Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who
A certain Seussian purist I know refused to see this movie with me (or at all) on the grounds that’s all wrong and is doing with Jim Carrey what Aladdin did with Robin Williams. Statistically speaking, that is the most likely scenario from the people who brought you Ice Age, but… She also told me that Blue Sky Studios, the animation house used by Fox, even researched original Horton artwork at the Geisel (a.k.a. Seuss) library. Blue Sky is the only major studio animation house I know of that is any kind of serious competitor with Pixar in terms of sheer detail and care and gorgeousness. The design is so Seussian, so rich in texture and feathery fur, so painstaking in its realistic feel but cartoonish design, it’s truly a visual triumph. Horton’s precious speck (held aloft on a feathery clover) intimates so much detail you can almost see the Mayor of Whoville in the shots of our titular elephant.
I haven’t read this one in a while, I confess, but they quote liberally from it and the overall plot appeared to be on target. Like all very short books made into full length films, action must be padded to fill the 88 minutes, but it all serves the story and/or the characters. Horton’s imagination being rendered in 2-D straight out of the books was a lovely touch too. Carrey s comic but gentle, restrained inside Horton’s enormous heart, only peeking out when a little of his big dreamer self comes out, or when he determines to be a hero to his tiny charges. As a Carrey fan, even I found it hard to remember it was him most of the time, so much did he dive into his character.
Longtime Cinerina readers know that I ate studios who think we see animated movies for the names doing the voices. Unless that big name is also a great voice actor, I don’t care who it is; animation is about story, character, and visuals. Steve Carrel vanishes into his role as the mayor of Whoville, and Will Arnett’s Vlad the Vulture even more so. (I kept thinking, who IS that, he’s awesome – even after watching three Arrested Development episodes in the days prior.) Amy Poehler can’t quite shed her vaguely sarcastic tone, and Seth Rogen just has a lovable puffy-cheeked growl you can’t ignore. Jonah Hill? Yes, Jonah Hill. Isla Fisher? Totally. It’s a Judd Apatow cast in a Dr. Seuss book, ruled by Carol Burnett as a tyrannical conservative kangaroo, and it’s so loving and true, you’ll love it too.
That said, it sagged just a tad in the middle (I could also have had triple feature fatigue) between Horton’s deciding to save the Whos and his obstacles to doing so, but there’s so much to see and hear, you only mind just a little.
It’s a lovely tale about faith – in each other, in ourselves, in worlds or peoples we may never know or understand (but who deserve our respect nonetheless), and it happens to be a tidy little allegory for political manipulation as well. Protecting authority and ideology at the expense of wonder and life? Well, you do the math. The musical finale (the one from the book) is truly heartlifting – and then the studio clearly stepped in and demanded a horrible Shrek pop ending. I labored to forgive the stain on an otherwise charming film. It’s clear from the way the rest of the movie is handled that REO Speedwagon was not part of the original plan. Check it out.
MPAA Rating G
Release date 3/14/08
Time in minutes 88
Director Jimmy Hayward. Steve Martino
Studio 20th Century Fox
