HORTON HEARS A WHO!

By Michael J Edwards / July 1, 2011

Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino Written by: Ken Daurio (screenplay), Cinco Paul (screenplay), Dr. Seuss (book/story) Starring: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Carol Burnett,Will Arnett,Dan Fogler,Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, Amy Poehler, Jaime Pressley Distributed by: Fox Film is released worldwide on March, 14th 2008. Review by Michael Edwards

rating: 3.5

Dr. Seuss adaptations, a veritable minefield for the children's filmmaker. How do you adapt such crazy works of genius without stepping on someone's toes or losing the magic of the original (or if not the original, the campy cult cartoon classics!) Well, I don't have the answer, but in Horton Hears A Who we find a very solid attempt that comes off well. The first thing that's been done right is it's plumped for animation, replete with a little bit of Dr. Seuss illustration thrown in early on as a fop to purists. There is no way that the absolute absurdity of the worlds created in these tales can transfer to any other medium in my book, so this is just playing to it's strengths. In terms of staying true to the spirit of the original - that magic phrase applied to adaptations as diverse as Alice in Wonderland and Brick Lane - this film just about manages it too, although I have a few gripes abut the Disney-fication of the story line which was somewhat inevitable in the fleshing out of the short original story and of course the messages of hope and unity are updated to be far more family-friendly and fitting with the present (American) moral climate. What was particularly irksome to me was that they managed to insert the suddenly obligatory EMO kid into the film, in fact he was almost an exact cartoon replica of Dwayne from Little Miss Sunshine. But anyway, enough of this stuff, on to the fun bits. The story is about friendly elephant Horton (Jim Carrey) who lives a happy life in the jungle, until one day he's perturbed when he thinks he hears a cry for help coming from a tiny speck floating by on the breeze. Troubled, he chases the speck and tries to find out what could have made the noise. It turns out that this speck is home to the happy town of Whoville, run by the madcap mayor (Steve Carell) who is somewhat surprised to learn that his town is on a speck floating through a jungle, and enlists the help of Horton to find a safe place for Whoville to be installed in order to avoid potential peril. But sadly Horton faces a series of obstacles to achieve his noble aim, not least the incredulity of his fellow jungle-dwellers, including a particularly sour kangaroo (Carol Burnett) and a crazy vulture named Vlad. The voice acting is great, with all of the cast fitting the roles well. And the gags, both visual for the kids (and big kids), and verbal for the parents, raised many a chuckle in the cinema. High among the comedy were some little gems of animation which included a well-made parody of the many anime-style kids cartoons that have flooded some of the cartoon channels on cable now. What's more, in beefing up the meagre storyline the writers have not just added the predictable elements mixed into 99% of family films, but made the most of the Dr Seuss ambiance by throwing in some delightfully weird and quirky tertiary characters which really brought something to the film. All-in-all a thoroughly entertaining kids movie that could easily brighten up an overcast weekend. Not an instant classic, but full of playful little gags, bizarre characters and quality animation. Plus it's not too scary for the young kids either! What more could you ask for really? HORTON HEARS A WHO is out in the UK on 14th of March.