Horton Hears a Who!

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First off, the animation and the lush imaginative visuals here are simply amazing. It would be heresy to claim that it's better than Pixar, but… to my untrained eye, it appears to be right up in the same league at least.

[UPDATE: just re-watched WALL·E, and the above sentence may be the single stupidest thing I've written on this blog. Although the Blue Sky folks are wonderfully inventive, they're not that close to Pixar yet.]

It's based, of course, on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. In the jungle one day, Horton hears a voice calling out from a speck floating by; it turns out to be the home of microscopic Whoville, inhabited by (of course) the equally microscopic Whos. Horton resolves to protect the Who-infested speck from certain disaster. This, for some reason, incites the local lady Kangaroo, who insists the Whos are imaginary, setting up the movie's conflict.

Horton is voiced by Jim Carrey, and the filmmakers apparently thought that a good deal of the Carrey personality should go into Horton as well; it's as if he's been possessed by the Ace Ventura demon. (Similarly, the Mayor of Whoville is voiced by Steve Carell; he seems to have been infested with way too much Michael Scott from The Office.)

Also rubbing me the wrong way: the close-minded, intolerant Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) snippily informs Horton that her child has been "pouch schooled": A gratuitous swipe at home-schoolers, apparently.

So, despite the glorious eye candy on the screen, everything else seems just a little off. Maybe watching it with the audio muted would have worked better.

Aside: Horton's famous line from the book, also in the movie, is, "A person's a person. No matter how small." Wikipedia relates that, naturally enough, this is often seized upon by pro-life groups. Which (in turn) irked the famously lefty Dr. Seuss: he threatened to sue a pro-life group for putting the phrase on their stationery. So:

A person's a person. No matter how small.
Um, unless he's unborn; that's not a close call.

Last Modified 2024-01-31 5:36 AM EDT