Finally! Finally someone figured out that Dr. Seuss’ material is best translated to the big screen in animated form and luckily for Fox they have partnered with the capable group at Blue Sky for their CGI animated films as they turned out a reasonably entertaining film that should occupy the kiddies for the perfectly timed 88 minute duration.
Horton Hears a Who! is based on the 1954 Dr. Seuss story of the same name in which the lovable elephant Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey) happens upon a tiny speck in which he swears has intelligent life on it. Sure enough, he comes to learn that on that speck is the tiny town of Whoville inhabited by, yup, Whos.
Horton’s desire to protect the Whos soon gets him into trouble with a snooty kangaroo voiced by Carol Burnett as she swears there couldn’t possibly be life on the little speck and sets out to convince the rest of the animals living in the jungle that Horton’s lies are a bad influence on the kids. Her goal is to get Horton kicked out of the jungle while Horton’s only goal is getting the Whos to safety.
Excuse me for not being familiar with the source material, it’s been some time since I picked up a Seuss story. For those of you familiar with the story you may be able to pick out the differences based on my description, and from what I have read there are some differences with a few added characters and a few character stories that have been cut back. However, I feel confident telling you it all works quite well. There are enough jokes for the kids and the adults to suffice and the story itself works quite well.
As far as the voice cast is concerned the recognizable characters are obviously Jim Carrey as Horton, Steve Carell as the mayor of Whoville, Carol Burnett as the kangaroo and Seth Rogen as Morton, some sort of a jungle mouse. Everyone that makes up the voice cast does a perfectly fine job, but I did not recognize any of the rest of the names in relation to their characters. Names such as Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Dan Fogler, Amy Poehler, Jaime Pressly and Jonah Hill are entirely unrecognizable, which makes me wonder why even get the bigger names at all. I will say Arnett did do a fair job with the film’s second villain in the bumbling role of Vlad the vulture, but other than that I really don’t see the need.
The one element that really stuck out for me was the animation. The opening sequence following a water drop is borderline perfect animation. If the footage wasn’t capturing the water drop from such an impossible angle I would have sworn it was real footage and not animation. On top of that this isn’t all CGI. Directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino incorporate a sequence that hails back to the original Seuss artwork as well as a scene of anime. Both instances seem dropped into the film out of nowhere, but they actually work really well.
What doesn’t work well is the singing of REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” at the end of the film. Talk about something being thrown in with no need or expectation. It really is an off-putting sequence and not the best way to end an otherwise good film. It’s not reason enough by any means to discourage you from watching the film, but be prepared for a rather unorthodox ending once all is said and done.
