By Linda Winsh-Bolard
All is nice in a beautiful in the jungle of Nool, things are blooming and peace is reigning; in the morning the friendly elephant Horton is taking a bath( that’ s good f or your health and helped Horton to lose a lots of weight). It is at that moment that Horton hears somebody calling for help - and he sees nobody. He begins to investigate and finds out that what he hears is coming out of a speck, a tiny speck, that he manages to capture in the crown of a clover.
Inside the speck there is a world of its own: a town called Whoville with a mayor, who has large family and good wife, and its citizens who are getting ready for the centennials and simply could not imagine that their entire world is just a speck of dust in somebody else’ universe The who certainly cannot imagine that their world might be coming to its end.
But the mayor can, and luckily for all in Whoville, so can Horton who feels obligated to do his best to provide safety for all the people he will never see, they are too tiny for him to be able to see them, and who will never see him, as he’s too big for them to see.
So begins Horton’s journey to place the clover, with the speck that hides the tiny world, in safety of a remote cave.
Horton encounters many surprises on this road there, but the one we can truly relate to is embodied in a Kangaroo Mom who feels that the neighborhood will suffer if things that we cannot see or touch or feel will be taken into account as reality, and that indeed our children would be endangered should imagination prevail.
Naturally, the kangaroo is all for tradition and reality.
That might be the cause of the basic problem of the film: what is the message it tries to pass on? There is the obvious one- all things have the same right to live, small or big, strange or familiar. And there is the misuse of national pride, as well as of the children who, having no vote, can serve any idea or any candidate, and of course the easily swayed mob- but is this a secular right to believe freedom or God’s will freedom we are talking about?
And simply, why kangaroo versus elephant? A bit of propaganda? If so why?
The undercurrent that should be talking to us is too mixed up, too shadowy to discern, and because there is not a consistent idea in the story it takes away from the narrative part of the film.
Apart from this, the film has stunning special effects and animation. From the very beginning when a speck of dust travels through all things imaginable in the world, incidentally upsetting the citizens of Whoville, through the dancing Horton, back to the citizens of the tiny world, it is seamlessly animated, cut and put together as a tale of the other worlds. The narration is equally nice.
Yet, the story itself, whatever its hidden messages, is somehow too shallow, almost too cliché, to truly capture adult audiences as the previous stories did.
Children will probably still be charmed by Horton’s heroics, and all the other animals, as well as all the citizens of Whoville, which is simply a tiny version of the world we know all the way down to the Dad who cannot find a way to understand his only son JoJo(he has 94 daughters as well but those seem to be well adjusted) and JoJo who feels his Father expects too much of him, the business people who overlook all signs of danger because such things as the end of the world would destroy the economy! We cannot have that so it is best to pretend there is no trouble at all. All of which is truly nice but not biting enough to keep the adults interested. Let’s face it, anything any filmmaker can come up with as a scenario of politicians pushed stupidity have been far outdone by the real world.
If you like this animation style, some sillies, some laugh, some dance and a happy ending, it would not disappointed. If you have young children, they would probably like it. It never crosses the line to profane or gory while it is truly easy on the eye, fast going and colorful.
Based on Dr. Seuss story.
Directed by Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino, Edited by Tim Nordquist , With Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Screenplay by Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Isla Fisher.
