The Cat in the Hat (film) with some critics, stating that it should have instead been rated PG-13 in relation to its high amount of adult content. Leonard Maltin in his Movie Guide gave it one and a half stars out of four saying that the "Brightly colored adaptation of the beloved rhyming book for young children is a betrayal of everything Dr. Seuss ever stood for, injecting potty humor and adult (wink-wink) jokes into a mixture of heavy-handed slapstick and silliness." Maltin also said that the film's official title which included "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat" was "an official insult". Conversely, "Variety" praised
The Cat in the Hat there were a lot of Dick and Jane devotees, and my book was considered too fresh and irreverent. But Bennett Cerf at Random House had asked for trade rights, and it just took off in the bookstores." Geisel told the Morgans, "Parents understood better than school people the necessity for this kind of reader." After three years in print, "The Cat in the Hat" had sold nearly one million copies. By then, the book had been translated into French, Chinese, Swedish, and Braille. In 2001, "Publishers Weekly" placed it at number nine on its list of the best-selling children's books