Warner Bros.’ new animated Dr. Seuss movie has a machine with “RIZZ O METER” on the front. What the Gen Z word means, where it came from and whether slang jokes like this hold up.
Dr. Seuss gave us Thing 1 and Thing 2. Warner Bros. is giving us a Rizz-O-Meter.
A first look at the gadget from The Cat in the Hat, the new animated movie from Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, showed up on X late Thursday, Oct. 15, when The Hollywood Handle posted a still.
The image shows a big blue machine with “RIZZ O METER” printed on the front, plus a dial, three colored lights and flip-style number counters. A second machine next to it has a spinning reel of emoji faces.
The movie hits theaters Nov. 6 in North America, with international openings starting Nov. 4, according to Warner Bros. Bill Hader voices the Cat.
Here’s the main trailer from Warner Bros., released Sept. 10:
What does rizz mean?
Charm, basically. Merriam-Webster defines rizz as “romantic appeal or charm.” It added the word in September 2023.
Oxford University Press made rizz its Word of the Year for 2023. Oxford said the word is “believed to be a shortened form of the word ‘charisma’, taken from the middle part of the word.”
Streamer Kai Cenat “is widely credited online with popularizing the word in 2022,” Oxford said.
Use of the word peaked in June 2023, Oxford reported. That’s when Spider-Man star Tom Holland said, “I have no rizz whatsoever, I have limited rizz.”
So a Rizz-O-Meter would, in theory, measure how charming you are. Most parents would rather not know their score.
What is the Rizz-O-Meter in The Cat in the Hat?
Warner Bros. hasn’t explained it yet. The emoji machine next to it shows up in the movie’s third trailer, released in June, in a busy, colorful office scene with the Cat.
In the movie, the Cat has to “cheer up Gabby and Sebastian, a pair of siblings struggling with their move to a new town,” according to the studio’s description. It’s described as “his last chance to prove himself... or lose his magical hat!”
Who is in The Cat in the Hat cast?
Hader leads a cast that includes Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Xochitl Gomez, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Tituss Burgess, Bowen Yang, Paula Pell and Tiago Martinez, Animation World Network reported.
Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni wrote and directed it. It’s the studio’s first full-length feature, and the newest trailer uses Hilary Duff’s song “CATastrophe.”
The movie was once set for Feb. 27, 2026. Warner Bros. moved it to November in August 2025, Deadline reported.
Why do kids’ movies keep using Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang?
Because kids actually talk this way, and studios want in on the joke.
Dictionary.com named “67,” pronounced “six-seven,” its 2025 Word of the Year. “It’s part inside joke, part social signal and part performance,” lexicographer Steve Johnson said, according to ABC7 New York.
Cambridge Dictionary added “skibidi,” “tradwife” and “delulu” in August 2025, the AP reported.
And in April 2025, a single line in A Minecraft Movie, “chicken jockey,” turned screenings into popcorn-throwing parties. Teens “hurled popcorn, ICEE drinks and condiments at the screen,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Marketers have been warned about overdoing it. A 2023 column in The Drum compared brands chasing slang to “a middle-aged dad trying desperately to impress his teenage son’s friends.”
Will the Rizz-O-Meter age well?
Hard to say. Slang has a shelf life. When Oxford picked rizz, it noted that some words popular in certain communities lose their popularity over time.
The Cat in the Hat has been here before. The 2003 live-action movie with Mike Myers has a 10% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics’ consensus: “Filled with double entendres and potty humor, this Cat falls flat.”
After it, Dr. Seuss’ widow, Audrey Geisel, banned any more live-action Seuss movies, Vulture reported.
Animated Seuss has done much better. Illumination’s The Grinch made more than $553 million worldwide in 2018, according to Box Office Mojo.
So the Cat has a strong track record in cartoon form. Whether the Rizz-O-Meter still gets a laugh in 2036 is another story.
Seuss probably would have rhymed it with “fizz.”
Article compiled and written by Kambrea Pratt (editor-in-chief), Derek Gibbs (beat editor) and the Pirates & Princesses newsroom. Pirates & Princesses is part of WebReef Media.
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Hat Tips:
The Hollywood Handle on X (Oct. 15, 2026), the Rizz-O-Meter first look
Animation World Network, Dan Sarto (Oct. 1, 2026), release dates and cast
Deadline, Anthony D’Alessandro (Aug. 21, 2025), the date change
Oxford University Press (Dec. 4, 2023), Word of the Year
Merriam-Webster (Sept. 2023), new words
ABC7 New York (Oct. 29, 2025), Dictionary.com’s 67
Vulture, Devon Ivie (Oct. 26, 2016), the 2003 movie
Warner Bros. on YouTube (Sept. 10, 2026), the main trailer
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