sins. Or McBean who swindles the Sneetches and ran away with the Money Bin. But at least McBean is a trickster teacher. The Sneetches realized that it was silly to judge other Sneetches for their bellies with or without stars.

The biggest villain that causes the most damage was the Onceler in the Lorax, but he's more of a retired villain who regrets everything he has done. And he's not as fun as the Grinch.

Honestly, the most despicable villains that Dr. Seuss ever worked on were real-life dictators that he lampooned during World War II.

Edited by Shadao on Nov 10th 2018 at 10:11:02 AM

Wubbulous World did expand Yertle into a funny villain though.

I could see an adaptation of Yertle doing something similar, starting off as just a simple take on the original stacking story, but only for the first few minutes, then it's 'today turtle stacks, tomorrow THE WORLD!!' Fitting since Yertle was apparently supposed to be kid friendly caricature of Hitler.

Edited by Psi001 on Nov 11th 2018 at 1:58:35 PM