REVIEW: Horton Hears A Who!
Dr. Seuss Adaptation Reviewed By James Luxford
Fox's new adaptation of the Dr Seuss story "Horton Hears A Who", Reviewed By James Luxford
In the past 10 or so years, CG animation has indeed overtaken traditional animation as the children’s choice, with Pixar emerging as the power player (albeit on Mickey Mouse’s dollar). However, the battle for silver is equally hard fought, and Fox have made a pretty strong case for themselves, with the “Ice Age” movies making huge box office worldwide.
Blue Sky Thinking From Fox
Their latest venture, in partnership with new animation studio “Blue Sky Productions”, is an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears A Who!” Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey) is a well meaning but eccentric resident of the Forest of Nool, who hears a yelp from a tiny speck on a clover. Convinced there’s life on the speck, he undertakes to defend it from the perils of the jungle, much to the chagrin of the bossy leader of the Forest, Kangaroo (Carol Burnett). Meanwhile, on the speck lives the town of Whoville, where their mayor (Steve Carell) manages to hear Horton’s reply, and starts to believe their idyllic existence may be under threat.
Horton Hears A Hit?
The key to any kids film is to have a humour that includes the grown-ups without excluding the target audience. Luckily “Horton…” has that in spades. We get nods to 70’s Kung Fu films, jokes about parenting and, at its heart, gags that are funny no matter what your age. Carrey is energetic and manic as Horton, and at times you feel he’s just aching to run onscreen and pull a face to the audience. Luckily he is restrained (physically, at least) and the result is a solid lead that maintains sincerity. Carell leads a strong support with some names picked for their voice talent, not their celebrity: Burnett, Will
Arnett (as an assassin vulture named Vlad) and comic of the moment Seth Rogan.
A criticism is that the story’s a little light, and whilst it’s visually stunning (particularly the opening sequence charting the speck’s journey to Horton), there is a sense of knowing where things are going. Added to that the almost sickly mantra of “A Person’s a Person, No Matter How Small”, which begins to grate by the film’s climax.
Just What The Dr. Ordered?
Seuss adaptations have ranged from the terrific (Carrey’s “The Grinch”) to the unwatchable (Mike Myers choking on makeup in “The Cat in the Hat”), and luckily “Horton…” is leaning towards the former. By no means as good as Pixar’s best, or as clever as something like “Shrek”, but a fun hour-and-twenty for big and little Whos alike.
