What do they have in common? (besides red stripes, of course!)
They are both agents of chaos.
Has anyone else noticed that Risky Business and The Cat in the Hat are basically the same story? Bored, obedient boy is left alone by parents. Agent of chaos arrives and injects all sorts of fun into boy’s life…. and creates a big mess to boot. Big mess is cleaned up just in time!
(Note: Sally’s a really underdeveloped character in Cat, right? Her main purpose seems to be to make the rhymes work.)
Oh! I just Googled, and at least one other person has noticed. Here is Marc Spitz in Salon back in 2014:
Like the Cat in the Hat [De Mornay’s character Lana] creates havoc when the parents are away, jars a man-child out of his torpor, and exits just in time to leave everything safe and sound by the time the adults return.