Movie Reviews

Blue Sky Studio

Review in a Hurry:  In this deftly animated—and very funny—Dr. Seuss adaptation, a sweet, whimsical elephant tries to save a microscopic world on a speck of dust. Despite voice acting from a who's who (get it!?) of 21st-century comedy, Horton stays true to Seuss in flavor, style and humor.

The Bigger Picture:  Kids movies don't get much more high-concept or entertaining than this: The big, dumb, innocent elephant Horton (a subdued Jim Carrey) starts hearing voices...coming from a floating bit of dust. So he imagines there's a whole civilization on there and embarks on a mission to save it from certain doom. A foul-tempered nudnik kangaroo (Carol Burnett!) won't stand for this silliness, and rounds up the jungle's nastiest creatures to teach Horton a lesson.

Meanwhile, on that speck of dust, in the very Seussian town of Whoville, the mayor (Steve Carell) realizes his world is in danger, makes contact with Horton and has a hell of a time rallying his entire town, 98 daughters and 1 son (Jesse McCartney) to the cause. Animated mayhem, life lessons, assaults with bananas and the occasional rhyming verse ensue.

And it works. As a kid flick, as a legitimate comedy, as a worthy extrapolation from the original book. The rendering of Theodor Seuss Geisel's characters and worlds here (animated by the much-evolved studio behind Ice Age) feel remarkably lifelike and put recent live-action monstrosities (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat) to shame.

Despite employing half the cast of Superbad, the story's mostly free from any sly attempt at hipness. The soul of the book, first published in 1954, remains intact—with the original anti-McCarthyism messages, you know, updated.

One warning: It's toddler-friendly, but the bad guys are (true to the book) freaky, especially the Wickersham monkeys and Vladikov the vulture (Will Arnett...love Will Arnett). That said—spoiler alert!—everybody learns their lesson, and Horton hits a kid-approved climax that had at least one toddler in the review screening chanting and clapping.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  The tone is far more Pixar than Shrek, more timeless than snarky, but a few missteps veer sharply outside the Seussian world, especially a jarring anime sequence and—really?—an REO Speedwagon tribute.