The Cat in the Hat (2026) Review: Hader's Chaotic Charm

The setup is refreshingly grounded. Siblings Gabby (Xochitl Gomez) and Sebastian (Tiago Martinez) have just moved to a new town, and they're handling it about as well as anyone handles a new town at their age, which is to say: badly. Gabby is the older sibling doing her best to hold it together; Sebastian is the younger one who hasn't quite found his footing. Enter the Cat, who's been assigned what the film calls his toughest mission yet: cheer these two up. The catch? He's a boundary-pushing agent of chaos on a probation of sorts, and if he can't pull this off, he loses his magical hat forever. That's a genuinely clever premise, because it forces the character's defining trait (irrepressible mischief) into direct conflict with the actual job (making two sad kids feel okay). It's a movie about learning when to be the fun guy and when to be the guy who shows up.

Let's start with the obvious: Hader is perfect casting. The Cat needs a voice that can swing from manic to warm in a single sentence, and Hader does exactly that, landing jokes with surgical timing and then turning on a dime for the quieter beats. He's clearly having a blast, and so are we. But the film's real secret weapon is its supporting cast. Matt Berry as Waffles the Fish is inspired lunacy; Berry could read a grocery list and make it sound like a Shakespearean monologue, so giving him a perpetually exasperated fish is basically a cheat code. Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang, and America Ferrera round out the ensemble with real comic texture, and Paula Pell steals every scene she's in, as she tends to do.

Rivinoja's script keeps the Seussian spirit (rhythm, wordplay, a general air of agreeable anarchy) without slavishly imitating it. The humor skews a touch older than the picture-book source, which means parents won't be checking their watches, though the very youngest viewers might miss a few gags. Visually, the animation is bright and expressive, with some genuinely inventive set pieces that play with scale and physics in ways that feel true to the source's absurdist energy. At 108 minutes, it occasionally sags in the middle stretch, and a subplot involving Sherrie (Brunson) feels like it's marking time before the finale. But the emotional throughline, two kids trying to feel at home, lands with real sincerity, and the film earns its warm final act rather than forcing it.

Is it a classic? No. The plot beats are familiar, and the third act resolves a little too neatly. But it's funny, it's sweet, it's beautifully voiced, and it treats its audience, kids and adults alike, with respect. For a November family release, that's a win.

Pros

• Bill Hader is a revelation as the Cat, equal parts manic and warm
• Matt Berry as Waffles the Fish is pure comedic gold
• A stacked voice cast (Brunson, Yang, Ferrera, Pell) that actually gets used
• Balances silly set pieces with a sincere story about belonging

Cons

• The middle section drags, and one subplot feels like filler
• The third act ties things up a bit too conveniently
• The humor occasionally aims over the heads of the youngest viewers

The Cat in the Hat is a charming, funny, and surprisingly heartfelt update that proves the character has more to offer than chaos (though there's plenty of that, too). Hader and Berry alone are worth the ticket. It won't reinvent animation, but it's one of the better family films of the season, and a 7.2 on TMDb feels about right. Bring the kids, bring the skeptical tween, and bring yourself; you'll all leave smiling.