The Cat in the Hat (film) start until after the 2000 Christmas/comedy film "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", based on another Dr. Seuss book of the same name, became a commercial success. Brian Grazer, who was the producer of "The Grinch", stated, "Because we grew up with these books, and because they have such universal themes and the illustrations ignite such fantasy in your mind as a child — the aggregation of all those feelings — it leaves an indelible, positive memory. And so when I realized I had a chance to convert first "The Grinch" and then, "The Cat in the Hat", into movies, I
The Cat in the Hat "My Hassle With the First Grade Language", he also told a story of the "three excruciatingly painful weeks" in which he worked on a story about a King Cat and a Queen Cat. However, "queen" was not on the word list, nor did his first grade nephew, Norval, recognize it. So Geisel returned to the work but could then think only of words that started with the letter "q", which did not appear in any word on the list. He then had a similar fascination with the letter "z", which also did not appear in any word on the list.