Follow TV Tropes

Following

Ride / The Cat in the Hat

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cat_in_the_hat_1.jpg

The Cat in the Hat is a dark ride located in the Seuss Landing area at Universal's Islands of Adventure.

Unlike most of Universal's attractions, the ride is a straightforward retelling of the book of the same name. Guest board couch-shaped vehicles and are taken through the house of the book's protagonists as all the chaos unfolds when the Cat appears and unleashes Thing 1 and Thing 2 on the home. The ride only adds in a few minor extra sequences into the story to help make it more adaptable for the theme park setting.

The attraction was among the park's opening day attractions on May 28, 1999; being one of the most heavily advertised aspects of it at the time.


Tropes shown in The Cat in the Hat ride include:

  • Adaptation Expansion: The ride adds on a few scenes not in the book, mostly just expanding on Thing 1 and Thing 2's run through the house, such as a scene inside a closet that has a tornado of clothes.
  • Affectionate Parody: After the piano crash scene, there's a scene of a spinning vortex with the Cat in the middle, a parody of a scene that used to be on the Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland where the Cheshire Cat appears in the middle of a spinning vortex.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: This ride along with E.T. Adventure are basically Universal's answer to some of Disney's Fantasyland dark rides.
  • Bigger on the Inside: The ride overall makes the protagonist's house feel more like a mansion, as even their closet is bigger than some apartments.
  • Cats Hate Water: Averted, as the Cat is shown taking a bath in one scene.
  • Fun with Flushing: The Fish gets flushed down the toilet in the bathroom scene.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Corey Burton voices The Fish using his best Ed Wynn impression.
  • No Export for You: The ride along with the whole Seuss Landing area only exists at the Florida park.
  • Piano Drop: There's a moment in the ride where the illusion is given of Thing 1 and Thing 2 tipping a piano onto the riders.
  • Spectacular Spinning: The ride was very known for its rather intense spinning motions; however, due to several guest incidents, the spinning was later drastically toned down.
  • Spring Coil: One of the Things uses a spring from inside a sofa to jump around.
  • Toilet Paper Prank: In the bathroom scene, there's Thing 1 and Thing 2-branded toilet paper spread over the walls.
  • Wink "Ding!": At the end of the ride when the Cat pops out of a window to wink at the riders, a "ding" sound is heard.
  • Written Sound Effect: These appear all throughout the ride, but most particularly in the scene after the piano drops down, the room has the words "CRASH" and "BOOM" written on the walls.

Top