HUNTSVILLE, Ont. - Martin Short says he mixed a bit of insanity, friendliness and childlike frivolity to come up with his vocal take on the high-spirited Cat in the Hat, but don't go looking for tell-tale signs of his other famous personas, such as the manic Ed Grimley or the obtuse Jiminy Glick.
The Hamilton-born actor, who has used his outrageous vocals to create memorable characters such as outrageous wedding planner Franck in the "Father of the Bride" series, says he wanted to make his latest kooky incarnation as unique as possible, while still staying true to spirit of the Dr. Seuss books.
Short's twist on the beloved children's hero can be heard in the new animated series "The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That," billed as the first TV show based on the literary feline.
"He's got to be friendly and insane and animated and filled with a kind of childlike frivolousness to engage these kids," Short said in a recent interview from southern Ontario's cottage country, where he was spending the summer at a lakeside home.
"You probably go from a source of energy, a source of animated voice, and you actually try to avoid the other characters because then they say, 'Oh, he's just doing Ed Grimley.'"
The Treehouse series is drawn from the beginner book collection, "The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library," and features a boy and a girl who learn about nature and science with the help of the know-it-all Cat.
The 30-minute series kicks off with the Cat taking Sally and Nick to learn about the making of honey from a queen bee.
Although it's a Canadian co-production featuring Canadian kids as the inquisitive Sally and Nick, many of Short's contributions were recorded in his adopted home of Los Angeles and while recently working in New York.
Other episodes were recorded this summer as Short vacationed at his summer cottage, with a makeshift studio set up at a resort near Huntsville, Ont.
The animation gig is a sharp turn from Short's most recent TV role, playing a duplicitous lawyer on the Glenn Close legal thriller, "Damages." The performance landed him an Emmy nomination.
"I've had a nimble career, shall we say," says Short, whose showbiz days began with the Canadian sketch series SCTV and off-the-wall characters on "Saturday Night Live."
"My career has been very Canadian, which is very British, which is you do all the mediums and you do all different things. You don't declare, 'I don't do this.' It's like, you know, being at MGM in the '40s, everyone's a dancer, everyone's a singer, everyone's an actor. Canadians say, 'Do we bring a suit?' That's all they need to know. Where Americans might say, 'Well, he's a film actor, he's a television actor, he doesn't do stage, he'd never do a commercial.' But if you're Judy Dench, you're doing Bond, you're doing Shakespeare and you're doing a thing for Polident."
Short, whose giddy Cat breaks out into song, heavy sighs and delighted giggles, jokes that his next gig is an advertisement for the urinary drug Flomax.
"A variety of things, I think for me, keeps it interesting," he says. "At a certain point in your career it's not about paying rent anymore, the bigger pressure is trying to keep yourself interested."
"The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!" debuts Saturday with back-to-back weekly episodes before moving Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays in September.
___
On the Net: Treehousetv.com