How the new Cat in the Hat animated movie was made in just two years

“In a way, our job is to come up with something absurd, entertaining, and crazy, and then discover: can we make it happen with technology?” That’s how writer-director Alessandro Carloni describes his job on The Cat in the Hat, in the first episode of Made to Make, a new branded content series from Autodesk launching on YouTube.

Season one is hosted by chef and entrepreneur José Andrés, who has a genuine passion for filmmaking and animation. He has voiced characters in Disney’s Firebuds and Netflix’s Green Eggs & Ham, and has collaborated with Marvel and DC on comics. The series goes behind the scenes with designers, makers, artists, filmmakers, and innovators to show the creativity, determination, and technology behind their work, and it presents Autodesk as a technology partner that enables it.

Episode one, The Making of The Cat in the Hat, features Carloni and fellow writer-director Erica Rivinoja, animator Marek Kochout, central supervisor Jessica Killiam, VFX supervisor Matt Waters and production designer Aidan Sugano.

A big film on a tight schedule

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation completed its first full-length feature in two years, an accelerated timeline for an animated production of this scale. Teams worked across Los Angeles, multiple cities in India, Montreal and London.

The filmmakers developed stylistically distinct environments: the real world, the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss and three further worlds tied to the film’s characters. The story also expands on the book, exploring what happens after it ends and where the Cat goes after leaving the house.

Rivinoja says: “The exciting thing about animation is that it can do so much more than other types of filmmaking.”

Autodesk Maya, long an industry-standard tool for 3D animation, served as the film's creative hub, used for everything from modelling environments to animating expressive character performances. Autodesk says its flexibility gave artists room to explore different visual styles and push creative boundaries.

For Kochout, Maya is the way into the characters. “It’s essential,” he says. “I have no other way of touching these characters other than through Maya. It’s my porthole into the marionette. This is my tool.”

Keeping a global production in sync

Autodesk Flow Production Tracking managed the entire production. “We use Flow Production Tracking to track the entire movie, so you can find a variety of different things in here,” says Killiam. “We have our assets, all of the characters, the environments, the props.”

RV in Flow Production Tracking let teams review assets across cities and iterate on multiple versions. PIX, now part of Autodesk Flow Capture, helped teams share clips across departments and with external reviewers, supporting collaboration throughout production.

Bill Hader stars as the Cat, alongside Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Xochitl Gomez, Giancarlo Esposito, and America Ferrera. Directed by Rivinoja and Carloni, it follows the Cat on his toughest assignment yet for the I.I.I.I. (Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC): cheering up siblings Gabby and Sebastian, who are struggling after a move to a new town. Creative Bloq has previously looked at the vibrant animation style in the film’s trailer.

The film arrives in cinemas and IMAX across North America on 6 November 2026, and internationally from 4 November. Episode one of Made to Make is now available on YouTube with more behind the scenes documentaries planned in the series.

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.