Horton Hears a Who!

The movie, Horton Hears a Who!, is based on Dr. Suess's 1954 book Horton Hears a Who. The movie is beautifully recreated in this animation starring the voices of Jim Carey as Horton, Steve Carell the Mayor of Whoville and the one of the classic queens of comedy Carol Burnett as the Kangaroo. Horton hears a voice of a fly-by spec (which Horton places on a clover) and takes on a quest to save the Whos, the residents of Whoville. Working with the Mayor of Whoville, both have many challenges ahead together. The mayor has his own struggles on Whoville trying to convince that their world is in danger, his family and his anti-social son. Trying to convince the council is not an easy task not until they actually hear Horton speak to them. The story switches back to Horton's world where the Kangaroo has captured Horton and on a mission to destroy the clover. In the end, Horton and the Mayor's world are made known to both worlds, making them heroes. The movie is narrated through out the journey, there are many characters that will make you laugh and mini stories. The story ends with the REO Speedwagon song "Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore."

One of my favorite scenes, early in the film, Horton looses the spec ... as he rushes to catch the flower he runs through the turf of the blue monkeys. The monkeys are executing an adolescent (frat style) game of stuffing the most bananas in the head monkey's mouth. As Horton passes through their turf, the head monkey yells out, "Bring the ammo!' The monkeys load them under his arms and the bananas are squeezed out like a Gatling gun. As the arsenal of bananas is released, the head monkey quotes from Apocalypse Now, "I love the smell of bananas in the morning."

The film is very entertaining, same at home as it was at the theater. I enjoyed watching the movie with my daughter who wanted to watch the movie over again. Together we went through the bonus features, aside from animation with Sid; my daughter was not interested in adults discussing how the feature was made. The imagination of the book comes to life with this movie

The bonus features had the usual stuff such as commentaries, how the characters came to life, etc. I always enjoy watching how the film is created, originally in the book, Horton had a small mouth, and it was expressed quite a bit on how to bring more emotion into the character while keeping the true story line. Jim Carey's ability to mold his comedy with facial expressions was easily brought into the Horton character. The stretching of Horton face did not come from a computer graphic simulator, but created as a mold then laser scanned into the computer. That was pretty cool technology that I have not seen before. This movie also has included a digital copy which you can put on your portable device.

Additional feature is the animated toon starring Sid the Sloth, "Surviving Sid." Sid plays a camp counselor who bungles everything, finally pulling a flower out of the dirt starts a domino effect that architects the Grand Canyon. You are then taken 20 thousand years into the future as to gophers are sitting on a log with the dad telling his son, "yes it's beautiful, only nature could create something as the Grand Canyon, or a being of infinite wisdom."