All Dr. Seuss Movies Ranked From Worst To the Best
Dr. Seuss’s works are very memorable, especially for children. Moreover, his imaginative genius has had profound effects on all who have interacted with his literature. Thus, several of his books, mostly children’s stories, have been adapted into movies, mostly both animation and live-action movies. But there will always be preferences. Hence, one can rank Dr. Suess’ movies from the worst to the best.
Dr. Seuss has about 60 publications to his name. As a result, there’s no shortage of inspiration. The films vary in terms of delivery, acting, or even the story itself. So, we’ll rank the movies from the not-so-good and work it down to the best of the bunch.
11. In Search of Dr. Seuss (1944)
Nosy reporter Kathy Lane goes to Dr. Seuss’s house searching for information on him. Instead, she finds herself sucked into his world of stories.
At the house, she meets a strange character. And as she tries to use him as an information source, he turns out to be the cat in the hat. Next, she finds a magical book labeled “Open A Book, Open Your Imagination.” Afterward, she opens the book and takes a magical journey through most of Dr. Seuss.
By simply opening a book, she is transported to the land of magic, where she watches the story unfold. Finally, after seeing many tales, she ends up at the library. But when she sings “oh the places you’ll go,” she is transported back to Dr. Seuss’s house.
10. Horton Hatches The Egg (1942)
Mayzie, a lazy bird, somehow convinces Horton the elephant to sit on her egg, telling him that she wants to take a short break. Well, he does, and Mayzie books a one-way to palm beach.
Although Horton’s time sitting on top of the tree is unpleasant, he keenly keeps keeping his promise to Mayzie. Unfortunately, his friends laugh at him, he is exposed to the elements and is finally captured by hunters. Horton endures a horrible sea voyage and is placed in a circus against his will.
Coincidentally, the circus arrives in Palm Beach, close to Mayzie’s residence. She comes along and demands the egg after leaving it with Horton for 51 weeks, without even a reward.
Unfortunately for Mayzie, the egg is hatched, and it turns out to be an elephant-bird, sharing both Hortons and Mayzie’s features. Mayzie does not want a hybrid bird. So the offspring and Horton return to the jungle happily.
9. The Cat In The Hat (2003)
The Cat in The Hat is an American fantasy comedy live-action film. It is an adaptation of a Dr. Seuss novel of the same title. Conrad and Sally are brothers, and they live together with their mother, Joan.
Joan works as a real estate agent and is dating their next-door neighbor Larry. As usual, she leaves for work and tells them not to enter the living room, which is being kept clean for an office meeting.
But as soon as their nanny falls asleep, they enter anyway, and there they meet the cat, who wants to show them how to have a good time. They do have a good time, but they make a terrible mess. The cat also introduces them to “Thing One” and “Thing Two.”
They also discover that Larry is an unemployed slob who is only with Joan for her money as they play around.
Unfortunately for them, Larry catches them spying on him; he also sees the cat and all the havoc they’ve caused. He goes to Joan’s office to tell her about it. But the two things delay their return home by posing as Police officers. Larry comes home before Joan, and he’s pumped up about her seeing the mess.
However, it turns out the cat has planned the whole thing. He brings a cleaning invention that puts the house back in ship shape. When Joan finally gets home to a clean house, she does not believe Larry’s story, so she breaks up with him.
8. Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977)
The Grinch can be trusted to terrorize the residents of Whoville, and he especially likes to do it on a night called Grinch Night. Grinch Night commences when a “sweet-sour wind” blows. Once that happens, the Grinch goes on a rampage.
Well, it is that time again. And just as the wind blows, a young astigmatic Who, a resident of Whoville, goes out to use the outhouse. On his way, he meets the Grinch, who is pulling a rather large wagon into Whoville and decides to stall him and keep him from reaching Whoville.
Although the Grinch is not interested in Euchariah, after he tries to stall him again, the Grinch asks Euchariah to look into the wagon. As soon as he does so, a cloud of green smoke ensnares him. He is confronted by several monsters accompanied by the Grinch’s mocking voice.
Euchariah’s courage keeps him going long enough for the Sour-Sweet wind to die down despite his fear. Once the wind subsides, the Grinch is left with no choice but to pack up his wagon and return to his cave.
Back in Whoville, the Who praise Euchariah for being strong enough to keep the Grinch away and save the entire town from being tortured. As he is climbing back into the Mountains, the Grinch ominously swears that soon, the Sour-Sweet wind will blow, and it will be Grinch Night again.
7. The Butter Battle Book (1989)
This short animation is an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s novel about two warring communities, the Yooks, and the Zooks. The reason is simple, neither community agrees with the method the other uses in buttering their bread.
Consequently, they’ve built a war to separate their communities from each other. A Yook border patrol guard tells the story. While on duty, he tries to outsmart a Zook guard with the latest Yook weapons.
However, for every Yook weapon, there is a Zook weapon to match it. Thus, the weapons war continues, and it is very likely to cause their collective destruction.
6. The Lorax (2012)
In Thneedville, a walled enclosure town, everything is artificial, and even the air is a commodity. However, a young boy named Ted falls in love and is determined to give his love Audrey, her one desire, to see a real tree.
So, Ted goes in search of the Once’ler, who tells him how to create Thneed from a chopped down tree despite the protests of the Lorax. Ted is determined to find a way to undo the curse, even if it means going after the Lorax himself.
However, he must first outwit the greedy mayor who has turned a handsome profit selling air to the citizens of Thneedville. He has profited handsomely from the disaster and is not about to let Ted ruin his business. He is determined to stop him at all costs.
5. The Grinch (2018)
The Grinch is another adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s work “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” It is an American computer-animated Christmas fantasy.
The Grinch lives in Whoville, where the animals called Whos are pretty pumped up about Christmas, but not him. Instead, he lives in a cave with Max, his dog. And he only goes out to buy supplies.
Meanwhile, Cindy, a girl of six, has a request to make to Santa. She feels her mom Donna is having a hard time looking after her and her twin brothers. So she intends to write Santa a letter, But after encountering the Grinch who tells her to ask Santa in person, she decides to trap him.
On the other hand, the Grinch has made plans to steal all the Christmas presents to end the celebrations. Well, as he goes to town dressed as Santa, he falls into Cindy’s trap. Finally, however, he manages to escape and carry out his plan.
The Who’s then wake up and are appalled to find all the Christmas decorations and presents gone. Sad.
Despite that, the Whos celebrate Christmas joyously, much to the surprise of the Grinch. He joins them and shamefully confesses his crimes; he returns the stolen presents. Afterward, Donna invites him to spend Christmas with her family, he accepts and even begins to make friends with the other Who.
4. The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (1957)
Dr. Seuss himself was involved in the adaptation, animation, and screenplay of his book, “The 5000 fingers of Dr. T. In this animated screenplay, Barth, a young boy, has only one enemy in the entire world. And his name is Dr. Terwilliker, his piano teacher.
For Barth, nothing is worse than receiving piano lessons with Dr. Terwilliker. And Barth constantly dreams that Dr. Terwilliker has imprisoned 500 children and built a piano the size of a mansion in his house. He then forces these boys to practice at his magnificent piano all day, every day.
Consequently, it is Barth’s mission to rescue them. Seeing as his mother, Heloise, is also under Dr. Tellwilliker’s spell. Without him, the boys are as good as lost. With the fantastic sets, lyrics, and screenplay provided by Dr. Seuss, the live-action is a lot of fun.
3. Horton Hears a Who (1970)
Another phenomenal story. The comedy-fantasy animation of one of Dr. Seuss’s famous novels. An elephant named Horton is extremely confident he can hear a plea for help coming from a speck of dust. Yes, a spec.
His neighbors don’t believe him either; to them, it is inconceivable that any creature can live in a spec of dust, and they make fun of him constantly.
Horton is correct, though, because the spec of dust is home to the Whos, the residents of Whoville. And they need protection from creatures like Horton’s neighbors. So Horton agrees to protect the Whos and their home, because as far as he’s concerned, “a person is a person, no matter how small.”
2. The Lorax (1972)
The Lorax is one of Dr. Seuss’s most remarkable creations. It is the animated adaptation of his novel of the same name. A ruined industrialist tells a story of an old forest creature known as The Lorax.
The man known as the Once’ler tells his tale to a little boy. About how the town was once prosperous and beautiful, with Trufulla trees. When he cut down one of the trees, the Lorax popped up and demanded to know why.
The Once’ler told him (the Lorax) that he was cutting them down to produce Thneeds. But the Lorax didn’t need to worry, for he would cut only one tree.
From one tree, the Once’ler soon cut down all the Trufulla trees to make various products. Unfortunately, the water ponds soon dried up, at which point the Lorax told the fish to go elsewhere and the other plants too. The Truffula trees could not be harvested because they take almost twenty years to grow.
With no raw materials, the factories closed, the rivers dried up, the trees wilted, leaving the town barren and dry. So the Once’ler lived in misery the rest of his life. For due to his greed, he had lost everything.
1. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Don’t you love Christmas? So do the Who, the Who, are tiny creatures who live inside a snowball known as Whoville. And they all love celebrating Christmas, all except the Grinch, a misanthropic green creature who lives on Mt Crumpit.
The Grinch detests the Christmas season and tries to ruin it for the other Who. Most of them dislike him because of his meanness. However, six-year-old Cindy Lou feels that people should focus more on personal relationships during the season.
She encounters the Grinch and discovers that he has a tragic past. As a kid, his friends bullied him on Christmas day. And afterward, he packed his bags and went to Mt. Crumpit. His hatred of Christmas also began that year.
However, Cindy nominates him to be the “Holiday Cheermeister.” Much to the chagrin of his nemesis and former bully, Mayor Maywho, the Grinch accepts and joins the festivities. Unfortunately, during the celebrations, he is reminded of his childhood pain, and since he hasn’t overcome his hatred of Christmas, he goes on a rampage.
After that, he burns the Christmas tree and steals all the Christmas decorations and presents. Then, he takes it all to Mt. Grumpit and tries to destroy it by pushing everything down the cliff.
With Cindy’s persuasion, however, he returns the stolen presents and surrenders himself to the police. The police accepted his confession and let him go. Not just that, his childhood crush declares her love for him. It looks like the Grinch now has cause to celebrate Christmas after all.