All the Whos down in Whoville were excited to see,
They were going to be the subject of another movie.
They hoped and they prayed it wouldn’t be like The Grinch,
That one was bad so this should be a cinch.
A computer cartoon is just what we need,
The kids’ll laugh so hard that they’ll think they just peed.
Steve Carell is funny and so is Jim Carrey,
So when the credits role they’ll smile and be merry.
I know! An elephant will seal the deal.
Cute, cuddly animals have wide mass appeal.
Toss in some rodents and odd-looking creatures,
And Horton Hears a Who is bound to fill theater bleachers.
That’s all fine and good when it comes to making money.
But what about the fact that the majority’s not funny?
It looks really good and the picture is nice,
But I have a hard time imagining watching it twice.
The story follows Horton when he hears a soft scream.
He discovers the Whos, whose world isn’t as big as it might seem.
Horton tells his story, which is met with resistance,
But if he doesn’t do something, it could wipe out the Whos’ very existence.
Horton started as a book, less than 40 pages long.
To make it a feature seems just a little bit wrong.
The magic of Seuss isn’t quite there.
It’s got the look but it’s missing some flair.
All stretched out, Horton seems to wander,
I got somewhat bored and started to ponder.
Sure it looks great and offers the odd smile,
But they are too spread apart and take a long while.
While not as bad as the Seuss films before it,
That’s not saying much as those weren’t worth much spit.
When the best thing to say is the Whos aren’t annoying,
It goes to show there isn’t much worth enjoying.
Horton Hears a Who DVD Review
Horton Hears a Who comes to DVD with an excellent mix of tech aspects and bonus features geared at the whole family. The film is shown in a seemingly perfect anamorphic widescreen picture. The colors are a very important aspect of this animated feature and the DVD pulls it off beautifully. English audio is available in both DTS and 5.1 Dolby Surround. Dubbed Dolby Surround tracks are also offered in French and Spanish. English and Spanish subtitles are also available.
Directors Steve Martino and Jimmy Hayward provide an entertaining and insightful commentary track where they discuss who was working on the film and going into some detail on their goals with various scenes. They bounce off each other well and are more lively than a lot of other commentary tracks.
A series of short but informative featurettes take viewers behind the scenes, particularly in the animation department. “Bringing the Characters to Life” focuses on the animation process. Several animators are interviewed over the course of this five-minute featurette and I have to say it’s interesting watching them act out scenes to get their reference points. Just as interesting are the split-screen comparisons that show how the reference material translated into the finished product. “That’s One Big Elephant: Animating Horton” builds off the first featurette and goes into more detail on how the titular character came about. “Meet Katie” is a three-minute bit on the new creation Katie, who steals just about every scene she’s in. “Bringing Seuss to the Screen” shows how the original artwork from the books were translated into the computer animation used in the movie. Jim Carrey is the center of attention in “The Elephant in the Room,” which looks at comedian’s take on the titular role. Other short featurettes discuss the theme of valuing people, the environment and elephant facts.
Additional bonus features include nine deleted scenes done at various production points, all with optional director commentary, animation screen tests, a memory game, a theatrical trailer and an animation activity for DVD-ROM users.
Horton Hears a Who Gallery
Trailer
