The 10 worst movies based on children's books

Easily the worst movie on this list, the 2003 live action (why?) adaptation of Dr. Seuss's beloved children's classic starred Mike Myers (again, why?) as the titular feline. The movie was so bad that Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss's widow, resolved to never to let another live-action movie based on her husband's work be made. 

"The Cat in the Hat" might have broken the camel's back, but it wasn't the first slap cinematic slap to the legacy of Dr. Seuss. "How The Grinch Stole Christmas," directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey, was released in 2000. Unlike Mike Myers, Carrey was too good as the Grinch, which resulted in turning an otherwise feel good story about redemption into a dark and weird movie. 

Another adaptation of a beloved children's classic with Jim Carrey in the lead that misses the mark. Carrey was once again stellar as Count Olaf, though his performance wasn't enough to save what was an otherwise meandering movie. The good news is that the Lemony Snicket books have found a good home on Netflix, who reboot it into a television series.

Listen, Jim Carrey is a comedic genius that will go down in history as one of the greatest ever, but that doesn't mean he hasn't made a lot of movie, some of which are regrettable. 2011's "Mr. Popper's Penguins," a very loose adaptation of the 1938 children's book written by Richard and Florence Atwater about a man who's so preoccupied with his job that he loses his family. But then a crate of penguins arrive and... well, it just goes downhill from there.

There are a handful of things wrong with the 1999 CGI/live action hybrid adaptation, but here are just a few: it's only resemblance to the 1945 E.B. White classic is largely in name only; Michael J. Fox is basically playing himself, and the story is convoluted and dumb, which makes sense because it was co-written by M. Night Shyamalan. Next.  

Tim Burton did in 2005 what director Gus Van Sant did in 1998: he arrogantly remade a legendary movie that did not need to be remade. In Gus Van Sant's case, it was Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," casting Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates (lol). For his part, Burton re-adapted the 1964 Roald Dahl book and picked Johnny Depp as his Willie Wonka (again, lol).

Inkheart  the book is the first of a trilogy written by Cornelia Funke about a teen who discovers that she and her father, a bookbinder, have the magical ability to bring characters from the books they're reading into real life. It has been translated to multiple languages and is beloved across the world. "Inkheart" the movie is a forgettable 2008 adaptation of the book starring Brendan Frazier (he plays the father) that barely broke even despite having a solid cast (including Paul Bettany, Andy Serkis and Helen Mirren). It is not so beloved.

Despite being pretty faithful to the 1964 children's book of the same name, the 1996 movie – the first ever production for Nickelodeon – about a young girl with aspirations of being a journalist who has her world turned upside down after her schoolmates find out what she's been writing about them in her notebooks is rather dull and largely unforgettable. 

The Dark Is Rising Sequence is a wonderful five-part series that served as introduction to the world of fantasy to entire generations. Published between 1965 and 1977 and written by Susan Cooper, the books center around Will Stanton, who discovers on his 11th birthday that he is an "Old One," an immortal creature with magical powers tasked with defending the Light. "The Seeker" is a 2007 adaptation of the second book in the series that appears to have been made solely to capitalize on the "Harry Potter" phenomenon – indeed, both book series share a lot of similarities. Suffice it to say, it failed to do so.

"Eragon" is what you get when a film studio decides to make a fantasy movie based on a self-published novel written by a teenager that is "heavily influenced" – that's a kindness, really – by the Lord of the Rings and "Star Wars" about a boy and his dragon. The movie was rightly panned and is considered one of the worst movies of 2006, which is saying something when you consider that Larry the Cable Guy also had a film come out that year.