I haven’t gotten the chance to see this movie yet, but the character designs looked wonderful in the previews. Has anyone seen it?
I’m not sure about it. It looks silly to me. I remember seeing the cartoon they made of it way back when, but to me it seems like they didnt learn from the Grinch. You cant always take a 20 page book and turn it into a full length movie.
I want to see it. 
I’m familiar with most of the cast of voice actors, (Neicy Nash, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler) so that got me convinced. Also it looks worthwhile.
Well, apparently this is the first adaption of one of Dr. Suess’ works that is actually good. I haven’t seen it myself yet, and I doubt I will, but don’t be put off by the Grinch or Cat in a Hat, since this film has had better reviews and seems to be doing pretty well.
Let me start off by saying that I don’t score movies like a critic but I let you know my opinion and what you can expect before you walk in.
This review contains spoilers:
[spoil]First, the story. For anyone who is familiar with the book than you will surly appreciate the faithfulness of this adaption. Less changes have been made than in the Chuck Jones version and aside from a few added characters, its just as you remember the book. The only problem is the movie drags in some instances as they stretched the story just a little too far by maybe 10-15 mins.
The direction is what you would expect from Pixar veteran Jimmy Hayward, top notch Pixar-quality character development and story, except he fell the Dreamworks way of filling everything between the original Suess story with pop culture gags.
The music that John Powell delivers is what can be considered a typical John Powell score. If your familiar with his work than you will definitely recognize his style. Its an average score that gets the job done, nothing standout. Not that its a bad score but Suess really should have more wacky music to suit the visual style (i.e. what William Kidd cooked up for Suess Landing at Islands of Adventure).
Now for the reason to see this film alone, the animation. What can I say but it left me breathless. The Whos are insanely flexible and not a character looks stiff. The movie captures the visual style of Suess perfectly and even has some Chuck Jones “Grinch smiles” in there. Your will see Squash & Stretch galore and even a Who yo-yo his harm in and out. If you remember Who-ville in Chuck Jones’ Horton Hears a Who and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this is the same thing, only on steroids. The colors and style is just a treat on the eyes is worth admission alone.
Now Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill are some great comedic actors, Super Bad is one of my all time favorites, but they really distracted as they did not fit in this world at all (even though Rogen provided some of the very few laughs in the movie). These two voice actors just seem miss-casted.
I mentioned above that there was some Dreamworks-type crap in this movie that kept it from really soaring to a Pixar level. Now, I’ll mention some specifics.
Throughout the entire movie you’ll hear Jim Carrey make random impersonations of actors and such that just sucks you out of the Dr. Suess world and out of the Horton character. Also, Miss Yelp, a purple Who with an over-the-top african american dialect that obsesses over her “WhoSpace” webpage, also sucks you out of the Dr. Suess world. A couple of traditionally animated sequences that, while nicely done, are very childish (i.e. a dream sequence with Horton fighting ninja versions of the forest creatures anime style and shooting enemies with energy blasts, complete with the bad dubbing). Did I mention all the characters sing a song at the end of the movie just like in the Shrek movies? Lame!
Overall, it’s true in saying this is the best Dr. Suess adaption yet and most faithful (it’s worlds above the live action crapfests we were offered earlier). Its just a little disappointing because it comes so close to being truly GREAT if they would’ve just cut out the Dreamworks-style pop culture references and childish antics and shortened the length of the movie by about 10-15 mins to just leave the solid story that Suess originally wrote.[/spoil]
My sister went and saw it. She said it was one of the most amazing movies she has ever seen. Most other reviewers really liked it too.
I saw this yesterday. I really enjoyed it. It was the best adaption of a Dr Seuss books to date, and by a long shot too. I’d be very happy to see it again. Hat tip to everyone at Blue Sky, my second favourite 3D animation studio.
[spoil]It was cool to see some 2D animation in there to[/spoil]
I saw it today. It was great! It’s interesting to see a Pixar-quality film coming from another source, because there are things they did in this movie that I don’t think Pixar would ever do. I don’t think Pixar would adapt a book (especially a popular one), or create a movie in such a cartoony style.
The art was amazing. The vulture was great, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an animated bird so well rendered before. Every character design was perfect. As soon as I saw the little yellow character, before she ever said anything I thought “wow, that thing is freaky. I don’t like it.” And as it turns out, she had the freakiest role in the movie, like the part where she imagined a world where ponies eat rainbows and poop butterflies, or at the end when she floated up… what the hell? The point is, her character design perfectly matched her personality.
Since I’ve been talking so much about women in animated films lately, I like how this movie had an unusual number of female characters, in both lead and background roles. When the mayor said he was going to see the smartest professor in whoville, I expected it to be a man, but nope. And they didn’t resort to any lame stereotypes, not even the kangaroo was a stereotypical female villain.
Someone told me they thought the whole movie was an allegory for the election, with the kangaroo representing Clinton and the mayor representing Obama. Well… that’s one way to look at it… if there’s any political meaning to this movie, it seems like either some weird religious thing or another global warming warning.
Saw it today, and it was enjoyable. Pretty much in agreement with Skippy’s review, but without a doubt, Blue Sky’s best work to date (and not saying much, but the best Seuss adaptation too). Musical number at the end reminded me of Shrek as well, though I suppose it’s worked for that franchise. Character design and artwork in general really is charming. Steve Carrell and Will Arnett were excellent as always, and Carol Burnett was quite good as well. I thought Jim Carrey did a nice job, though I’ll admit it was somewhat distracting at times. I personally loved the [spoil]anime styled [/spoil]bits. Some real heartbreakers as well as when he appears to have lost them/they all seem to have perished -we know it’ll work out, but I was moved
All told, I was happy with it, my only qualm is near the end, where the happy resolution between Horton and the Kangaroo (the cookie) seemed tacked on and completely out of left field.
Personally, I didn’t pick up an any allegory, aside perhaps from the metaphor of belief in general. I guess that could be construed as religious. Don’t see where Clinton/Obama comes into play though…
Also, the cross-eyed little yellow thing was awesome. 
Yeah, I’ve been trying to find an avatar of that thing, because it’s so weird.
[spoil]I agree about the cookie thing. It seems unnatural to give a cookie to somebody who just tried to kill your friends, doesn’t it? Or at least, it requires some explanation. And yeah, the anime part was great, although I think I was the only one laughing in the theater.[/spoil]
I can’t think of anything else I disliked about the movie right now. It was well put together, I like how the slowest part of the plot was at the beginning of the movie, instead of the middle like most movies. Morton felt kind of unnecessary though. I think it’s just an unspoken movie rule that the main character needs 1 friend, interesting or not.
Clinton is considered power hungry, and likes to insulting her opponents and appearing correct. Obama is always talking about hope and making changes, and he doesn’t attack people back. I don’t think the movie is an allegory for this, but I thought it was an interesting theory anyway.
Horton was just what you’d expect from Blue Sky, not as good as Pixar, not as bad at DreamWorks. I love Blue Sky (not as much as Pixar) so watching this movie was a must, and it was worth it.
GO KATIE!!!
Whenever I hear “A person’s a person, no matter how small”, I always start thinking of abortion and how so many unborn babies are being slaughtered…So that’s the deeper meaning that I see in the movie. 
“Audrey Geisel is the widow of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. She says neither she nor her late husband wanted Dr. Seuss characters to be used for political purposes.”
[url]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88189147[/url]
Yeah, I heard about this whole protest thing concerning abortion…I must admit, it never really came to mind when thinking about the concept of Horton Hears A Who. It does seem more like coincidence that the two ideas merge- Dr. Suess didn’t seem the type to write stories of such a political nature.
But I’m pleased to hear how well the film is doing! It’s the first faithful adaption of one of Dr. Suess’ works, and it’s getting its deserved credit.
Dr. Suess was a very politcal guy - but he was a liberal, not a conservative. He’s admitted that the story about the lorax is a book against deforestation. He also created some racist cartoons during WW2.
He absolutely was, I was just quoting the article. I wasn’t aware of the Lorax thing. He did indeed make quite a few political cartoons (as well as ads for war bonds), and unfortunately his portrayal of rival nations (especially Japan) was quite insensitive, as was the norm of the time. That said, the racism was never the point, as far as the material I’ve seen. All of Mr. Geisel’s political cartoons made valiant poignant arguments against isolationism, propaganda, war profiteers, and even racist labor policies ([url]http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/Racism.html[/url])
I just don’t feel as though a stance on the abortion debate was intended, though given his liberal leanings, if I was to guess…
I don’t know Dr.Seuss, but I do know that an allegory can be made out of anything - his stories are no exception. As for me, I can clearly see the abortion allegory in the story, and through my eyes it makes it a little better.
But, anywhoo, I just saw the movie, and I loved it - very funny stuff in there! I totally recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh and a good time. 
I just got back from the movie, and I was surprised. It was a lot better than I had predicted. 9 out of 10.
[spoil]“In my world, everyone’s a pony. We all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!”[/spoil]
Yeah, I expected it to be kinda cheap, but I was shocked at how good it was.
[spoil]It was the best when she held her breath and just started to float![/spoil]
Saw it yesterday. Love the crap out of it. Beautiful animation, voice acting wasn’t atrocious, and the scene designs were glorious. I give my favorite paintbrush to see some of the layout and concept work from this flick. speaking of, I plan on contacting the studio that did the 2D work. It’s run by a former (if not ex) Pixarian and is out of Tortanto. i needs me a internship!
But back to the movie. Yeah, true to my nature I cried (cried = teary eyed) about 3 times. But I cry at every movie. (Seriously, ask me. Happens all the time.) Though one time I did actually have tears running down my face, but that was because of [spoil]the anime scene[/spoil]. I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. My mom didn’t understand what was so funny. I told her it’s either an animation student thing or a rabid anime fan thing, and I’m both!
Also, the music brought me joy. [spoil]Any movie that has a conflict solved with the application of music is automatically awesome.
Plus Reo Steamwagon. In a modern animated movie. Need I say more. 
I freaking love when casts spontaneous break out into song. [/spoil]
And I’ve gotten a good chuckle out of dA lately. Seems a lot of people are jumping on the fantard bus and riding it all the way to Jojo Town. I will admit though, the little bugger was adorable. Cuter than Katie even.