Are the Dr. Seuss Books just too short to adapt well? 

Instead of movies, they could make a Netflix style Short Series of animated episodes equal too or less than 15 minutes long that go over the each Doctor Seuss book. Not only that, but make each episode directed by a director who is a fan of Seuss or is good at surrealist and clever comedy, as well as the voice actors be non-celebrities. This would not only be cheaper for Illumination or whichever company currently owns all the rights to film adaptations of Dr. Seuss books, but would make it easier to stay true to the original stories. Bonus points if it is 2D animation.

Wow never thought of the 1967 Grinch movie as a really good audio book. Guess a good Dr. Seuss movie adaptation would be just that though. Maybe a fan created project for online consumption such as youtube or netflix that has some good animation as it tells the story. Think some folks would really like that.

I used to think I was afraid of the Grinch but after growing fond of the original book and animated film I have realized I was just afraid of Jim Carrey

I'm not familiar with Seuss' books, but I think telling 3 or more different stories and merging them into one narrative would be the best approach. That's what they did for the animated adaptation of Revolting Rhymes in 2016, and though it wasn't super popular it did pretty well critically and it seemed to maintain the spirit of the source material.

I don't know that a good 90 minute movie could could be made out of any of the books. Nothing really needs to be added. The best ones are pretty much audiobooks with extended action scenes. Ex. 70s-80s Dr. Seuss animated shorts I agree with another commenters idea about a half hour series. My favorite is Oh the places You'll Go. It would be neat to see it animated, but I don't think it would make a good movie. Unless it was done like Alice in Wonderland.

I honestly think that Studio Ghibli could do a really good job in making Dr Suess books into films.

I think part of the reason Horton hears a who did as well as it did is because it's similarish to the the play Seussical the Musical, an animated adaption of that play would be interesting to watch.

I think the reason Careys Grinch isvand was loved is cause most of the filler was throw away and only served to make the villain more than the book rather than to explain the book. Carey sold every moment. I think better than a movie a series of half hr adventures would be way more productive.

Oooh after hearing you talk about how the original books’ sense of humor came from the whimsy of the rhymes and what was happening I really want Miyazaki-esque remakes now. I think those could totally fit the original tone of the stories, and the fleshing out of the book would all be in exploring these strange creatures and odd worlds that Suess created

Just get Wes Anderson or a contemporary to make a sereies of vignettes, then add them together to make a full length feature film. With a huge book being turned between segments. Basically how the Coen brothers made The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Perfect format. Whimsey, charm, comforting nostalgic atmosphere. Seeep the audience away into those childhood feelings.

I think it's unfortunate that these adaptations started before tv show adaptations got more popular. it could have been a tv show that adapted the books into something like the good Grinch movie, having 30 or so minutes for each one. I think that could've been good, but at this point they'll either stop because there's no more useable material from the books, or they'll keep doing what they've been doing because it's too late to go back

The Lorax could have worked as a full length movie if they had any interest in going adequately dark.

Maybe a 90 minute movie could be a collection of shorts that are kind of like the original Grinch, done in the animation style of the modern Seuss movies

I was actually working in a movie theater when the new Grinch movie hit theaters, I kinda liked it. I don't think it's perfect but you know it's cute, a lot better than I thought it would be.

30 minute shorts seem to work for short children's books - Along with the 1960s How The Grinch Stole Christmas you mentioned, The Snowman has an excellent adaptation, as does The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. And you could probably get excellent 30 minute adaptations of other Dr Seuss books. To pad that to feature length? I honestly wonder if the best approach would be an anthology - 3x30 minute shorts with maybe a short framing narrative allowing you to reduce from 30 minutes for any that 30 minutes would stretch them out too much and still hit the 87 minute mark animated theatrical works tend to aim for. Favourite Christmas film, since you mentioned yours? Probably either A Matter of Loaf And Death, or The Wrong Trousers. Just so ingrained into me about watching at least one Wallace and Gromit short over the Christmas period, since that's when they premiered and when they're traditionally aired in the UK, that I inherently associate them with the season. The Snowman and the Snowdog if we're not going with basically the opposite technicality to Die Hard - The original Snowman is better animated, imo, has a better song during the flight sequence, and I think the ending's stronger, but... The penguin ski race sequence makes up for most of that for me, and there are some details in the original that have aged really badly, simply as a product of it's time.

Step One: Get Cartoon Saloon (you know Secret of Kells, The Breadwinner, etc.,) to do the thing. Step Two: Do it Reading Rainbow style. Just read the dang books... do it in a bigger, over all story if needs be, but don't mess with the good stuff-give it grade A animation, a nice soothing voice narrating, and keep the classic, beloved stories as is.

I would love to see shorter animations be embraced more widely. Now that theaters are going out of style and we no longer have to be concerned about keeping butts in seats for X amount of hours, things could be simply as long as they need to. I'm a parent and I've sat through a lot of unnecessarily drawn out movies and cartoon episodes where I've thought, this could have ended 7 minutes ago. Or the Steven Universe problem (11 minutes already!? Noooooo) Of course there are some old Seuss animations. Some of them, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas is the perfect length. It tells the story in a timely way. But Grinch Night decided it needed some trippy sequences and despite the fact that I quite like the narrative style, I find myself going to do something else during the boring non narrative portions. I love Dr Seuss. I'd love to see a version of The Sleep Book and challenge people to stay awake. Or a version of Horton Hears a Who that keeps the emotion I feel reading the story. Or other really great kids books like Dragons Love Tacos. That would make a great short film.

There's one Dr. Seuss adaptation that's good, in my opinion, but it's not a movie- it's Seussical the Musical. Getting it to the length of a full stage show is done by weaving the stories of many different books together, which is done surprisingly well, it actually feels natural. Being a musical (and a sung-through one at that) it's able to keep the rhyming and the poetry and energy that comes with it. A lot of the songs are parts of books in showtune form, actually! I'm not sure how well what Seussical did right could be applied to making a good movie adaptation; it might be very particular to its medium as a stage musical. I just really like Seussical and feel like it keeps the spirit of the books more than other adaptations and I want more people to know about/appreciate it. ^^'

I think the ideal seuss movie would be a musical. That way you still have rhyme telling the story in a meaningful way that translates to television. Also it would need to take a few seuss books with similar themes and combine them into one storyline. Seussical is pretty close to this, but instead of taking books with similar themes, it just uses books with the same characters - combining the Horton books. And that's okay - my main problem with Seussical is that it was more whimsy for whimsy's sake with a side of childhood romanticization than whimsy that's actually fun. Also, none of the Seuss adaptations do much with the sociopolitical allegories. They're still there, but the movies don't comment on or embellish them. The only one that tries to do this is the Lorax. If Seuss adaptations spent more time on the actual themes of the books instead of padding with off-brand humor, they would be more successful. tl;dr a good Seuss adaptation would do what Into the Woods did with fairy tales, but with more fun whimsy and less edgy.

oh the places you'll go should be an animated short film with morgan freeman narrating

The 1967 TV special had Chuck Jones as director, so it had quite a bit of an advantage over the movies. :-D

i think oh the places you'll go has a lot of potential for a movie. may i dare say even a live action movie? i think it would be more of something that carries the message and spirit of the story, rather than a 1 to 1 retelling. the plot could be something along the lines of a down trodden youth learning to see the beauty in the world around them, perhaps by a wise whimsical guide. they duo go on to see visually stunning places around the world, maybe some real and some more fanciful. The movie ends off with the primary character having a renewed interest in exploration or something like that.

I firmly believe that you can make a good movie out of anything. It's just that certain sources are going to take a lot more effort than others. Children's books probably have the most hurdles to clear between their short length, their generally lacking character arcs/development, and their very simplistic themes told in such a way that anyone other than a small child is going to feel is clobbering you over the head. Seuss, in particular, has the additional stumbling blocks of books being written in verse and much of their humor coming from the goofy, often bordering on absurd, wordplay (which, at least for me, is a big part of why they endure so much) which would be difficult though not outright impossible to maintain for a feature-length film and his pretty obvious lefty politics that he is not the least bit ashamed of and makes virtually no effort to curtail. And regardless of where you feel the various studio heads fall on the political spectrum, I think we can all agree that they are all Capitalists and thus are in favor of making all the money in the world... hence why in two attempts at The Grinch, they've managed to massively undermine its explicitly anti-consumerist message both times. Even the most liberal of studios are reticent to put naked political allegory into children's films... without blunting or outright changing the message, anyway. So what does a good Seuss adaptation look like? It probably doesn't get made in Hollywood by any of the major studios. As others have suggested, it's probably more likely an anthology film with 2-4 stories adapted together.

I think a good way to adapt the Seuss' books could be adapting more than one story into a film. Maybe an overall story with a kid and then the small stories being told to them or something.

Not necessarily related but I think Carey's Grinch with the newer Grinch's animation and colors would be a fun movie to watch.

Oh god, I just had flashbacks of liking the cat in the hat movie, i was such an edgy child lol. I don't think dr.suess books can be adapted in 90 minutes. If someone wants to make a good Suess adaptation it should be a 30 minute tv special imo. Though I kind of want to see how green eggs and ham would be adapted. It would be an awful trainwreck and I will love it for the mess.

Cat in the Hats the best one, fight me

I watched Horton too mayn times to day it is bad movie I just love it that much Other Seuss movies - I have never watched Cat in Hat or Lorax yet so I cant tell but Ive seen Grinch. 70s versin did it a justice in my opinion and I didnt see why I should have watched other adaptations Ofc as I always say - nothing can replace books - and if I ever read any Seuss books Id agree

of course it feels minion-y, most of them are made by illumination (the studio that produced despicable me). who thought it'd be a good idea to give them the rights to like all of Dr. Seuss books?

I don't think a 90 minute movie can come from these books. Seuss's books are simple, whimsical fables and trying to add more to them, just leads to the product feeling clunky and dated, unlike the books which are timeless. In addition to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Chuck Jones also adapted The Lorax. Like Grinch, it's a 30 minute adaptation and like Grinch, it is leaps and bounds ahead of its movie length counterpart.

Yeet

I really liked the grinch (Jim Carrey) and (dont kill me) the cat in the hat

Oh that's alright, I hate all of them. No offence, fans.

the old cartoons are better adaptations

Nah, Cat In The Hat movie is the best movie of all time.