DR SEUSS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO

US, 2008, 88 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, Amy Poehler.
Directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino.

According to Dr Seuss’ fans this is a faithful adaptation of his story and captures the spirit of his characters and plots, the drawings and the verses. The more recent versions of Dr Seuss’ stories have not been so impressive with the overdone The Grinch who Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey and the not very charming The Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers. Perhaps telling the stories through animation makes them seem more like fairy tales and bedtime stories than live action.

This should be a happy experience for younger children. Their parents should enjoy a lot of it as well, more particularly the voices of Jim Carrey as Horton, the large, lovable and lumbering elephant, his arch critic the self-important and self-righteous Kangaroo, voiced with her aplomb and sardonic tones by Carol Burnett. But, what is a kangaroo doing in a jungle with an elephant and monkeys? Oh well, that’s fairy tales for you.

Horton is good natured and discovers a speck on a flower which contains a whole town of little people. When he hears the mayor speak (in Steve Carell’s voice) and the bumbling mayor of Whoville hears him, the two strike up a friendship – even though nobody believes either of them. As the kangaroo says in self-satisfied atheistic tones, ‘If you can’t see it, smell it or hear it, it doesn’t exist’.

Well, Whoville does exist and the town is threatened when the kangaroo does a deal with an Eastern European accented buzzard, proud of his teeth and violent prowess, called Vlad (amusing voice of Will Arnett) to get rid of the speck. Adventures, chases, threats and many comic touches follow until Horton and the mayor are vindicated and the kangaroo has to learn humility and is still treated in a kindly way by Horton.

1.Dr Seuss’ popular stories, the images, the poems and verses, his imagination?

2.The target age for the film, young children and their response? Adults?

3.The quality of the animation, bright colours, the jungle locations, Whoville, the town? The variety of animals? The characters in Whoville?

4.The voices, the popular voices and their comic touch? Comedy, pathos, the songs?

5.Dr Seuss’ verses, as relating to Horton, to the mayor, to the animals? Trouble? Horton trying? The moral at the end, a person is a person no matter how small? The huge animal looking after the smallest speck?

6.Horton as a character, comic elephant, lumbering, ears for a hat, wax in his ear, diving and going for a swim, the animals in his school, the leaf bugs and his mistake, finding the speck?

7.The school, his friends, Morton and his advice? The kangaroo, her haughtiness? The joey?

8.Horton and his lifestyle, happy, his comments, wisecracks? Hearing the mayor, discovering Whoville, talking with the mayor? Nobody believing him?

9.The mayor of Whoville, his story, his wife, the many daughters, JoJo? his only son? JoJo? to be the mayor after him? JoJo? not wanting it? His being thought of as a boob, the councillors and their ridicule of him? His wife? His manner, talking, the opposition? The snow and Horton getting rid of it? The growing dangers, Horton and his explanations, the mayor explaining it, the festival and the people thinking nothing would happen?

10.The kangaroo, her dominance, self-righteous, nothing existing except what can be seen? The reasons for her antagonism towards Horton? Towards the speck on the flower? Her going to Vlad, the comic style of Vlad and his speech, his self-promotion, his teeth, awkwardness, the deal?

11.The issue of people not hearing, people not being able to see, not believing anything which can’t be seen or sensed?

12.The belief of the Whos, parallel to the animals in the jungle?

13.Vlad, his pursuit of Horton, the chase, the dangers, Horton running up the mountain, getting the flower, the speck, the field of flowers?

14.Horton and his search, the million, taking each one individually, the heaps of flowers? Finding the speck?

15.The mayor, trying to make sounds so that the animals would hear, everybody joining in, JoJo? and his work in the tower, his music? The noise, finally making themselves heard?

16.The kangaroo and her reaction, getting the mob, Morton warning Horton? The attack, the lynch mentality, the cage? Their not believing Horton?

17.The kanga’s son hearing the sounds, then everybody hearing, the change, Horton happy?

18.Kangaroo, her speech, the viciousness, her joey disobeying her, her being left alone? Horton offering her the cookie?

19.The happy ending, the survival of Whoville, Horton as a hero? And the belief in what you cannot see? And the care for the smallest of persons?