Techtite DVD Reviews

Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

As always, a review of The Show and the DVD extras.

The Film Review:

Let's jump right to it: this movie's actually good. Surprised? I know I am. Not only did this CGI film have to follow in the footsteps of the late great Doctor Seuss; it also had to follow in the footsteps of the late great Chuck Jones, and his timeless 1970 TV special. In addition to that, this film had to follow in the wake of not one, but two seriously bad attempts at feature length films based on a Seuss story. While there's a diehard Seuss fanboy here and there who'd insist otherwise: The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat were horrible cinematic disasters. Who knew an elephant could jump such hurdles? Horton Hears a Who! is, against seemingly impossible odds, a winner.

The story is obvious to anyone who remembers their childhood literature. Horton the elephant has ears huge enough to listen to the cries of a small town, on a small little dust speck. He winds up talking to one of the "Who's" in "Whoville," who in this case happens to be the town mayor (in the 1970's cartoon, he was a lonely scientist).

It helps that this film is conceived by the creators of Ice Age. That film similarly had to take unique characters and make them lovable. Not only did Ice Age achieve that; it made a goofy prehistoric squirrel named "Scrat" into one of my most favorite CGI characters of all time. Does this film similarly make Seuss' imaginative menagerie into beloved characters? To be honest, it didn't have to; the original Seuss story already did that! All this movie had to do is respect the subject matter. It does. It's as simple as that.

Yet the core problem of any film based on a Seuss story, is how to expand a children's book into a feature length film. Ron Howard's Grinch tried to do this with a bunch of politically correct jibber-jabber. The Cat in the Hat tried to do this, with such humorless minutiae as a drive around town, to find the kids' lost pet. Horton, by stark contrast, attempts to expand the story's original moments, and not add anything "new" that needn't be there. You know that moment when Horton is being chased? It's longer...though enjoyably so. You know that other moment when we see what's happening in the world of Who-ville? It's longer...though enjoyably so. It's like seeing a "director's cut" of Seuss' original story...and enjoyably so.

So where does the film fail? You knew that question was coming, so let's get to it. While this retelling of the Horton tale does entertain, it's not quite as funny as it could have been. This is not entirely the fault of the film, since Horton Hears a Who, while whimsical, is not as hilarious as most other Seuss fare. Horton hears little creatures and is more or less ostracized by the other animals. One lone Who contacts Horton, and is considered a mental case by the other Who's. Animals in the "real world" attempt to boil the dust speck in oil, for no other reason than because they're bitter and cruel. Mind you; this film is not as dark as this paragraph might convey, though it does explain why ---to be perfectly candid--- I did not laugh once.

However, I did have an enjoyable time watching the film, and that's what matters here. Horton Hears a Who is among my top three favorite Seuss stories of all time, and this film delivered the story with great panache. That's more than I can say for those abysmal Grinch and Cat-in-hat catastrophes. If a pack of monkeys wanted to boil those DVDs in oil, I would say: word. When it comes to Horton, I have far fewer complaints.

The DVD Review: You have to love a DVD that is so confident you'll consider buying it that they put so many extras on disc one. More often, a movie is sold as a two disc set, with disc two only available if purchased, and as you'd expect, all extras are on disc two. Fortunately there's more than enough reason to buy (or at least rent) the one disc version, though as always, both versions will be reviewed here.

The first cool part of "disc one" (or the single-disc version) is that it's double sided. Side A is full screen while side two is widescreen. Included on this disc is a thorough audio commentary by Directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, who waste no moments during the film, discussing even the tiniest little detail. They even try to come up with reasons to like one of the film's most ill-received jokes; the cartoon sequence when Horton views himself as an anime character. "The kids liked it," they insist. The adults did not, I would say.

Disc one also includes one of the DVD's seemingly biggest sales pitches; a never seen before animated short promoting the upcoming Ice Age sequel. The bad news: this short film isn't even one tenth as funny as the hilarious squirrel-versus-squirrel film trailer released recently online (the one where Scrat finally meets a girl squirrel). I'd say there was good news here, though aside from a far-too-short cameo of Scrat; no. This is an animated short where Sid the Sloth is a scout leader, of sorts. It's quite frankly a sign of how annoying Sid is, and how little they should ever show him alone, without his superior, funnier friends from the movie. Scrat in particular could star in his own film. Hint, hint!

Moving along to the more typical extras: deleted scenes are offered in whatever form they were in when cut: storyboards, rough animation, or a nearly completed final scene. optional commentary by Hayward and Martino offer insights into why the scenes were cut. "Animation Screen Tests" is an amusing spin on the typical "screen tests" feature of most DVDs, offering a look at how the CGI characters were tested before placed in the movie. A similar, separate featurette shows how they animated Horton, while "Bringing the Characters to Life" interviews the animators themselves. There is even the obligatory featurette of the road this movie took, from book to film. Both Jim Carrey and Steve Carell offer individual featurettes about their involvement in the film. The most amusing featurette, however, would have to be "Meet Katie," which showcases the little fuzzy critter who steals every scene she's put in.

Three more features are strictly for kids. "We Are Here!" asks them to repeat notes played by the Who's. "Elephant Fun: The Facts," is a simple documentary-style feature about real elephants. "Our Speck: Where Do We Fit In?" is a sort of "green" message about how we can all help the environment, though it's delivered in a way that will only appeal to kids, and even then, only if they feel they "need" to watch it. It's a very good message though the delivery of the message is all wrong.

Don't let those last two extras sway you from buying this DVD, however. Horton Hears a Who will always be one of my favorite Seuss stories. While it wouldn't be saying much that this is second only to Chuck Jones' classic TV special as the best adaptation of Horton to date (have there been any others?), this is also the best adaptation of any Seuss story in cinema, and after so many film flops, that's saying something.

	Final Rating : Small Crater. In this instance it's actually a major accomplishment that someone made a Doctor Seuss story into a feature-length film that's actually watchable.
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Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

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