Director: Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rating: B-
Another Hollywood attempt at a
Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who! tells
the story of Horton the elephant in his journey to save the Whos. Horton (Carrey) is, at best, rather eccentric
and at worst full out nuts, but he has amazing hearing and never forgets a
thing – after all, he is an elephant.
The Whos are nothing at all like the Whos of The Grinch, but rather furry hominoid creatures that kind of
resemble monkeys. Microscopic monkeys,
that is, who live on a speck that has landed on a clover. Horton, being the only creature who is aware
of the Whos existence sets out on a trek to find a safe place for the clover, thus
preventing the destruction of their planet.
The other animals are predominantly a bit hesitant of Horton and worry
about the influence that he has on their children, his only real friend being
Morton the Mouse (Rogen), who doesn’t actually believe in the Whos but still
supports the elephant. The most militant
of the other animals is the kangaroo, Jane (Burnett), who is aided by the
vulture Vlad Vladikoff (Arnett).
Meanwhile, the Whos are preparing for a big celebration and thus do not
wish to heed the warnings of Mayor Ned McDodd (Carell) about their possible
impending doom. Thus, it is up to Horton
to save the speck and the Mayor to convince the Whos that they are living upon
a speck.
I want to say, something about
this being complicated, but I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot
lately. Even though the plot is a bit
complicated, it isn’t so overly complicated that it fails to make sense. In fact, where other made for children movies
have failed plot-wise, Horton
succeeds. There is a lot going on but
everything makes sense, as does the motivation of the many different
characters. It’s all linked
together. Jane is a total type A, domineering
mother, who won’t let her son out of her sight.
She fears the influence of the eccentric Horton, who is making himself
look insane by talking to a speck – no one else has ears big enough to hear the
Whos. The Whos, with the exception of
the Mayor, do not hear Horton, because they don’t have the technology to
receive his words (the two speak through an intricate system of pipes on the
top of the Mayor’s house), and thus do not believe the Mayor when he says that their
planet is simply a speck on another planet.
To be fair, I doubt I would believe such a thing if I was in the Whos’
position.
The problem with Horton is similar to the problem with The Lorax. It is more of a product of the 21st
century and the creators of the film than it is a product of Dr. Seuss. As such, it is rather misleading. I personally didn’t want to see this film
because of the minds of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, and certainly not because
of any of the directors or producers (none of which I’ve ever heard of
before). If I want to see a Jim Carrey
or a Steve Carell movie, it’s not going to be an animated children’s movie (or
even a live action children’s movie). I
want to watch a movie based on a Dr. Seuss story because I like Dr. Seuss
stories. Transporting it from the
fictional world of Seuss into a contemporary world full of pop culture references is just
unnecessary. It takes away from the
story and is like making Willie Wonka the son of a domineering dentist who
never let his child eat candy. Oh, wait,
I guess Hollywood’s done that already.
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