The James Logan Courier

By Charles Yi, Courier Film Reviewer

“Horton Hears A Who!”, directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, is a film of the Dr. Seuss Classic.

Set in the Jungle of Nool, Horton the Elephant (Jim Carrey) hears voices from a small speck of dust and imagines a helpless, microscopic family living on that speck. Living true to his philosophy of “a person’s a person, no matter how small”, Horton chases after the speck and comes to realize that the speck is the entire city of Who‑ville, home of the Who’s. While the jungle community thinks Horton has lost his mind, Horton must protect the Who’s from the Sour Kangaroo and her cronies, and help the Who’s band together to make their presence known.

Unlike “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat in the Hat”, this Dr. Seuss remake was actually bearable, and even enjoyable. The animation was fresh and brightly colored, and the crazy curves and angles of the Jungle of Nool were reminiscent of the rubbery energy and elastic wit associated with Dr. Seuss. The plot, along with the overall dialogue, was original and intriguing, yet very easy to follow. My only complaint for “Horton Hears a Who!” was the casting of Jim Carrey to play Horton. Very few will question his comedic brilliance, but Jim Carrey somewhat shattered his character with excessive goofing, destroying the image of a durable hero of children’s literature. Nevertheless, this film was a thumbs‑up and definite must‑see on the big screen.