Horton Hears a Who!
Movie Review
"Horton Hears a Who!"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: A-
Rating: G
Released: Friday, March 14, 2008
Directed by:
Cast:
Yes! At last! This is how you make a good Jim Carrey comedy -- by leaving his forced physical mania behind and including only his voice! "Horton Hears a Who!" succeeds where previous Dr. Seuss adaptations have fallen short, most notably by using animation -- fluid, elastic, genuinely Seussian animation -- to tell the story. Carrey's shtick has always felt cartoonish anyway; now that he's playing a cartoon, it actually fits.
How the idea of reinventing Seuss' delightful drawings as cartoons failed to escape the makers of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "The Cat in the Hat," I don't know. Carrey's performance as the Grinch was very good -- I guess hiding him under a ton of makeup and costumery works as well as removing his physical presence altogether -- but the movie itself was uninspired. And the less said about Mike Myers' live-action desecration of the Cat in the Hat, the better.
No, Dr. Seuss' stories should be cartoons, and they should be as pleasantly energetic and funny as this one, directed by Pixar veteran Jimmy Hayward and newcomer Steve Martino, from a script by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul (a duo whose previous efforts, "Bubble Boy" and "College Road Trip," would not have inspired much confidence). Here the good doctor's gently whimsical, subtly insane vision is preserved, as is the story. Only the Whoville scenes have been beefed up (there was almost no backstory in the original) -- and even there, the rhyming narration, read by newsman Charles Osgood, is written in such a convincingly imitative style that I had to double-check that it wasn't actually from the book.
Carrey is the voice of Horton, the childlike elephant who hears a tiny cry for help come from a speck of dust floating by one day in the jungle. Horton is imaginative and playful, and not a little naive (Carrey's tapping into his inner Canadian, I think) as he tries to convince everyone else in the jungle that he's not imagining things. There really are tiny people on this speck, and it really does need protecting!
On the speck itself, Steve Carell provides the voice of the Mayor, a befuddled family man rendered useless by a powerful city council that is staunchly opposed to bad news. When the Mayor tries to warn his people that their world is spinning out of control and may soon be destroyed, he is ignored or derided. When he tries to convince them that a giant invisible elephant that he's been talking to is trying to save them, he is laughed off as a false prophet.
Seuss' original didn't indicate that the Mayor had any trouble convincing his fellow Whos of Horton's existence, but the revision fits Seuss' style. The story already lends itself to numerous interpretations -- the "a person's a person no matter how small" theme has already been co-opted by the anti-abortion crowd -- so why not add another dimension? Part of what makes "Horton" timeless is that it can be read either as a parable with a variety of possible messages, or as nothing more than a fun story.
Back in Horton's world, his chief opponent is the Kangaroo, a judgmental snob who "pouch-schools" her son and single-handedly enforces the jungle community's anti-imagination standards. ("If you can't see, hear, or feel something, it doesn't exist!" she says, the exact opposite of what you'd expect a right-wing home-schooler to believe.) Voiced by Carol Burnett -- Carol Burnett, ladies and gentlemen! -- the Kangaroo is a marvelously imperious antagonist, and she's joined in the story's unforced merriment by a mean Russian buzzard (Will Arnett), a bunch of banana-crazed monkeys, and several other bizarre creatures.
The addition of Horton's mouse pal, Morton (Seth Rogen), is unnecessary, and the inclusion of an REO Speedwagon musical number, while funny, is strangely out-of-place. Yet other changes, like the Mayor's devoted wife (Amy Poehler) and 96 daughters, blend as seamlessly with the Seussian worldview as if they'd been there from the start. Surely Dr. Seuss himself would approve of this lightheartedly wacky interpretation of his work. Let's hope other filmmakers use this as an example and get future adaptations right, too.
Grade: A-
Rated G, nothing more objectionable than a single poop reference
1 hr., 25 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 13 comments
March 23, 2008 at 8:16 pm
THANK YOU!!! I've been waiting for this review! I'm so glad that it's got an A-, I had high hopes! I love Dr. Seuss.
March 24, 2008 at 12:17 am
I really liked this one too, & even saw it without my usual excuse of taking my nephews! It was a fun movie to watch & didn't screw up Seuss, which is a sacrilege as far as I'm concerned!!!
March 24, 2008 at 12:43 am
This might seem strange, but my fears were gone as soon as I saw the quality of animation in the trailer. Nobody who gave a care would have gone to that detail. In other words, somebody besides the usual Disney tools had to be behind it.
Lassiter, in charge of animation? Pah - make him Disney CEO, with Brad Bird in charge of animation.
March 24, 2008 at 11:35 am
I went and saw this movie anyway on Saturday evening, because I couldn't stand waiting for your review. :D I agree with your analysis, but I have to say I was disappointed that it wasn't funnier... I laughed a fair amount of times, but not as much as I was hoping to. Some of the jokes kind of fell flat with me, or were too obvious. However, it was cute overall and Jim Carrey wasn't overwhelming, like he is sometimes.
And then there was the hyena sitting across the theater from my husband and I, who howled at everything. At first we were sitting right in front of her, but when she started laughing in a loud and annoying way, and commenting loudly during the preview for Kung-Fu Panda, we moved as far away from her as possible. But we could still hear her during the whole movie, because she laughed very loudly and annoyingly at EVERYTHING. I hate people like that.
Beside that though, the movie was good!
March 24, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I kept waiting for the review to mention the crazy Anime sequence - that really set the tone of the movie for me...that and the crazy yellow fuzzy animal thing...
April 2, 2008 at 10:30 am
Melissa, that fuzzy yellow thing cracked me up too! She reminded me of my little sister.
April 7, 2008 at 10:07 am
Horton hears a who was a great moviee.like one of my favorite movie this year so far.I cant wait til it comes out on dvd.Because its a great childrens movie,and great for anybody to watch reallyy.Well i just wanted to sayy,i could go see it like 10 more times and still not be tired of watching it.
April 7, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I found the movie charming and well done, other than the snide reference to "pouch-schooling" by the dogmatic kangaroo. It seems this reviewer has no problem taking pleasure in the slight, and adding one of his own about "right-wing homeschoolers" just to drive the point home. Since when have parents who school their kids at home become targets for attack by liberal entertainment media types? Too bad Dreamworks chose to reveal a predjudice against homeschooling families and portray them as being unwilling captives at home, shut away from society and learning about the world. This predjudice reveals great ignorance of how well-adjusted and successful homeschooled students are, as opposed to their public school counterparts who are failing to even graduate high school more than 30% of the time.
April 8, 2008 at 12:38 am
The film also provides an opportunity for home-schooling parents to remind us how dour and humorless they can be.
April 8, 2008 at 5:53 am
LOL Eric!
July 21, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Four months later:
I am being forced against my will to go see this movie for a PTA thingie, and when I saw the REO Speedwagon part for a preview I decided right then to boycott the whole thing, because that particular song kinda means a lot to me, and I went around for months claiming that they raped that song and I refused to see it.
Now I'm strapped in and I hafta go, and your review has given me a little hope that this next hour-and-a-half of my life won't be utterly wasted. Thanks!
August 8, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I came into the theater with high expectations to see "Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who!" And boy, ever since that day at the movies I fell in love with this awesome movie. The storyline was smooth, the animation was superb, the characters were cute and lovable, the casting was great, and the moral was heartwarming and sweet. My personal favorite characters were Horton, Kangaroo, Morton, Vlad, Rudy, Katie, the Mayor, Jojo, and mean-spirited monkeys. Jim Carrey, Steve Carrel, Carol Burnett , Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, and Jesse McCartney did an excellent job. 20th Century Fox had made some of most awesome family-oriented movies during the last decade: Simpsons Movie, Ice Age, Garfield, etc (I might not remember) while Disney, Dreamworks, Don Bluth and Warner Brothers are bombing big time with crap: Disney: The Wild, Brother Bear, Lion King (and sequels),Mulan, and A Bug's Life. Dreamworks: Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Shark Tale, Shrek 2 and 3, Sinbad, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmarron, and Bee Movie. Warner Brothers: Happy Feet,and Speed Racer.Don Bluth: Pebble and Penguin , All Dogs go to Heaven ( and sequels), American Tail ( and sequels) Those movies listed above have the same old dang morals that has nothing to do with the movie. In Happy Feet, what does overfishing have to do with Mumble's difference with the other penguins? In the Lion King, (total rip-off of Disney's Bambi and Land Before Time) If Simba wanted to be king , then why right after his father's death, decided to run away in the first place? In Pebble and the Penguin how did Hubie got held captive by humans? And did he gained his strength and confidence toward the ladies? In All Dogs go to Heaven, humans don't talk to animals and dogs don't gamble, or smoke. And there is no such thing as your watch stops, you die. And I don't know why a cartoon would hit the big screen, because all of them try to save their town or the whole planet. Anyway, the movie was funny. The day it comes out on DVD, I'll rush to Blockbuster to get it to see it with my family. I'll love this movie to death. In the future I'll show my husband and my children this movie. The most funniest parts were the Japanese anime sequence, bridge sequence the scene where Katie tells her story and where there were singing REO Speedwagon " I can't Fight This Feeling Anymore in the end. Please buy this movie as soon as it comes out on DVD for your wife, husband, children, grandchildren, grandparents, brothers, sisters, brother-in-laws sister-in-laws, aunts, uncles, parents, friends, whatever. You'll be glad you did. Whoops! I've got to feed and walk my dog. Peace!
August 9, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Finally, a Dr. Seuss Movie for the whole family!
While the previous Seuss movies annoyed moviegoers and critcs, this year they made a new Seuss movie. From 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Animation, ladies and gentlmen, give it up for Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! I've got one thing to say about movies: I DO NOT LIKE SWEARING, SCARY IMAGES, DRUG, GUN, AND ALCOHOL CONTENT, THEMATIC ELEMENTS , AND SEX IN MY MOVIES!!! And believe me, I've seen plenty of them: Happy Feet, Dreamgirls, etc. This one doesen't. Should we be teaching our children to make love with another gender, using drugs oralcohol in a bad way, shoot people and be held in prison for life, trying to make the world a bad place? Heck no!!! And Disney has been the worst ever since Disney died. It's like they don't want to make money. Disney should make good movies, whether Disney's dead or not. But gas and food at the grocery store are out the wazoo and and they're losing money on crap: Teacher's Pet, Home on the Range, etc. And they're doing the same old thing this year. They're bringing dumb actors who I have never heard of before or have whiny voices, or movies with the same storyline like The Wild and Finding Nemo, or singers like Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, and Hanna Montana. They'll do it again at their upcoming movie Bolt. When I saw Wall-E when I saw the preview of Bolt, I was like "What the heck is this?" And I said to myself that probably Madagascar 2 would be better. Anyway, movie with mezmerizing animation,+ adorable characters = interesting movie. A movie with no sex, scary images, thematic elements, drug, gun , or alcohol content or swearing ( which I like.) P.S. in Kung Fu Panda, how can a male goose mate with a female panda and give birth to one? Adoption would have been my second guess.And one more thing, the chipmunk's voices in Alvin and the Chipmunks, can be pretty annoying. you might see me reviewing other movies next time.Carrey, love you babe. Anyway, like Arnold Schrarzanegger's quote in Terminator: "Hasta la Vista, Baby!"