In 2003, the world was cursed forever with the unholy nightmare-fuel that was Mike Meyer’s live-action adaptation of Cat in the Hat. Now in 2019, Netflix seeks to redeem the sullied name of Doctor Seuss films with their new animated series, this time based on Green Eggs & Ham.
Now by all rights, this series should not work. The source material is a 64-page children’s story by possibly the greatest nonsense-rhymer ever and to top it off, contained no more than 50 unique words throughout. For contrast, the Cat in the Hat story contained 236.
And yet, it works… sort of. The plot cribs quite a bit from the 1987 comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles with Michael Douglas’ curmudgeonly Guy Am I filling in for Steve Martin’s Neal Page and Adam DeVine’s over-excited Sam I Am taking over from John Candy’s Del Griffith.
While the titular food does make occasional appearances, the main story is more focused on Guy and Sam’s attempts to return a baby chickaraffe to its rightful home after Sam rescues it from a zoo. The duo go through the expected character beats – Guy learns to be less of an uptight jerk and Sam learns to take things a bit more seriously – but the addition of Seuss’ trademark zany randomness help keep things fresh and interesting.
Now this series is meant for children and most of the humour reflects that but there is certainly enough charm and clever jokes sprinkled throughout to give adults something to enjoy as well.
