An elephant is faithful 100%!
It is often a sketchy frame of mind with which I go into a theatre when either old cartoon favorites or Dr. Seuss classics are redone with the all new technology available today. It will look beautiful of course, but what are they going to do to the story? Will they make it all hip and today, which would simply annoy me? Will they stick to the story and not even try to advance it at all? Or will they keep the story mostly intact and add a few things here and there? Horton Hears A Who! is the formula all directors should follow when it comes to remaking
Director: Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino
Cast: Jim Carrey (voice), Steve Carell (voice), Seth Rogen (voice), Will Arnett (voice), Carol Burnett (voice)
If you’re not familiar with the old Dr. Seuss story of Horton Hears A Who!, I’ll fill you in. Horton is an elephant that is friendly to everyone who comes his way as he simply frolics around the forest and enjoys his life. One day a fluttering speck makes its way past him and it would seem like any other ordinary speck. That is until he hears a faint cry for help as it whisks past his oversized ears. Without hesitation, Horton makes sure to catch the speck on a flower and hold onto it with all his might.
After some trial and error, Horton gets his voice through and hears something again from the speck. A little friendly conversation later and Horton finds out that living on that speck is the entire town of Whoville and all those who inhabit it, the Whos. That speck is their world and thanks to a thorny brittle ball, it has been knocked off its stationary spot on a sunflower. The Mayor of Whoville is the only one that hears Horton and realizes his entire town needs help or their whole existence could be decimated. Horton is also the only one in the forest that can hear the Mayor on the speck. Everyone he tells about the people living on it…well, they think he is crazy.
Horton takes it upon himself to find a safe spot for the Whos to live and be away from harm. The safest spot though happens to be way up on top of a mountain and it is a long treacherous journey. Matters aren’t made easy by the ruler of the forest, Kangaroo always on his case about things don’t exist if they can’t be seen, heard, or felt. Horton knows better though and will do anything to get the Whos to safety. Even if it means trekking through the entire forest and dealing with Vlad the Vulture and the Wickershams (a band of monkeys).
This rendition of Horton Hears A Who! is absolutely fantastic. The narrator is still there giving some backstory to everything that may not be totally described in the film itself. The story is intact keeping it almost exactly as it should be, but with some new humor and jokes thrown in here and there. A lot of the original story (script) with some old familiar lines are there and they bring back plenty of memories. I was incredibly impressed with not only how well the story was treated, but just how enjoyable this old thirty minute cartoon could be in a ninety minutes feature film.
All of the vocal talents fit their characters perfectly. Steve Carell is just awesome as the nervene Mayor who has so much on his plate already with the Whos and then gets the added weight (no pun intended) of Horton on top of him. Carol Burnett as the Kangaroo will make you absolutely despise her because of her elitist attitude and harsh demeanor. Seth Rogen and Will Arnett are hilarious in their smaller parts as Morton the mouse and Vlad the Vulture. But it wasn’t them that stole the show; it was the flashback of Jim Carrey to his early days of acting.
Carrey played Horton the elephant flawlessly. You could hear Carrey’s voice and see his facial expressions in the pachyderm’s grey long-nosed mug. But the way his voice sounded and some of the wild and exasperated tones brought me back to what made me love Carrey’s work from the start. It made me think of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Everyone who saw that film so many years ago loved it and then as time went on; they started to sour on Carrey thinking he was too over the top. But that original performance made him the star he is today. Putting that character mode back on, Carrey is able to showcase that personality in animated form so as not to get on people’s nerves. It was awesome.
There are numerous reasons I don’t go to the theatre much, and the biggest is that I just don’t have the time anymore. Another is something I was reminded of today and that is the other people in the theatre with me. Especially at a film that will bring in a lot of children. There were crying babies, coughing kids, loud talking youngsters, and little ones kicking my chair. Still, Horton Hears A Who! is a film that both kids and adults will love no matter what. I highly recommend checking it out, but you may want to wait a week or two when it isn’t as new and hardly anyone is in the theatre. Kids just suck at the movies. I’m sorry, but they do.
