Horton Hears a Who!
Directed by Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino
Our imaginations are under attack. At least that’s the message that seems to be emanating from recent animated fare. But don’t tell the preschoolers racing through the aisles or their parents, who trundle after them with big yellow bins overflowing with popcorn, sodas and jelly beans. They just want a fun time with loud sounds and bright, moving lights.
If I hadn’t been surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of 4-year-olds in the Ziegfeld on a recent Saturday morning, I’m sure I would have a far different impression of Horton Hears a Who!, Blue Sky Studio’s adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic. But instead of growing restless at the lack of a defined plot and simplistic characters, I rollicked along with the giggles and grins of the audience for whom this CG animated feature was clearly intended. Besides, I’m just happy to finally see a Dr. Seuss story brought to the screen in such vivid color and awesome detail, unlike the last two dreary live-action duds that seemed to reinforce why the creator of The Cat and the Hat and The Grinch tried so hard for so long to keep his works from being adapted into big Hollywood spectacles.
The story is a simple one, about an elephant named Horton in the jungle of Nool, who hears a sound from a speck and discovers that an entire city called Whoville, complete with a civilization of microscopic Whos, is contained on that mote of dust. He vows to save them and must overcome the prejudices of a controlling Kangaroo and her henchmen. The rhymed story can be read in a few minutes so, of course, we get a lot more backstory and additional scenes that transport us through the jungle’s whacked-out flora and fauna, as well as quite a bit of Whoville inventions and culture.
Horton includes megastars like Jim Carrey (Horton), Steve Carrell (Mayor of Whoville) and Carol Burnett (Kangaroo), as well as the comedic talents of Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Isla Fisher and Jonah Hill. All that smug sass could spell trouble for the feature, but directors Jimmy Haward (animator on Toy Story and other Pixar biggies) and Steve Martino (art director of Robots) were able to reign in the topical references and bathroom humor so that the most daring moment is when one odd-looking character imagines a race of beings that “eat rainbows and poop butterflies.”
Lacking much of the sarcastic edge found throughout Pixar’s hits, we’re able to appreciate the naive optimism that endears Seuss’ creations to us, without looking for a rotten ironic core. His secular moral lessons—about loyalty, honesty, tolerance and compassion—continue to resonate in a subtle way that (hopefully) sticks with kids forever. Luckily, Carrey’s Horton never teeters into obnoxiousness, instead he inhabits the loveable pachyderm with warmth and wit.
Of course, the 3-D animation is incredible, with plant leaves that—although asymmetrical in that Seussian way—look more real than if they’d been plucked from a rain forest. There are obvious money shots for the animators: the Mayor carries a tray of water glasses, his eyes magnified dozens of times; Whos are covered in millions of strands of multi-colored hair in wild shapes; and the most menacing character, Vlad Vlad-I-Koff, is a buzzard with slick, oily feathers. But most of this just passes the average viewer by since we’ve quickly come to expect such computer wizardry. It’s not until Horton loses his special clover that contains his speck in a field of millions of clovers—a billowing pink-purple ocean of color surpasses that infamous field of poppies in The Wizard of Oz—that we truly appreciate the work that went into creating this fantasyland.
The night before seeing Horton, I watched the new South Park DVD for Imaginationland, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s three-part animated feature that skewers Americans for allowing terrorists to infiltrate their imaginations and influence their actions. In the cartoon, they literally have Islamic terrorists infiltrate Imaginationland, a place where all the fictional characters humans have created reside. Then they begin to blow them up. Seuss-like characters are maimed and killed, along with Raggedy Ann and Andy, Ronald McDonald and various storybook favorites. Santa Claus is burned alive. It’s hilarious social satire, and the following day, joining all those bright, smiling faces, I’m glad that—while all these nice boys and girls are being influenced by a more subtle form of satire, their imaginations being fed with wholesome values—they’ll be ready to combat the forces that will soon enough take them hostage.
Directed by Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino
Our imaginations are under attack. At least that’s the message that seems to be emanating from recent animated fare. But don’t tell the preschoolers racing through the aisles or their parents, who trundle after them with big yellow bins overflowing with popcorn, sodas and jelly beans. They just want a fun time with loud sounds and bright, moving lights.
If I hadn’t been surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of 4-year-olds in the Ziegfeld on a recent Saturday morning, I’m sure I would have a far different impression of Horton Hears a Who!, Blue Sky Studio’s adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic. But instead of growing restless at the lack of a defined plot and simplistic characters, I rollicked along with the giggles and grins of the audience for whom this CG animated feature was clearly intended. Besides, I’m just happy to finally see a Dr. Seuss story brought to the screen in such vivid color and awesome detail, unlike the last two dreary live-action duds that seemed to reinforce why the creator of The Cat and the Hat and The Grinch tried so hard for so long to keep his works from being adapted into big Hollywood spectacles.
The story is a simple one, about an elephant named Horton in the jungle of Nool, who hears a sound from a speck and discovers that an entire city called Whoville, complete with a civilization of microscopic Whos, is contained on that mote of dust. He vows to save them and must overcome the prejudices of a controlling Kangaroo and her henchmen. The rhymed story can be read in a few minutes so, of course, we get a lot more backstory and additional scenes that transport us through the jungle’s whacked-out flora and fauna, as well as quite a bit of Whoville inventions and culture.
Horton includes megastars like Jim Carrey (Horton), Steve Carrell (Mayor of Whoville) and Carol Burnett (Kangaroo), as well as the comedic talents of Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Isla Fisher and Jonah Hill. All that smug sass could spell trouble for the feature, but directors Jimmy Haward (animator on Toy Story and other Pixar biggies) and Steve Martino (art director of Robots) were able to reign in the topical references and bathroom humor so that the most daring moment is when one odd-looking character imagines a race of beings that “eat rainbows and poop butterflies.”
Lacking much of the sarcastic edge found throughout Pixar’s hits, we’re able to appreciate the naive optimism that endears Seuss’ creations to us, without looking for a rotten ironic core. His secular moral lessons—about loyalty, honesty, tolerance and compassion—continue to resonate in a subtle way that (hopefully) sticks with kids forever. Luckily, Carrey’s Horton never teeters into obnoxiousness, instead he inhabits the loveable pachyderm with warmth and wit.
Of course, the 3-D animation is incredible, with plant leaves that—although asymmetrical in that Seussian way—look more real than if they’d been plucked from a rain forest. There are obvious money shots for the animators: the Mayor carries a tray of water glasses, his eyes magnified dozens of times; Whos are covered in millions of strands of multi-colored hair in wild shapes; and the most menacing character, Vlad Vlad-I-Koff, is a buzzard with slick, oily feathers. But most of this just passes the average viewer by since we’ve quickly come to expect such computer wizardry. It’s not until Horton loses his special clover that contains his speck in a field of millions of clovers—a billowing pink-purple ocean of color surpasses that infamous field of poppies in The Wizard of Oz—that we truly appreciate the work that went into creating this fantasyland.
The night before seeing Horton, I watched the new South Park DVD for Imaginationland, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s three-part animated feature that skewers Americans for allowing terrorists to infiltrate their imaginations and influence their actions. In the cartoon, they literally have Islamic terrorists infiltrate Imaginationland, a place where all the fictional characters humans have created reside. Then they begin to blow them up. Seuss-like characters are maimed and killed, along with Raggedy Ann and Andy, Ronald McDonald and various storybook favorites. Santa Claus is burned alive. It’s hilarious social satire, and the following day, joining all those bright, smiling faces, I’m glad that—while all these nice boys and girls are being influenced by a more subtle form of satire, their imaginations being fed with wholesome values—they’ll be ready to combat the forces that will soon enough take them hostage.
