When the Cat in the Hat Steps Into the World of Computers

Oh, what sights you will see when you’re cyberspace-bound:

Watch puppets cavort on virtual ground!

A wubbulous world--how do they do that?

With a computer mouse and the Cat in the Hat!

“The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss” is the show that marries hand puppets with pixels and bitmaps, all in the service of Seussian whimsy. From Jim Henson Productions, it’s the first television series based on Dr. Seuss’ characters and, with the Cat in the Hat as host, can be seen Sundays at 8 p.m. on Nickelodeon.

But how, you ask, does all the cyber this and virtual that come into the picture?

Think back, if you will, to the recent election-night coverage. Instead of CBS News correspondent Harry Smith explaining exit-poll results with bar graphs sprouting around him in his computer-generated lyceum, here you’ve got the Cat in the Hat in a computer-generated forest.

It’s a good thing the computer came along. The fruits of Dr. Seuss’ mind, says Michael Frith, “simply could not exist in the real world. They defy the laws of physics.”

“So we created three-dimensional graphics instead. In real time, the puppets can move through their computer world, walking into houses, strolling down streets, diving into a lake. It’s like existing in a dream world. It’s like a dream come true.”

Frith, a “Wubbulous” executive producer, was one of the Henson Productions dreamers who helped mold the dazzling technology to the enduring vision of Theodor Geisel, author of dozens of children’s classics under the pen name Dr. Seuss.

Two years in development, the show premiered last month as part of Nickelodeon’s expansion of kids’ programming into the 8 p.m. slot each night of the week.

Starring longtime favorites like Yertle the Turtle and Horton the Elephant, as well as newcomers, the “Wubbulous” stories unfold with Seussian abandon and dictionary-defying wordplay (“wubbulous,” for starters!).

Overseeing all the zaniness is Frith, a very tall man with a trim white beard who on a recent morning watches the “Wubbulous World” come to cyber-life.

He is standing in a TV studio no larger than a classroom dominated by a floor-to-ceiling blue screen that stretches the length of one wall. Huddled in front of the screen are a dozen puppeteers.

The TV camera pointed at them is poised six feet high, so the puppeteers work over their heads, holding aloft the Muppet-like creatures to act out the scene.

It’s supposed to take place in a forest, but the lush and colorful setting can be found only on a TV monitor. There the blue background has vanished, replaced by the virtual great outdoors.

Then, if this sylvan display needs any further alterations, a graphic artist at a computer just out of camera range can always punch things up, adding a tree here, deleting a cloud there, turning the perspective any which way. Pretty slick.

But while the gadgetry is up-to-the-minute, the puppets have their roots in the thea-tuh.

“There’s an interplay between the actors, and therefore their characters, that is very much at the heart of the performance,” Frith says.

The puppeteers, men and women who looks-wise have little in common but a penchant for jeans and T-shirts, are almost one with the puppets they animate and give voice to. Between shots, they even goof off in character.

But in this gathering of puppets, one is conspicuously missing.

The Cat in the Hat often plays a role in “Wubbulous” tales, but he is not in this scene. Instead, he waits for his call on his puppet stand just outside the studio door.

Not so rascally off-camera, he doesn’t seem to mind when you stare, which it’s hard not to do on encountering this celebrated face.

Like his Seussian brethren, he reveals himself to be a product of the four F’s: fleece, foam, fur and flock. Low-tech, sure. But on the “Wubbulous World,” this cat is part of the digital revolution.