Based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name, Horton Hears a Who! is a CG-animated film that features the voices of comedic actors Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Isla Fisher and Carol Burnett. The film is currently notable as being the first Seuss film adaptation in years to have gotten outstanding reviews, compared to the poor reviews of two previously adapted films, The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

On imdb, its plot summary is written as, "One day, Horton the elephant hears a cry from help coming from a speck of dust. Even though he can't see anyone on the speck, he decides to help it. As it turns out, the speck of dust is home to the Whos, who live in their city of Whoville. Horton agrees to help protect the Whos and their home, but this gives him nothing but torment from his neighbors, who refuse to believe that anything could survive on the speck. Still, Horton stands by the motto that, After all, a person is a person, no matter how small."

My Own Review

I have seen the film twice in theatres and I enjoyed it thoroughly both times. Though I have not read the source material it was based on (and I suspect that a deal of it was read to us during the film itself since a deal of the movie was comprised of rhyming narration), I think I can say they really managed to capture the Seuss-esque ethos and feeling in this movie. The characters are interesting and the voice acting was done generally well, especially by Carol Burnett as The Kangaroo, the main antagonist.

Okay, and I have to add, though I am not a sucker for graphics and CG, the animation for this movie was simply beautiful and flawless and as I said before, really managed to capture the visuals of the Seuss ethos.

Due to my tendency to look at these things in a much deeper way, I can see that Seuss was probably trying for a way to tell people that they should open up their eyes/ears before disbelieving something and there were numerous subtle references to God and perhaps clairvoyance and the insanity that seems to trail it. But I don't think that the movie's intent was trying to say that "non-believers will be shunned" but rather "take ample time to examine before you discard something". That being said, I think this movie can be enjoyed on different levels - whether you want to take this to a philosophical stratum (yeah, I know this sounds pretty dumb) or as just purely entertaining storytelling.

In the end, I thought this movie had a lot of heart and the only faults I could find with it are the intentions of a certain antagonist (not Kangaroo) and Jim Carrey going a little overboard (AS HE ALWAYS DOES) with his role with the goofiness. But children found it funny so I can excuse it.

Additional Information
imdb page
movie trailer
Rotten Tomatoes Reviews

My only question is why wasn't this idea painfully obvious with so many shit CGI movies coming out in the past few years without any really strong franchises to do a 3D cartoon about

Or were they waiting on the technology or what

this movie looks fucking terrible are you serious

has anybody seen the commercial where the mayor or whatever says HEY SON WHAT'S CRACKIN WHAT'S THE WOOOORD or whatever and his fucking emo kid rolls his eyes and turns around in his chair?  what the fuck is that shit.  i want to punch that little cock in the face.  or the cock.

if there's seriously a character in that movie that's seriously all like UGH... PARENTS (I HAVE BLACK HAIR) then fuck that bullshit.  yeah ok IT'S A KIDS MOVIE but fuck kids man they don't know nuffin

edit: also the part where he says HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A STAPLER IN YOUR FACE and he throws the stapler and it hits him in the face and he starts crying so obnoxiously if the whole movie's like that i would not be able to watch it

has anybody seen the commercial where the mayor or whatever says HEY SON WHAT'S CRACKIN WHAT'S THE WOOOORD or whatever and his fucking emo kid rolls his eyes and turns around in his chair?  what the fuck is that shit.  i want to punch that little cock in the face.  or the cock.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Thank you for making me laugh at 1:45 in the morning. *wipes tear*

this movie looks fucking terrible are you serious

has anybody seen the commercial where the mayor or whatever says HEY SON WHAT'S CRACKIN WHAT'S THE WOOOORD or whatever and his fucking emo kid rolls his eyes and turns around in his chair?  what the fuck is that shit.  i want to punch that little cock in the face.  or the cock.

if there's seriously a character in that movie that's seriously all like UGH... PARENTS (I HAVE BLACK HAIR) then fuck that bullshit.  yeah ok IT'S A KIDS MOVIE but fuck kids man they don't know nuffin

edit: also the part where he says HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A STAPLER IN YOUR FACE and he throws the stapler and it hits him in the face and he starts crying so obnoxiously if the whole movie's like that i would not be able to watch it

There's a lot of kid humour and some retarded "modern" (WHAT'S THE WOOOOORD) humour laced into it (which it really could have done without, yeah, because the Seuss original material seemed sufficient enough). It's not as mature as say, Ratatouille, and Jim Carrey basically does the same old shit he does in other movies and tries to put HIMSELF in it, which was bad. I would have preferred if they had gone the more restrained route, but from what I saw, pretty much everyone in the theatre enjoyed this movie (this is no basis to say a movie is GOOD, but yeah I remember seeing a bunch of people walking out of JUMPER dragging their feet and looking confused and exchanging glances like 'what the hell did we just see').

For the record, I thought it was going to be pretty bad from the promos too, but I still ended up seeing it and was surprised that I actually had a pretty good time. And as I'm typing this, I just realized that this mightn't be for everyone as some people might just find it downright silly/stupid.

this movie looks fucking terrible are you serious

has anybody seen the commercial where the mayor or whatever says HEY SON WHAT'S CRACKIN WHAT'S THE WOOOORD or whatever and his fucking emo kid rolls his eyes and turns around in his chair?  what the fuck is that shit.  i want to punch that little cock in the face.  or the cock.

if there's seriously a character in that movie that's seriously all like UGH... PARENTS (I HAVE BLACK HAIR) then fuck that bullshit.  yeah ok IT'S A KIDS MOVIE but fuck kids man they don't know nuffin

edit: also the part where he says HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A STAPLER IN YOUR FACE and he throws the stapler and it hits him in the face and he starts crying so obnoxiously if the whole movie's like that i would not be able to watch it

this pretty much sums it up, even if the promos make it look bad i wouldn't be able to stand watching these scenes when they do come up


ffffffff all of these "lol parents don't understand us kids" jokes piss me off, you always see these things that are like "HEY HONEY HOW WAS SCHOOL" "*roll eyes*" "HAHAHAAHAHAH SHE ROLLED HER EYES...AT HER MOM!"

how about raising your fucking kids to be polite next time???

i don't remember WHAT'S CRACKIN WHAT'S THE WOOOORD...

but yeah, you don't really see him A LOT through the movie. i mean he shows up a bit because it's a subplot and he doesn't become important until the end of the film.

From what I can gather, the only reason it is "based" on the Dr. Seuss book is so more people will throw money at it, and it pretty much misses the point entirely in favor of modern "edgy" writing (that isn't even clever from what the promos shove down your throat). For the record, I have noticed that the high majority of praise this movie recieves is from people who didn't know about the book until they heard about this movie.

I have no intention of seeing this movie, but I am curious as to what people who saw it think of it. From what I can tell, it seems to be the best executed film adaptation of a Seuss book, but still suffers the same fundamental problems the previous adaptations had (part of the reason I refuse to see this movie is because I can proudly say I have not seen a single one of theese adaptations yet, and I'd like to keep that record going).

From what I can gather, the only reason it is "based" on the Dr. Seuss book is so more people will throw money at it, and it pretty much misses the point entirely in favor of modern "edgy" writing (that isn't even clever from what the promos shove down your throat). For the record, I have noticed that the high majority of praise this movie recieves is from people who didn't know about the book until they heard about this movie.

I have no intention of seeing this movie, but I am curious as to what people who saw it think of it. From what I can tell, it seems to be the best executed film adaptation of a Seuss book, but still suffers the same fundamental problems the previous adaptations had (part of the reason I refuse to see this movie is because I can proudly say I have not seen a single one of theese adaptations yet, and I'd like to keep that record going).

actually the promos are horrible but having seen the movie i think it was thoroughly enjoyable and actually was pretty faithful to dr. seuss except for some off-the-wall attempts at humor but hey that's the movies for ya

Haha you guys make it sound pretty bad

Still like I said before I'm surprised it took them this long to make a new adaptation of Dr. Seuss, regardless of whether they're shitting all over it or not

i'm calling the next one

the lorax

You guys just ign'ant... IGN'ANT PEOPLE...

i'm calling the next one

the lorax

You see, now THERE'S a premise/plot that is perfectly suited for a feature length's worth of witty sarcastic humor.


I'm serious.

You see, now THERE'S a premise/plot that is perfectly suited for a feature length's worth of witty sarcastic humor.


I'm serious.

i really wanna see it done but i fear it being ruined.

it's pretty much one of seuss' most serious stories.

This is gay and I wish it would go away.

I don't know if I've been DEEPER IN THE MEDIA than usual the last few weeks but I've seen so much advertising for this I know the whole plot and most of the dialogue without reading the book or even taking an interest, I'm pissed off about it.

And I can't remember if Steve Carrell is that guy I hate but if he is he can fuck off too.

edit: He's not that guy I hate.

You were probably thinking of Will Ferrell.

At least that's who I thought of (that I hate).

I was thinking of Will Ferrell. how did you do that

"name someone would likely confuse Carell with" + hate = Correct choice

I'm actually quite proud now that my logic is verified. (although I am suprised at myself since I am usually horrible at identifying actors by name to begin with)

I dunno, I'm pretty excited to go see this. Looks like a good time.