Horton gives a shit...
I took my four year old daughter to see "Horton hears a who" earlier this week and forgot this movie instantly upon leaving the theater. We are now hip deep in the age of the animated film, and each animation studio feels the heat of competition and feels obligated to rush each film out as quickly as possible in order to claim top box office gold. In addition to churning these films out with lightning speed (seems like one every month) they also don't seem to be spending much time on plot or characters or for that matter originality. Now I realize I am not a toddler and should not be so picky, but the facts are that there are some real animated gems out there that parents and child alike can enjoy.
However "Horton..." is not one of these, first of all it has one Jim Carrey in it and this is never a good sign. Mr. Carrey's voice work as Horton the elephant is stiff and recycled, he pulls out all the voice effects and quasi impressions he has been selling since the Ace Ventura franchise. To see a man once known as the human cartoon actually starring in one does not inspire much awe. Having Jim Carrey, a man known for potentially great physical comedy, doing do a voice for your feature is about as effective as having Pam Anderson star in your television commercial wearing a fatsuit. The plot follows the classic Dr. Suess book pretty faithfully and the Dreamworks crew made a festive, colorful looking movie and the mini whos are adorable but the rest of this effort is stale and formulaic. There is a gigantic supporting cast of brightly colored Suess critters, voiced over by famous folks...yawn...who crack wise and do strange fake foreign accents...yawn...and in general just fill up the time with mediocre dialogue -most of which is lost on anyone under 10 years old. The overall message of the film is strange and vague, Horton hears microscopic people who are in real danger and vows to help them- many times saying to himself "a person is a person no matter how small." I find this disturbing and untrue, I prefer a more clinical approach like "a person is a person unless they are under three feet tall at which point they are to be labeled a freak." or "short people got no reason to live.." (thank you R.Newman).
This movie is an okay way to spend two hours and your little one will dig it but it sure is no "Toy Story" or original "Shrek." It rates right up there with the very so-so "Bee Movie" that came out a short while back and was also quickly forgotten. I have no problem putting my money down for these movies but I much more genuinely look forward to the next Pixar feature.
"Horton hears a who" receives three dwarf fetish dvd box sets out of a possible five.