DVD Reviews

Horton Hears a Who! – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Dec 18, 2008, 12:20 GMT

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Jim Carrey and Steve Carell star in this CGI animated adaptation of the classic tale from the pen of Dr. Suess. It’s colorful, funny, and masterfully voiced. If you’re going to the video store then your family couldn’t do better than to pick up this fandingulous choice. On the fifteenth of May in the Jungle of Nool an elephant name Horton (Jim Carrey) takes a dip in a pool. A speck of dust floats by and Horton thinks that he hears something coming from it. He catches the speck on a clover and protects it.

The Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) thinks that Horton is nuts and doesn’t want him “infecting” the children so she makes a veiled threat that he need not talk about his hearing things. It turns out that Horton does hear something and that the microscopic town of Who-ville is on the speck. It’s ruled over by the Mayor Ned McDodd (Steve Carell) who’s married to Sally (Amy Poehler) and they have 96 daughters (all voiced by Selena Gomez and Samantha Droke) and one son named JoJo (Jesse McCartney). The Mayor can’t devote but a few seconds of time to his numerous children but he tries to dote on JoJo since he’s next in line for mayor as per family tradition. The town of Who-ville is being plagued by earthquakes, which the city council doesn’t really want to acknowledge as a danger. The Mayor is able to communicate with Horton and finds out that his world is just a speck in Horton’s world. The mayor consults with Dr. Mary Lou Larue (Isla Fisher) who speculates that the speck would be destroyed unless put in a safe place in the larger entities world. Horton decides to take the speck to Mount Nool, the safest place in the jungle, but the Kangaroo will have none of it and hires the vulture Vlad Vladikoff (Will Arnett) to get rid of the speck as well as the mischievous monkeys the Wickersham Brothers (all voiced by Dan Fogler). Horton Hears a Who is based on the 1954 classic book by that wonderful weaver of words Dr. Suess (aka Theodore Geisel). Master animator Chuck Jones adapted it in 1970 as a half hour short. Blue Sky Studios, who made the Ice Age films, adapted the classic Suess tale and does a bit of stretching to get to a feature length. This was also done with another Jim Carrey starring Suess adaptation How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The 30 minute version uses Suess’ delight rhyming style to great effect and what might be the very small downfall of this picture is that his words only play small parts in between the action. That’s only a minor annoyance as the rest of the film is fantastic. Jim Carrey doesn’t do his usual over-the-top schtick and gives Horton a very likeable quality. Steve Carell also is fine as the Mayor of Who-ville. It’s nice to hear Carol Burnett again and she plays the “villain” of the film with great aplomb. Though we’re taught to be accepting of her in the end, a person’s a person.

There are some added action sequences to pad out the film, but it’s all in good fun and the family will have a great time visiting the jungles of Nool. Horton Hears a Who is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by co-directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino. The first special feature you might want to visit is an all-new Ice Age short (8 minutes) starring Syd the Sloth (John Leguizamo). Next are 18 minutes of deleted scenes and 7 minutes of animation tests. The 5-minute “Bringing the Characters to Life” explores how they brought the characters of Suess to the screen. The 8 minute “That’s One Big Elephant” looks at how Horton was animated. The 3-minute “Meet Katie” looks at how the furry character started off as a background figure and ended up playing a bigger part in the film. The 8 minute “Brining Suess to the Screen” shows how the animators brought his book style to the screen. The 5-minute “The Elephant in the Room” focuses on Jim Carrey. The 3 minute “A Person is a Person” looks at the message of the book and film. The 4 minute “Our Speck: Where do we fit in?” is a kidcentric piece about the planet. The 5 minute “Elephant Fun: The Facts” is a look at real elephants. There’s also the We are Here(!) game, a DVD-ROM feature called “Create your own Animation,” and trailers for other Fox flicks (but not one for Horton). Disc two features a digital copy of the film for your PC or portable device. Dr. Suess’ classical tale gets made into a feature film and it’s a fine fit even if the good doctor’s wordplay gets lost in the film. The voice cast is having a great time and we’re along for the ride in this creative adaptation.