The 2003 Cat in the Hat movie starring Mike Myers is now trending on Netflix – and it’s the reason why Dr. Seuss’ widow won’t allow any more live-action adaptations of his books to get made. The Cat in the Hat was directed by Bo Welch, the production designer behind Beetlejuice, The Lost Boys, and Men in Black, in his directorial debut. Myers plays the titular talking cat, who arrives on two bored children’s doorstep to make their lives a living hell.

Although The Cat in the Hat accurately reflects the bizarre visual style and bonkers imagination of Seuss’ source material, it ended up coming off as creepy. Although Myers brings his A-game to the title role, the Cat comes off as more of a monster than a lovable goofball. The Cat in the Hat was panned by critics, earning a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score of 10%, and it bombed at the box office, grossing $133.9 million against a $109 million budget (via Box Office Mojo).

Dr. Seuss’ Widow Banned Live-Action Adaptations Of His Stories After Cat In The Hat’s Disappointment

The Cat in the Hat was so bad, it led to a shakeup at the Dr. Seuss estate

The Cat played by actor Mike Myers with Dakota Fanning and Spencer Breslin in The Cat in the Hat.

After The Cat in the Hat was panned by critics and bombed at the box office, Audrey Stone Geisel – the widow of Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel – wanted to make sure something so disastrous would never happen to her late husband’s work again (via Today). Geisel really didn’t want Myers to play the Cat in the Hat, but Universal insisted. When the movie flopped with the Seuss estate’s “spokescat” at the center of it, Geisel became a lot more discerning about adaptations of her husband’s stories.

Following the failure of The Cat in the Hat, Geisel decreed that her husband’s stories would never be adapted into live-action again. And she’s stuck to her word in the decades since. There have been successful animated adaptations of Seuss’ books, from The Lorax to Horton Hears a Who!, but there hasn’t been another live-action adaptation since The Cat in the Hat. The goal is to avoid making another mistake like The Cat in the Hat, and that’s been working so far.

Why Mike Myers’ Cat In The Hat Movie Was So Controversial

The Cat in the Hat is a really, really weird movie

Medium-wide shot of Mike Myers playing The Cat in The Cat in the Hat.

Myers’ Cat in the Hat movie was so controversial because it seemed targeted towards adult audiences more than Seuss’ target market of children. It has a lot of crude double entendres that wink at the grown-ups in the audience and it relies on a lot of potty humor. Myers himself was criticized for playing the Cat with an impression of Bert Lahr’s turn as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. But above all, The Cat in the Hat was so polarizing because it’s a really, really weird movie – it’s like if David Lynch made a kids’ film.