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The Cat in the Hat
Living Books - Titles-Dr seuss the cat in the hat.

Released

August 15, 1997

Characters

The Cat in the Hat, Sally, Conrad

Language

English

Pages

12

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Arthur's Reading Race

Next

Arthur's Computer Adventure

The Cat in the Hat is the third and final Dr. Seuss Interactive Living Books video, released in August 15, 1997. It is based on the 1957 book of the same name.

Plot[]

When Conrad and Sally are bored in their house on a rainy day with their mother leaving them, they think there is nothing to do. Suddenly, a six-foot tall cat wearing a hat comes into their house, telling them that even although it's not very sunny that day, there's still ways to have fun. Their talking fish rejects this idea, but the cat tries to calm him by playing a game he calls "Up-Up-Up With a Fish", in which he balances the fish on an umbrella. After getting even more upset, the cat just says that there's nothing to fear and he will hold him up high while he balances on a ball. He begins to balance other objects, which are a cup, a cake, three books, a new rake, a bottle and glass of milk on a dish, a toy ship, a toy man and a red fan, until he loses his balance, causing everything to fall down in the process. The fish suddenly falls down into a teapot, with him entirely upset by the cat's antics, which included sinking the toy ship in the cake and bending the rake.

Despite being ordered out of the house, he chooses to stay and brings in a red box, carrying two guys he calls Thing One and Thing Two. He lets them out, revealing two short men in red clothing with crazy blue hair. The fish doesn't trust them, but the Cat in the Hat tries to assure "They are here to have fun on this very, very wet day". Upon learning that their form of fun is flying kites indoors, the fish just gets even less trusted that they're being safe. After bumping their kites all over the place, they soon see that their mother is about to get home. In a desperate attempt, the narrator (Conrad) brings out a butterfly net to catch the things. He is distraught when he sees the two things trapped under his net, and sadly walks out of the house. Although the kids and the fish are glad to see him gone away, they have no clue how to handle the big mess the cat and the things created. Just then, the cat comes back in with a large, red tractor to pick everything up. He gets all of it cleared, and leaves just when their mother walks up to the front door. She then asks them how things went when they were gone, which is something left to the reader to decide how to answer.

Characters[]

Pages[]

  • 1: It begins to rain and the kids, Conrad and Sally, start to feel bored. / The kids hear a bump, and then the Cat arrives.
  • 2: Conrad and Sally don't know if they should let the Cat stay. / The fish tells the kids that the Cat should not be here when their mother is out.
  • 3: "UP-UP-UP with a fish." / The Cat does a balancing act. / The Cat falls and makes a huge mess.
  • 4: The fish lands in a pot. / The fish tells the Cat to get out of the house because of the mess he just made. / The Cat refuses to leave, and decides to show the kids another good game that he knows.
  • 5A: The Cat comes back with a box.
  • 5B: The Cat opens the box, and out come Thing One and Thing Two.
  • 6: The kids shake hands with the Things as the fish begins to worry. / The Cat tells the fish not to fear.
  • 7: The Things start to fly kites in the house and cause havoc down the hall.
  • 8: The Things cause havoc in the mother's bedroom.
  • 9: The Things continue to cause havoc. / The fish sees the kid's mother coming home. / The fish tells the kids to get rid of the Things.
  • 10A: Conrad tries to catch the Things with his net.
  • 10B: Conrad captures the Things and tells the Cat to pack them up and take them away.
  • 11: The Cat leaves with the Things, and the fish and kids worry about not being able to clean up the mess. / The Cat returns to help clean up the mess.
  • 12: The Cat finishes cleaning up the house and leaves once again. / Mother arrives home and asks the kids if they had fun today.

Songs[]

  • The House Song
  • Lots of Good Fun Song
  • That Is Not All Song
  • You Will Like Them A Lot
  • The Net Song
  • Pick Up All The Things Song

Trivia[]

  • This Living Book doesn't feature any mini-games directly accessible from the menu, instead integrates small mini-games within the story, like Green Eggs and Ham.
  • This is the only Living Book to include two-part pages.
  • This is also the only Living Book to allow interaction to advance the story, besides just clicking the arrow. It is an alternative option though.
  • You leave the book when The Cat In The Hat says "Ok," when you choose "Yes." However, you may want to keep playing the game by choosing "No," as The Cat In The Hat says "Okay." The “No” answer is Thing 2 and the “Yes” answer is Thing 1 (a similar way to where the first four Living Books titles, Just Grandma and MeArthur's Teacher TroubleThe Tortoise and the Hare, and The New Kid on the Block, having two generic kids as “No” and Yes” answers).
  • There is no "The End" screen in this game. The book ends on a giant question mark and immediately goes back to the Main Menu screen. The only other Living Books to do this are The New Kid on the Block, Stellaluna and D.W. the Picky Eater.
  • This is the first Living Books game since Just Grandma and Me V1.0 to not feature any demos nor the sampler anywhere on the disc at all.
  • From this game to the last game in the series (along with V2 of Arthur's Birthday), the by-line "A Random House/Brøderbund Company Ltd." has since been replaced with "Brøderbund Software, Inc.", likely due to Living Books ending their contract with Random House.
  • This game uses a third variant of the Living Books theme tune that has different quality to the music compared to the previous two variants. The only other two Living Books games that have this version of the tune are Maggie's Farmyard Adventure and Eager's Pet Show!, where it is however cut down with a shortened Living Books intro.
  • Not counting Arthur's Birthday V2, this is the last Living Books game ever to use the usual jazz animations for the credits. All the animations (except Wizard and Voiceover) were used in this game, making this the only game in the series to use the highest number of credits animations.
  • This is the third Living Books game to have a character say something other than "Welcome to Living Books!". In this game, the Cat says "This is my Living Book!" .
  • This game was not planned to be re-released by Wanderful, as Oceanhouse Media already made their own version of the book– which doesn't use the Living Books version. Copies of the CD-Rom for the Living Books version can still be found on some auction sites including eBay.
    • Software MacKiev once re-released the Living Books version of this game as an app (with different graphics and/or buttons), but it has since been removed from the App Store.

Quotes[]

Main Menu[]

Cat: (upon starting up:) Oh! I'm the Cat in the Hat! This is my Living Book! I am here to have fun, won't you come take a look?


Cat: Now, to hear our fine story read out loud and clear, move the arrow to this side and click right down here. If you like to explore and to look everywhere, you can play on our pages; just click over there.


Cat: (after the player chooses a selection:) Let's go!


Cat: (on the pick-a-page screen:) When there's one special page that you'd like to go to, then these arrows right here make it easy for you. First you click right or left, and then click on ok, when you get to the page where you want to go play.


Cat: (On the quit screen:) Are you sure you want to quit?

(Page 1)[]

Cat: [singing] I know that the sun is not shining today. But lots of good fun will be coming your way.

Conrad: Wow! A six-foot tall cat!

Sally: Gee, I've never seen that.

Sally: Did you ever see that?

Conrad: It's a cat in a hat!

Fish: (in his head) Hmmm… there's something fishy about this?

Bird: It's much dryer in here than that soggy, old tree. So this nice, cozy house is where I want to be.

Bird: Hmmm. Nice hat.

(Page 2)[]

Sally: Should we let the cat stay?

Conrad: What would Mom have to say?

Conrad: A big red bow tie? An umbrella and hat? What kind of a cat goes around dressed like that?

Bird: (coughs) It's dusty back here. (coughs again)

(Page 3)[]

Cat: I'm having such fun and now you can play too. You can move things around and I'll balance for you.

Bird: Hmm. Do you think we will see a huge cat-tastrophee?

Conrad: Now he's holding up things with his hands, feet, and hat! I don't understand how he can balance all that!

Sally: Do you think he will fall way up there on that ball?

Cat: Hurray! Look at me! I have balanced them all! 25 objects up here on top of the ball!

But I'll have to give credit where credit is due. I couldn't have done it, without help from you.

Oh, oh dear! Now I'm wobbly! This ball tends to roll! And I really must say that I've lost my control!

(Page 4)[]

Cat: Oh, I think that the cause of my unforeseen fall was a breeze from the south on the side of the ball?

Bird: I love to sail boats on a sea or a lake. But sailing on icing, a real piece of cake.

Book: My aching spine.

Cup: Good thing I'm a tumbler.

Milk: Oh well. No use crying over spilled milk.

Fish: Now I'm really getting steamed!

Conrad: If Mom sees this big mess, she might call the police. I'll be grounded for life with no chance of release.

Sally: Our pet fish in a pot? His poor tail must be hot.

Fish: And I don't want to cook the one tail that I've got!

(Page 5a)[]

Cat: [singing] Can you guess? What they're like? I will bet you cannot but I'm really quite sure. (Things: We're also quite sure.) You will like them a lot.

(Page 5b)[]

Cat: Go ahead, don't be shy, say hello, or say hi.

Conrad: Now I think I see double!

Fish: And I think that means trouble!

Sally: They're so silly and fun!

Fish: I don't trust either one!

Fish: First that cat, now these two. What on earth will they do?

(Page 6)[]

Fish: Don't shake hands with those two! You don't know what they'll do!

Bird: I have a suspicion those Things want to play. But I think if I'm smart, I'll get out of the way.

Horton: Why, thank you. (Blows a trumpet.)

(Page 7)[]

Sally: Mother never allows us to do things like that.

Conrad: Mother never would stand for the Cat in the Hat.

Family: [singing] Thank you! Very much!

(Page 8)[]

Sally: They have Mommy's best dress!

Conrad: She might faint at this mess!

Conrad: DUCK!

Bird: Hey! I think some of these feathers are mine!

(Page 9)[]

Joan Walden: The wind is so strong today.

Conrad: Well, that does it! I'm going to do something now! I'll stop them! I just have to figure out how.

Sally: We better clean up.

Fish: Oh, I'm getting dizzy.

(Page 10a)[]

Sally: [singing] With your net, with your net, you can get them I bet. Oh I bet, with your net, you can get those Things yet.

Bird: He should use that big net. We have had quite enough. He should net them, and get them. It's time to get tough!

(Page 10b)[]

Sally: You get 'em! You got 'em!

Conrad: I got 'em!

Cat: My two Things in a net? I don't think that is fun! What a sad thing to do to Thing Two and Thing One.

Thing 2: Was it something we said?

Thing 1: Was it something we did?

Thing 2: Was it me?

Thing 1: Was it you?

Both Things: What is bugging that kid?!?

Bird: He should keep them in there even if they both squirm! He should NOT let them out! It is time to be firm! Whoa! (Falls back into the box.)

(Page 11)[]

Cat: Won't you help me clean up? It looks difficult, yes! But these arms are quite useful once you click on the mess.

Conrad: Have you ever seen a car that could clean?

Sally: It's doing a wonderful job.

Cat: [when the player clears up the first portion of the mess] We have much more to do before Mother gets back. But keep up the good work. Now you're getting the knack.

Bird: Guess it wasn't too bright to try being a light!

Cat: [when the player cleans up more of the mess] Now it looks pretty clean and it's been lots of fun. If we keep going strong very soon, we'll be done.

Cat: [when the room is almost clean] Now this room's looking good. It's beginning to shine. So I think, if we hurry, we'll finish in time.

Fish: Did anyone see my fishbowl?

Fish: Let's find the fishbowl.

Fish: Read my lips: "FISHBOWL"!

Cat: [when the player clears away everything in the room] This room's tidy. Well done! Our machine did the trick. And now, I'll do the rest. I will have to be quick.

Fish: [when the player clicks on the right arrow] There's a whole house clean! And it's late afternoon. We must hurry. Go fast. Mother's coming home soon!

(Page 12)[]

Conrad: So, how was your day? Did you get very wet?

Joan Walden: Oh I'm fine, but you haven't said what you did yet.

Sally: Are you sure Mother's dress got picked up from the mess?

Conrad: Yes it was. That I know, or at least I think so.

Joan Walden: Were you bored in this house on this cold, cold, wet day?

Conrad: Oh no, we were not bored. That's one thing we CAN say.

Bird: Since that Cat is now gone with his noisy machine, then perhaps I can stay here to help keep things clean.

Mouse: Well, I thought that big cat would be here from now on. I am greatly relieved to find that he's gone.

Book: And they lived ever after with hardly a care, until one snowy day, the Cat came back there. But… that's another story.

Mini-Games[]

Drawing

The Cat's Balancing Game

Make Silly Faces

Elephant Puzzle

Directions Of Thing 1 And Thing 2

Drop Clothes on the Floor

Brush Thing 2's Hair

Make Objects Fall Off the Kites

Catch Thing 1 And Thing 2

Clean Up the House

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