"Horton Hears a Who" Review

I asked a seven year old what she thought of Horton Hears a Who. She gave a rather succint: "It was good. I liked it. Can I have more gummi bears?" Thrilled to have her help, I obliged. My thoughts will be succint as well because everyone should know the story of Horton. It is also really hard to hate on or be snarky about an existential elephant giving his all to help out a small Utopian society while facing severe adversity at the hands of fellow citizens in the Jungle of Nool. It's like the perfect political plotline turned into an animated feature film. Or as I like to call it; perfection. Of course small children will see it as funny and light-hearted (which it is) and will be mesmerized by the way Horton turns his ears into a swimming cap before taking a plunge. He is clever AND kind. What more could you ask for?

For those not in the know of the ultimate story of seeing everyone as equals and being kind to all individuals; Horton (Jim Carrey) sees a speck floating through the air and from that speck he hears a noise. A noise from a particle of dust. Intrigued, he follows the speck around and comes to find out that there is an entire city on that single speck. Whoville (yes, of Grinch fame, but that comes later) (Those Whos had it ROUGH, yo) which is a lovely little village run by a Mayor (Steve Carell) with 96 daughters and one son, Jojo. Jojo has emo hair, which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual story but he has shaggy, in the eyes, emo hair and I kind of wanted every scene with him in it to feature a little Dashboard Confessional. But I digress.

So, Horton finds the speck and when the other residents in the Jungle of Nool learn of the speck there is a little bit of anarchy led by Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) because Horton is obviously crazy. A world cannot exist on a speck and the tiny people of Whoville aren't real. She is the antithesis to the "a person's a person, no matter how small" movement. On the other side, up in Whoville, the Mayor is also catching flack from his constituents who don't believe that the random climate changes are because their perfect society is on the brink of destruction. Like one day when it snows (it's actually frost in the Jungle) in the middle of summer, instead of freaking out, the residents of Whoville bust out sleds because everything is just FINE. The Mayor also faces critics from the city council and when he tries to cancel the Whocentennial (Dude, SNOW! In JULY! I don't blame him!) they trap him in a glass bubble and play elevator music to give off the illusion that perfection in Whoville still reigns supreme.

Here is the great lesson to be learned moment: Even with 'people' coming at them from both sides, Horton and the Mayor are able to save the city of Whoville through some divine miracle, a few trombones and Jojo and his brilliant emo-self, to prove to those on the other side that yes! There really ARE people on the speck! And maybe no matter what, all mammals are special. And then they all hold hands and sing kumbaya and I get misty eyed (while alone in the movie theater) because damn, that is deep. It's also cute and fun and probably a lovely way to teach small children that they should be nice to all who inhabit the world. And for the adults; there is a line in the movie from Katie, a student of Horton's who says "In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies" and if this movie doesn't have stars flying out of your ass and leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling then you obviously have no soul

Ok, so that was just a really long way of agreeing with a seven year old. It was good. I liked it and now I'm going to treat myself to some gummi bears.

Comments

[T.]

We just saw it a couple of hours ago. My 2.5 year old even sat still for it, woo hoo! It was very cute but don't you think REO Speedwagon was a little lame? It just made the end not so great for me.

[lisa]

How about those evil Wickersham brothers, do they make an appearance? In the old animated version they were the kangaroo's henchmen, and they were pretty scary when they were taking old Horton and the speck to be boiled in oil... I assume this version is less scary?

[Heather B.]

Duh, I should have mentioned the 'scare' factor. Nope, not scary at all. The Wickershams are in the film but not in such an alarming fashion. Like T. said, you could bring a 2.5 year old to it and s/he would be fine. It's also pretty short and moves at a quick pace. So it never feels like the plot is draaaaaaaging. I brought a seven year old the first time I saw it and then there were several little kids in the theater the second time and all seemed fine.

[DianaCLT]

"In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies" and if this movie doesn't have stars flying out of your ass and leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling then you obviously have no soul

Ahhh...never have I wanted stars to fly out of my ass so much as I do now. And pooping butterflies sounds a lot more pleasant than the usual...although I doubt the butterflies would agree. GREAT review!

[Lisalisa]

Oh my god i am laughing my ass off and i want stars to fly out of my ass too. Thanks for the review!

[BaltimoreGal]

I would like to poop rainbows. A personal choice.

[patrick]

Dr. Seuss is classic; after seeing Horton Hears a Who i remembered how much he packs into relatively simple storylines... they didn't add much to the original story either except for the usual Jim Carreyisms.