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In Search of Dr. Seuss

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In Search of Dr. Seuss is a feature film chronicling the adventures of a newspaper reporter (Kathy Najimy), who by opening a magical book, enters the world of Dr. Seuss and meets familiar characters and other characters. The film premiered on the TNT network on November 6, 1994. It came to DVD in 2003 and again in 2008 as a bonus feature for the TV special Horton Hears a Who!.

Plot[]

A newspaper reporter from The Ferncrest Times named Kathy Lane comes to Theodor Geisel's home in order to do a report on the famous Dr. Seuss, where she meets a strange character. When Kathy asks to use him as a source, he reveals himself to be the Cat in the Hat. Curiosity allows her to open a magical book labeled "Open a Book, Open your Imagination", which pulls her into the world of Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat first shows Kathy a political cartoon that would become The Sneetches. Then the Cat leads Kathy to a door that leads to a beach. On the beach, they read The Sneetches. After reading the book, The Cat tells Kathy about Seuss relating to the Plain-Bellied Sneetches by being a target during World War I. Kathy then sees falling objects and walls and ends up in a home where she meets Mr. Hunch from Hunches in Bunches. They eat lunch and read McElligot's Pool.

Kathy notices Horton the Elephant pass by and then ends up in a jungle. She then reads Horton Hatches the Egg. After this book, The Cat in the Hat appears again and tells her about Seuss in the 1920s and how he got the last half of his name. He even tells her that he wrote 13 books under the name T. (Theo.) LeSeig, which was Geisel spelled backwards.

Soon, Kathy wanders into a room which is explained to be "The World of Advertising". The Ad Man and the Ad Woman explain to Kathy about Dr. Seuss in the advertising business and marrying his first wife. The room soon rocks and Kathy is transported to Mulberry Street where she meets Marco. She helps Marco come up with a story to tell his father when he gets home from walking from school. The story changes as Kathy and Marco add exciting things to it. The story starts out as a horse pulling a cart. But it soon turns into a tale with an elephant, the mayor, planes with confetti, a Rajah, a band playing music and other things completely random. Soon, Marco keeps the story as a horse pulling a cart. He then leaves.

Sgt. Mulvaney then appears and brings Kathy to a revolving door that is shown to represent the way people rejected Dr. Seuss' first book for publishing. The Sargent then goes through the door and disappears.

Kathy goes through the door and ends up in a hall with the Cat in the Hat. The Cat explains to Kathy about some of Dr. Seuss' dark political cartoons. An alarm goes off and he disappears. Kathy soon walks into a room representing the Fort Fox Editing Room and meets The Voice of America. The Voice of America then shows Kathy the documentary, Hitler Lives, which was made by Theodor Geisel and his then wife Helen.

The Voice of America further reveals that Dr. Seuss's initial drawings of Yertle the Turtle depicted the character with a Hitler-esque mustache and a Nazi uniform. A live action version of the story Yertle the Turtle is then shown in a gospel like song and Kathy watches from the balcony then later joins the choir singing.

Kathy meets back up with the Cat in the Hat in a classroom, who tells her the how his story came to be. The story is then read and acted by a father reading the story to his two little girls who are both dressed like Sally. The Cat further said how his book became a success during its first year.

Long after the story and a familiar segway by the Cat, Kathy ends up in the story of Green Eggs and Ham where she is chased and pressured by multiple Sam-I-Ams, who tries to get her to taste the aforementioned dish. NOTE: When Kathy was eating the green egg yolk, she was really eating jello.

After that, Kathy ends up in the mountains where The Grinch had lived. A lady reads her the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Next, Kathy shows up at the Street of the lifted Lorax, where the Cat tells her that creating the Grinch was a way of reminding people that Christmas is not about commercialism & receiving, it's about love & giving. While the aforementioned was successful for Dr. Seuss and his professional career was going well, his personal life was not, and he explains what happened to Seuss during the late 1960s. This included that he had two deaths in his family, one was his wife Helen and later his father. It was also explained that around this time, Seuss would marry his second and final wife Audrey. Kathy was then told of an event that caused Dr. Seuss to create The Lorax. She then puts in a payment (15 cents, a nail, and the shell of a great, great, great grandfather snail) written on paper in a bucket after which The Once-Ler hoisted up the bucket with all those things, collected them, brought down a speaker and told the story of The Lorax.

After planting a new Truffula Tree, marching music sounded, indicating a butter battle, which represents The Butter Battle Book.

The finale segment of the film saw Kathy & The Cat in the Hat visit the library where they sing Oh, the Places You'll Go!, later they were transported back to Dr. Seuss' house where Kathy's adventure ended. The Cat in the Hat walks off after talking to Kathy and is later is unseen the moment she turns around to ask him about the clock being wrong. It turns out, that he and everything else were being transported back into the book and the book closed. Kathy then happily leaves Dr. Seuss's house saying good-bye to the Cat and thanking Dr. Seuss for everything after finally getting the story she needed. Dr. Seuss himself is seen in a portrait speaking to the viewers a little about his work. He would end the film in style of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, by saying, "From there to here, from here to there. Funny things are everywhere." Then a early drawing of The Cat in the Hat winks to the viewers happily and iris out. The End

Cast[]

Uncredited[]

  • Charles Durning as Grandfather Yook (voice, archive footage and redubbed lines)
  • June Foray as Cindy Lou Who (voice, archive footage)
  • Bob Holt as the Once-ler, the Lorax, Sylvester McMonkey McBean, and some of The Sneetches (voice, archive footage)
  • Boris Karloff as the Grinch (voice, archive footage)
  • Paul Winchell as the Sneetches (voice, archive footage)

Stories Featured[]

The movie features many of Dr. Seuss's stories, though they are edits of older adaptations, while some of the adaptations are newly created live-action versions. It also includes some of his political work, including excerpts of his short subject Hitler Lives.

Gallery[]

Video[]

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