HORTON HEARS A WHO! by jaiskizzy

the gist: jim carrey voices horton, a fanciful elephant who hears a voice from a speck only he could hear. he immediately believes that tiny people exist in the speck and starts carrying it around nestled on a flower, much to the chagrin of a kangaroo who thinks horton is poisoning the minds of children with his delusions. meanwhile, the mayor of whoville (steve carrell) notices odd happenings in his town and soon learns that whoville is the speck that horton has which, of course, the whovillians think is bulldung. with the fate of whoville upon his trunk, horton braves the nool jungle to put the speck in a place safe from harm. will horton accomplish his mission? will the non-believers find enlightenment? will jim carrey ever talk out of his ass again? ace ventura 3 please!!!

the reaction: the first time i came across dr. seuss's horton the elephant was in a looney tunes cartoon where horton is bamboozled by a bird into sitting on her egg while she goes on a vacation or something. horton, who meant what he said and said what he meant, climbs on the tree and stays with the egg until it hatches (in a cute little twist ending) because an elephant's faithful 100 percent. i could still remember the fish that shot itself. any-who, this movie is a ginormous step from that 2d short, a 72-page book inflated to a full-length film. it's as good as kiddie cgi movies can go, with the humor, the movements, the moral lesson(s) fit for the little ones, but you may find something to ponder about in it if you pay enough attention. i mean, the existence of an imaginary being speaking from the heavens who has the whole world under his care will surely have the religious roaring with their rosaries. heck, even the line "a person is a person no matter how small" pulled pro-life activists out of their abodes and had them picketing the theaters with their anti-abortion clamor. but that's taking the fun out of watching horton prance around, holding a flower. and saying that the previous sentence meant horton is gay.

now, since i had a non-dr. seuss childhood, i really dont know what elements from the book made it to the movie and was given justice, except maybe the elephant, whoville, and the rhymes. the obligatory villain comes in the form of a kangaroo that pouch-schools her son and wants to be in control of everything. her evilness worked, at least not too much to scare the kid viewers, which is why it was pretty hard to digest the fact that she turned face quite easily. in whoville, the villains are a team of grinch-lookalikes who have the same agenda of disregarding anything that would cause change (kinda like what's happening in our country now, dont you think?). anyways, there are a bunch of other characters worth noting like the speedy blue creature morton, which is like horton's conscience, and jojo, whoville mayor's emo son, who was my favorite character up until the ending where he [anti-spoiler] the [anti-spoiler] by [anti-spoiler] so that [anti-spoiler] them. and then there's this weird cute yellow...uh, thing named katie who, along with the others' imaginary speck-worlds, says "in my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies." now that is some crazy shit.

speaking of shit, voices, yes, jim carrey owned horton. at first, before seeing the film, i couldn't really imagine him as an elephant so i surmised he'd play around with his voice to match, but his real voice worked just fine. it is jim carrey, however, so he still got to play around with his voice in some parts. steve carrell did pretty well as well as the mayor. that's about all i can distinguish because i couldnt quite recognize everybody else. props to will arnett for voicing vlad the vulture (or bald eagle, not sure). i made guesses that maybe it was jim carrey as well and at some points, antonio banderas. i had no idea who it was 'til i saw the credits.

the animation is nothing short of impressive, which isnt saying much because there's really nothing new cgi-wise introduced here. except for the water, the cg is seamless, especially horton's movements which made it seem like jim carrey had a motion capture suit on the whole time. there are a couple of non-3d scenes in there, one resembling dr. seuss illustrations, the other, hilariously anime-inspired, both of which represent horton's imaginings. imho, it would have been better if a third one was squeezed in there, maybe stop-motion, just to play more on horton's wild mind and not come off as plain fillers which im sure a good number of whiners will point out as. more jim carrey: i dont know if anyone else noticed this but this film had some pretty obvious jim carrey references. exhibit a: when the mayor talks about their genealogy to his son, he inhales a big breath of air to speak nonstop, which is like the videoke scene in cable guy. exhibit b: when the mayor is about to have his root canal, the anesthesia is accidentally injected on his arm, which then becomes limp, definitely from ace ventura: when nature calls.

best viewed with some kids in tow, horton hears a who! is a nice little cgi movie replete with nice little laughs. whether the philosophical jabs were intended by dr. seuss or not, try to keep the debate ammo at bay and just enjoy the film as it is. i mean, fudge, it's a talking elephant for chrissakes.

the good: animation, story, voicing, humor
the bad: "can't fight this feeling anymore"
the ugly: not-the-bunny-with-cookies vlad
the verdict: 7 banana cigars


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