The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (Season 2) Rant

Why It's Awful

1. Despite The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss intending to be a homage to Dr. Seuss—even being approved of by his widow, Audrey Geisel—its second season comes off as more of an insult to his legacy than a homage due to having various problems, the biggest of which are the Cat in the Hat's takeover and that they did many changes to make it preschooler-friendly.
   • The other Dr. Seuss characters now only have their own subplots that the Cat presents to the audience in each episode by consulting the Wubbuloscope, which is just stupid. We even have to watch him crank up the Wubbuloscope as the map of the Wubbulous World unrolls and look into it, which is only done for filler.
     • Because of this, the Grinch and Yertle the Turtle—who were the show's recurring villains in Season 1—barely make any appearances.
     • Allegedly, the show's format was changed because a focus group at a test screening of "The King's Beard" thought that it was for much younger kids.
     • Not only are the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats overused, but so is Sarah Hall Small. She has to be featured in at least eight out of ten episodes.
     • Fox in Socks and Mr. Knox return, but are reduced to the Cat's visitors.
     • Despite Sam-I-Am and his female counterpart Pam-I-Am being likable (especially Pam because she can fix anything, no matter what she fixes or how she does it), their only purpose in the show is to lend a helping hand to the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats. They are also two of the only characters to have never received any episodes of their own.
   • Terrence McBird is an absolutely horrendous addition to the show. He's always whiny, angry, cranky, and grumpy in every episode. He even gets upset over things that aren't even a big deal, like the Cat in the Hat wanting him to try something in most episodes or his playhouse being a mess in "The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act".
2. Several characters changed:
   • The Cat in the Hat acts little-to-nothing like his book counterpart, to whom he was more faithful in Season 1 as well as being the host of the show. He even reprised his role as a trickster in some episodes like "The Simplifier", "Yertle the King", and "The Muckster". Season 2, however, depicts him as just the host of the show as well as more of a daddy figure with barely any personality.
   • The Grinch isn't anywhere near as evil and threatening as he used to be, due to the second season's lighter-hearted tone. In "The Cat in the Hat's Flower Power", he tries to stop the Binky Blossom Festival from coming by using a snow blaster and covering Seussville in snow instead of, say, stealing all the flowers that the Seussville citizens have collected for the festival.
   • Yertle the Turtle has stopped trying to be king and even shares his nut collection with Earl in "A Bird's Best Friend" after refusing to the first time.
   • Little Cat Z, formerly invisible to the naked eye, can now be seen and mutters Z-words nonstop. This makes him the most annoying and intolerable of the Little Cats.
3. The writing is terrible, even from usually good writers/directors like Adam Felber, Johnathan Greenberg, Stephanie Simpson, and Mo Rocca.
   • In "The Feed You Need", Bimple Beans are falsely outlawed by King Derwin just because he doesn’t like them. Fortunately, he realizes this. Like with the main plot of the same episode, Milo's subplot is him trying to get the King to change his mind about not liking his favorite food.
   • In "The Cat in the Hat's Big Birthday Surprise", King Derwin upsets his daughter on her birthday. He gives her some presents, only for him to tell her that they're too rare and precious to be played with. It's never even explained why Tizz can't play with these presents.
   • In “The Cat in the Hat’s Art House”, the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats don't share their crayons with Terrence McBird. Instead, when Terrence says that his picture "is missing something", Pam-I-Am is called upon. After a musical number, Terrence receives a box of crayons from her. It makes you wonder how Terrence didn't realize that he needed to color his own picture for the Cats or why they didn't share his crayons with him.
   • Many of the stories in general tend to be unoriginal and clichéd:
     • The main plot of almost every episode of Season 2 is just Terrence McBird not wanting to try something and the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats getting him to like it.
     • In “The Cat in the Hat’s Big Birthday Surprise”, the Cat in the Hat and friends throw a surprise birthday party for Terrence, who thinks everyone’s forgotten about it. In the same episode, the look of the Wubbuloscope changes between scenes.
     • In “The Cat in the Hat’s First-First Day”, Morton, who tries to go to sleep on his sleepover at Junior's house, is afraid of the dark.
     • In “The Sounds All Around”, the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats try to cure Terrence McBird's hiccups. In the same episode, Morton loses his dad and tries to find him.
4. Some of the humor is poor, despite still being clever for the most part:
   • "The Cat in the Hat Builds a Door-a-Matic" has a few puns: Junior imagining himself meeting a guy named Sanderson and eating sandwiches made out of sand.
   • "The Sounds All Around" has another pun-based joke: Little Cat A asks Terrence what a cow reads every morning and he doesn't know. SPOILER ALERT: It's a moospaper.
   • Sam-I-Am makes an unfunny burp joke in "The Cat in the Hat's Big Birthday Surprise", the joke being that you spend all day burping when you eat it.
   • While his song "Out In the Jungle" is actually pretty good, Mick Maputo Bird is basically an unnecessary Elvis Presley reference.
   • In "The Sounds All Around" and "The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act", the Cat shows a rhyming machine to Terrence McBird to try and cure his hiccups in the former. In the latter episode, he uses it to show him how to do the laundry. Because they use the machine to help him rhyme and it's shown before they even say any words that rhyme with one another, that ruins the humor entirely.
5. In “The Cat in the Hat’s First-First Day”, Jane Kangaroo sings a lullaby to Morton and her son Junior that is just too loud. She blows a whistle, then bangs on a drum.
6. Misleading Title: Terrence takes a nap in the episode "The Cat in the Hat Takes a Nap", not the Cat in the Hat.
7. Terrence McBird is creepy whenever he doesn't have any eyelids, and so is Yertle the Turtle grinning in "The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act".
8. Nickelodeon aired almost the entire season out of order, with the second episode ("The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act") airing after "The Cat in the Hat's Big Birthday Surprise" and "The Sounds All Around" instead of before. The series finale, "Cat's Play", wasn't even the last episode of the show in airing order.
   • Speaking of "Cat's Play", it could have, would have ended the show with a bang, but it didn't. It ended up being an awful series finale.