Horton Hears a Review

Dr. Seuss has been a childhood staple long before Dora the Explorer, long before the Wiggles, long before Sesame Street and about as long as Disney. Whether we've read the books or not, most of us have heard of Dr. Seuss's wondrous stories of the Who's weaved around rhythm and rhyme.

HORTON HEARS A WHO is the third Seuss book re-imagined as a movie(the entertaining HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, and the mediocre CAT IN THE HAT are the other two) but the first to employ the brilliant CGI animation of Blue Sky Studios (brought us ICE AGE). The animation is beautiful and vibrant bringing Horton's world to life in details unlike anything we've seen before (they also use different animation styles such as a hilarious nod to Japanimation). None of this gets in the way to the surprisingly fulfilling tale.

The movie centres around Horton, a free-spirited quirky elephant (voiced by the goofy mimicry of Jim Carrey), who one day hears a voice coming from a tiny speck that he captures on a clover. The voice is of the distraught Mayor of Who-ville (Steve Carrell) in need of guidance. Together they must convince their respective society's the existence of the other (i.e. Horton must try to prove that there are tiny people living on that speck or they'll get destroyed; the Mayor must prove that there's a giant invisible elephant lording over them in the sky determining their fate).

The religious overtones are difficult to avoid but not a distraction. Dr. Seuss stories are, as I'm discovering from rereading them, parables and lessons for everyday life taken, at times, right from the Bible. Horton's lesson is "a person's a person no matter how small" with a sub-lesson of "God is watching over all of us and he just very well be a giant invisible elephant in the sky!"

Every character in this flick is important and the producers spared no expense in bringing in talented actors for those voices. Take a look at this list (Carol Burnett as the close-minded Kangaroo, Seth Rogen as Horton's best rat friend, Will Arnett as Vlad the vampirous vulture, Amy Poehler as the Mayor's wife, Jonah Hill from SUPERBAD, Jaime Presley, Jesse McCartney...the list goes on and on).

Bottom line, HORTON HEARS A WHO is a great fun movie for children and peppered enough with adult references for a few chuckles for the rest (though it could've used more pepper from my point of view). Still it's an entertaining ride and a great escape on this Easter weekend.

7.5 specks out of 10.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!