Dr Seuss’ story of an elephant and a speck containing a tiny village filled with tiny people is as endearing as it is short and sweet. These are important facts. Remember them.
Here we have a cast of Hollywood heavyweights in a CGI extravaganza that cost multimillions of dollars has two directors and two sorry writers. They had to turn a story-ette into a tentpole.
The result completely misses the mark. It bastardises Dr. Seuss’ intentions and turns them into a big bag of wind.
And CGI still bothers the heck out of me. People swoon over the ‘realistic’ look, but it’s not. It’s hyper realistic or super realistic, it is anti-human, horrible to look at. Those dead eyes do not a good movie make.
Jim Carrey plays Horton, a sweet natured jungle elephant, who discovers a speck that lodges in a clover blossom. It holds Whoville. He can hear the people living their merry little lives inside.
No one believes him, of course and he becomes the target of derision.
Whoville’s self appointed morality cop, Kangaroo, voiced by Carol Burnett, accuses him of lying and demands he confess or face expulsion from the jungle. She berates and bullies him and forces the rest of the animals to join her. They don’t want to hurt him, but crossing her is just plain dumb.
She seems not to give a Who about Horton’s speck city, what she needs is a victim for her domineering, vengeful attacks. This character is really out there for a children’s film, a social leader that bullies and abuses and gets away with it.
She’s really scary.
Horton forms a bond with the Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell) and between them fabricate a brass tube affair that allows them to talk to each other, from the jungle to the speck village. They tell each other their troubles and support one another.
The collision of their two worlds drives the movie. The battle of wills between the Mayor and his evil board and Horton and the non-believers leave a bitter taste. There are death-defying acts of physical bravery, town fairs, chases, momentary frights, and tiny games of Whoville tennis.
A redeeming feature is the Mayor’s nice family of 92 daughters and one son. They get a little play and that’ cool because they are the heart of it.
The cast’s pretty cool – Isla Fisher, SethRogenJonahHill, Jaime Pressley, Jesse McCartney and the ever-evil Will Arnett as the vampiric vulture Vlad.
This is a full-length movie based on the thinnest of stories, a story that was never intended to be a multimillion-dollar movie, especially one as abrasive and loud as this one.
Parents will be annoyed that they can’t nap their way through 88 minutes because of the racket and kids will frankly be lost because the storyline is so convoluted.
It’s a mess. A big, noisy expensive mess that people will drag their kids to see before bad word of mouth gets around.
It was all I could do not to run out of the theatre and go do something fascinating like vacuum my closets or shovel snow.
As another famous writer, whose works become terrific films says, it’s ‘sound and fury signifying nothing.’
Horton Hears a Who Cares!
Written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul based on a story by Dr. Seuss
Your Talkback on this Story