I found myself completely taken with Horton Hears a Who! based on the 1954 classic by Dr. Seuss of the same name. At its core, the story is about recognizing the value of a person, despite their size, as Horton, an enormous elephant, becomes aware of a voice coming from a small speck of matter, and comes to learn there’s an entire city of Who’s on that speck, led by the Mayor, who’s never had much to do, as nothing bad has ever happened. Realizing how precarious the Who’s situation is, Horton decides to try to save them. In that process, Horton makes himself an object of ridicule and scorn in the jungle of Nool.
The screenplay by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul expands the story without compromising the spirit of the original and never loses the vision of Dr. Seuss. It’s impossible not to root for Horton (the voice of Jim Carrey), because he’s just a caring elephant who spends his days teaching the younger animals all about the forest and the other animals that inhabit it. Given Horton’s caring personality, it comes as no surprise that he decides he must rescue Whoville from certain extinction. Horton soon learns that Mayor Ned (Steve Carell) and his very large family reside over the town of Whoville. After much searching, Horton determines that the best place for Whoville is atop Mt. Nool.
However, the trip to the top of the mountain won’t be easy, and other animals are worried that Horton has taken to communicating with a speck on a clover. Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) feels that Horton is a bad influence and will taint her youngest Joey, Rudy (Josh Flitter) with the nonsense about tiny inhabitants living on the speck. She hires the evil vulture Vlad Vladikoff (Will Arnett) to take the speck from Horton and destroy it before the elephant can cause more harm to the minds of the children. This Vlad is not to be confused with the cuddly bunny Vlad that bakes cookies. When Vlad fails to carry out the job, Sour Kangaroo turns to the Wickersham brothers to complete the job. Meanwhile, Mayor Ned and his wife Sally (Amy Poehler) are having enough problems with their ninety six daughters and their sole son Jo-Jo (Jesse McCartney), but now they need to help Horton save Whoville.
As I stated earlier, the changes made from the book to the film only enhance the story. Making Jo-Jo “the shirker” the Mayor’s son, gives the film a nice emotional center. The father/son relationship is of course inherently personal, but it also gives Horton another reason to try so hard to save Whoville. Aside from this major change, most of the rest of the story is still in place, held together by Charles Osgood’s narration, which has just the right effect. Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul have simply added a few new characters (such as Horton’s mouse friend, Morton) and some additional dialogue to fill out the story.
The look of Horton Hears a Who! is very impressive. The CGI animation is visually stunning, without losing any of the charm or style of Dr. Seuss’ original work. Major Kudos also have to go out to the voice talent on the film. Jim Carrey makes Horton sound like the kind, energetic soul I also imagined him to be. Carol Burnett is perfect as Sour Kangaroo and even Jesse McCartney was charming as Jo-Jo.
Horton Hears a Who! is a wonderful film, and easily the best adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book yet. Well crafted from start to finish, this film should remain a family favorite for years to come.
The anamorphic widescreen transfer looks pretty good, with some bright, vivid color and some impressive detail. A look at the animated Horton will tell you just how good this video is, as there are such minuscule details in his wrinkled skin, while the many furry characters look terrific. There’s nothing to complain about here, with no issues with dirt, damage or digital artifacts to be found.
The audio utilizes the surround sound feature effectively, putting dialogue center stage, unless the character’s position requires a different location, while the strong music and fun sound effects get enhancement from the side and rear speakers. As is often the case, the choice between the DTS and Dolby Digital track is an easy one, with the DTS offering a much more precise, richer delivery of the sound.
There are quite a few extras for what could be considered just a kids movie, starting with a new Ice Age short film, starring John Leguizamo’s sloth character. Sid takes some younger animals on a camping trip and cause calamity, as expected, in much the same vein as the films.
Up next is a feature-length commentary with co-directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino. They have plenty to share about the film, including lots of details about the thought process behind the designs and concepts in the film, as well as small details they find particularly interesting (like the inclusion of modern things like cell phones and social networking.)
Hayward and Martino return to provide a video intro for the deleted scenes, of which there are quite a few, with 13 in all, split between storyboards, rough animations and almost-finished scenes, for over 18 minutes of material in all. The co-directors also provide commentary on this content, discussing why the material was cut, which is key.
For animation junkies, over seven minutes of animation screen tests are available, with an introduction by animation Nick Bruno. The 23 clips are of Horton, the Mayor and the Who’s, and show how they were conceptualized, and how their CG structures were tested out before the crew got started. You find out more about that process is the 5:29 “Bringing the Characters to Life,” which includes interviews with the animation staff, as they talk about how they worked with their own reference videos to figure out how the “actors” move. Things get even more specific in “That’s One Big Elephant: Animating Horton,” an eight-minute look at the development of the starring character, which is much like “Bringing,” but more Horton-based.
The 3:47 “Meet Katie” focuses on the story of the furry little yak who just steals her scenes in the film, as the creators talk about the development of the character from a background drawing to full-fledged cult hero. She really represents the Seuss mentality that’s explored in “Bringing Seuss to Screen,” an eight-minute featurette about translating the style of the book to the movie, which is worth a look for fans on both sides of the aisle.
The stars of the show arrive with “The Elephant in the Room: Jim Carrey,” 4:54 about the comic actor’s involvement with the film, while the 3:41 “A Person is a Person: A Universal Message” features Carrell talking about the film’s theme. It’s not as much of these two as most would want, but it’s nice to see them involved int he extras anyway.
From here on out, much of the bonus material is tailored toward kids. “We Are Here!” which asks you to repeat the notes played by the Whos. It should be a fun challenge for younger players though. There are two kid-focused featurettes as well, the preachy four-minute “Our Speck: Where Do We Fit In?,” which offers a green message about protecting our planet, and the educational “Elephant Fun: The Facts,” which spends five minutes talking about real elephants.
Closing out the genuine extras is a DVD-ROM feature, Create Your Own Animation. It’s far from the best you’ve seen, as the flash app lets you choose from a male or female Who body, and then decorate it with different body types, hair, hair, clothing color and accessories, place it in a scene and then have it perform one of three animations. Unfortunately, it didn’t keep the choices I made in the final animation, and you can’t do anything with that animation, so it’s all pretty meaningless. For a little kid though it might be fun.
Things wrap up with a handful of trailers.
