Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, Horton Hears A Who!

Photo Credit: Blue Sky Studios

by Kathryn Durfee
03/14/2008

I've never been big on Dr. Seuss, but one of the only stories I actually enjoyed was Horton Hears A Who!, which I received both in book form and on VHS sometime around my eighth birthday. That version was produced by Dr. Seuss himself and was in good ol' fashioned 2D animation. In recent years, Dr. Seuss's cannon has been resurrected in live action films (2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas and 2003's The Cat in the Hat), but not to much success. So the question with Blue Sky Studio's Horton Hears a Who! is whether or not the return to animation, this time in 3D, could salvage the Seussical adaptations. The good Doctor can rest assured, for the folks at Blue Sky have created an adaptation that is both respectful and enjoyable.

Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey, who played the Grinch in Ron Howard's film), is an elephant on a mission. One day, in the jungle of Nool, Horton's big ears allow him to hear the cries of a microscopic community, Whoville, that rests in a speck of dust knocked loose from a flower. All of Horton's friends think he's crazy, and the kangaroo (voiced by Carol Burnett) wants to get rid of the speck and punish Horton for teaching his young friends to use their imagination. In her opinion, if you can't see it, hear it, or feel it, it doesn't exist. Horton continues to defend the speck, saying "A person is a person, no matter how small," and sets out to move the speck to a safe place.

Meanwhile, down in Whoville, the mayor (voiced by favorite funnyman Steve Carell) is beginning to notice some strange goings-on: the weather is changing drastically, the world seems a little crooked, and there's an elephant in the sky talking to him through a drain. Just like the jungle animals, all of Whoville's inhabitants think the mayor is crazy. Together, and with the help of the mayor's only son, an emo black and grey Who, the Whos and Horton save the tiny world and open the minds of Nool's inhabitants.

First off, I'd like to assess the political controversy that surrounds this family film. In another era, Horton's dedication to a small, unrepresented people was seen as a form of McCarthyism. Now, his "a person is a person" mantra is being adopted by the pro-lifers. Instead, by the end, it seemed that the most important messages were faith, tolerance, and the support of friends and family. Neither Horton's nor the mayor's friends believe them when they say that they have found a world beyond their own, but together, the two work to bring their communities together and prove each other's existence.

Since Horton Hears a Who! is an adaptation and thus not one of Blue Sky's original works, it's hard to give them credit for the sweet story. It is, however, a testament to both their talent and the timelessness of the original story that, save a few Hollywood-esque departures, the original tale is a success on screen. It works as a family film, an allegory, and a legitimate comedy.

The animation, which we can credit to Blue Sky, is flawless. These are the folks that brought us Ice Age and Robots, and with Horton, they present us with a very Seussical environment complete with wild and colorful creatures and fuzzy purple clovers with striped stalks. Thankfully, they kept the film from straying into DreamWorks territory - you know the one with a current culture joke every two minutes and a pop song in each of the unnecessary big action sequences. Horton offers a few surprises, too. In an age in which photorealistic animation is the goal, Horton features not only Seuss-influenced stylization, but also two scenes of 2D animation. Both work well in the film and illustrate the pure cinematic magic of the world of animation.

Horton does not become a caricature of Jim Carrey, but instead adopts the most likable and gentle aspects of his humor, resulting in a genuinely sweet pachyderm. Likewise, Steve Carrell makes the perfect mayor. I was reminded of his recent performance in Evan Almighty as I watched Horton, since he is again portraying someone the world thinks to be crazy. As for the kangaroo, while the voice is undoubtedly that of Carol Burnett, the tone and attitude scream Hillary Clinton.

Every animated film has at least one character you could watch for hours. In Ice Age, Scrat, a prehistoric Sisyphus constantly after an acorn, stole the show and is still the series' mascot. Actually, the most enjoyable part of my Horton screening today was the teaser trailer for Ice Age 3, which found Scrat face to face with a tyrannosaurus rex! But I digress; in Horton, the scene stealer comes in the form of a Russian-mob vulture named Vlad (voiced by Will Arnett and not to be confused with Nool's other Vlad, a bunny that makes cookies). With broken English and an eagerness to please, Vlad is a character I would like to see again.

Horton Hears a Who!, sans any political or religious undertones, is completely enjoyable and tightly constructed. Never boring or abrasive (both of which are deadly to children's movies), this Dr. Seuss story has held up well under the test of time and has survived the 3D animation world, possibly opening the door for future adaptations of other Dr. Seuss works.