“Inside Out” has done untold damage to children’s movies, and we might not recover for a long time. Along with the rise of therapy culture and an obsession with pop psychology and self-understanding, Pixar’s 2015 hit and its sequel have made children’s movies more introspective. (Not that I dislike the original entirely, though I do believe the second movie unnecessarily scares children by introducing the concept of anxiety too early.)
Today’s children’s movies have forgotten classic conflict structures such as man vs. man (“Toy Story,” “The Incredibles”) and man vs. nature (“Finding Nemo,” “Balto”). Now our gaze has turned inward, and the story is almost always man (or in reality, woman) vs. self.
Such is the case with “The Cat in the Hat,” which does deserve a certain level of praise. We’ll start with the good: The film is PG, and unlike the 2003 “Cat in the Hat” film, this one is squeaky clean; the worst you’ll hear is multiple fart jokes. The animation is a mix of 3D and hand-drawn, with beautiful sequences full of vibrant color and shifting lights that make it feel visually like a child’s dream.
This is a perfectly fine and even sweet movie about using your own talents to make...