| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Horton Hears a Who (Widescreen and Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition) |  | |
Horton Hears a Who (Widescreen and Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition)
One of Dr. Seuss' most beloved stories roars to life as never before in this enormous animated adventure that proves "a person's a person no matter how small." A playful pachyderm named Horton becomes a reluctant hero when he discovers the microscopic city of Who-ville on a floating speck of dust and embarks on a hilarious adventure to save the town from the dangers of the jungle. Featuring a who's who of superstar voice talent, including Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett, this heartwarming hit comedy delivers loads of laughs and tons of fun for the whole family!
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Price Range: $16.99 - $29.98
 Horton Hears a Who (Widescreen and Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition)
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| User Reviews |  | Completely lacking in Seuss's trademark humor and warmth
rating: 2
I was looking forward to this movie, and it got good reviews. But I found it worse than disappointing when I watched it. The adaptation misses the warmth of Seuss, the big hearted humanity, and the wonderful weirdness. Yes, Horton is right and the rest of the "Big" world is wrong, but in the original Seuss is kind to both sides. In this adaptation the bad guys are unrelentingly shrill and unpleasant, while Horton is annoyingly superior all the way through. Neither side is able to convincingly grow or learn. Among the "Who," the characters are almost as thin, although there is a very slight story about a father and son learning to work together. I also found the animation unsatisfying. It is very good -- smooth and colorful -- but it is not Seussian. My recommendation -- if you don't already have it, get "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" -- the original, animated version, not the live action. If you already own "Grinch," just get it out and watch it again.
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Jim Carrey makes a great Tribite to Dr. Seuss
rating: 5
I didn't watch this movie with children but still I fell in love with it! I do love animations but I must say that this one along with Ratatouille is by far the best featuire length animations I have ever seen!
I also think this is Jim Carrey's best work! He really made Horton exactly as he should be!
Great job Carrey!
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"Social justice trumpets through out the world"
rating: 5
The scene which I absolutely love is the moment when Jo Jo's secret sound system is discovered by his father; everything is alive musically, bells are ringing out, squeaky toys can be heard and every sound is joyously adding more resonance to the Who's rallying call to he heard, so the film culminates in one phenomenal musical centre piece which does lift you up. You feel when watching the film that everyone's enthusiasm at Blue Sky was poured into each frame and of course it must have helped with the voice talents of Steve Carell and Jim Carrey leading the way, as their characters were superbly animated enhancing every line and word which effortlessly tripped off their tongues. The look of the film is true to Seuss, you can see it from start to finish and on the Limited edition DVD set and Blue - Ray release you have extensive footage showing how they created the Seuss look for the characters and their environments.
Blue Sky studios has been making films which try to present before children narratives which convey the big picture; in Ice Age the idea of forgiveness and of surviving together is central to the story and characters development, in Robots the idea of staying true to yourself motivates the lead character and inspires those around him to do only good in the world and in Horton, which is a Seussian story, we are presented with a character who must over come adversity in order to save a world. Horton sees that we are all responsible for the our environments well being and for the well being of those around us and that a better world is one where we support each other since we are all interdependent on each other for survival. Horton is a fine metaphor for mans place in the cosmos as custodians of our fragile planet. This film is rich in metaphorical layers.
Blue Sky studios has the ability to echo the zeitgeist of our time, this gives them the edge over Pixar and - Disney especially, who are too preoccupied by what it means to be Disney and not focusing enough on what it means to tell a story. I am probably being unfair to the Disney studios but when they pipe their mantra about what it means to be Disney it has the reverse affect on some people who really are only looking for well told animated stories and Walt himself would have stated such a view, Disney after all only reflected the spirit of his time and now Blue Sky does the same. I look forward to future films by this first rate animation company.
This Limited Edition is very different to the standard edition in that it has many extra features which take you behind the scenes of the film, an in-depth presentation at how they made the look of the film feel very Seussian and interviews with the cast and crew. If you are a budding animator or a fan of the film you won't be disappointed. There is an extra disc which is the digital copy the other reviewer was mentioning.
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Pretty Awesome
rating: 5
Let's be honest for a second, when you have three of the biggest comic actors come together in an animated feature, it was destined to be funny. For an animated Dr. Seuss adaptation, this is not just funny but damned hysterical and one of the best CG animated features to date. In recent years, the Dr. Seuss films haven't exactly delivered as expected so I think most people weren't expecting much, but honestly it's really great.
The story focuses around Horton the Elephant (Jim Carrey) who comes across a speck on a clover, on that speck is whoville and run by its Mayor (Steve Carell) who everybody in whoville thinks is crazy, he also struggles to get through to his only son JoJo. Horton promises the mayor that he will have the speck put in the safest place possible but something gets in his way, Kangaroo who's the snootiest of them all and enforces every rule. She thinks Horton is crazy and he's disrupting the children so she goes out of her way to stop Horton.
The CGI is really interesting as it's very cartoony in style to keep the Seuss feel, yet at the same time holds a level of authenticity that both blend together very well indeed. The whole concept of the film, although I'm sure it wasn't intentional is actually quite interesting. I'm not talking about our planet being in the trunk of an Elephant, but the whole possibility of there being something much much larger than our world operating in exactly the same way we do. Our planet is merely a speck in the vastness of our universe, what makes it so impossible that we are a world within a world? I know, I'm getting all philosophical so I'll leave it there, but you know what I mean.
The comedy is quite slapstick in style as Horton finds himself in quite awkward situations along his quest to get whoville to safety. Within whoville the mayor finds himself in unusual capers to convince whoville of Hortons existence and getting to know his son JoJo. One of the more comical scenes in the entire film is the bridge crossing scene. Horton is trying to cross a rickety bridge which is very unlikely to support him and it causes quakes in whoville. The mayor is in the dentists and a shake leads to the dentist poking him in the arm with a numbing needle which is actually really funny.
An overall awesome film which is something for all the family.
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'a person's a person, no matter how small'
rating: 5
AT LAST! A Dr. Seuss movie that is...Seuss!
Perhaps I should say, first of all, that Dr. Seuss was, at least the estimation of many, a literary genius-though, as goes without saying, of a special variety. There is good reason to suspect that his legacy will survive right along side of Mother Goose, the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson; with the passing centuries, his stories may well only become more and more synonymous with classic, timeless fairy tales and children's fables. He was ahead of his time in more ways than one, and what his editor at Random House has recently said of him is almost a truism: "What his books have to say about fairness, discrimination, peace, the environment, consumerism, and humanity in general is finding more advocates each year."
Was Dr. Seuss politically correct? In his beginner books, Dr. Seuss helps children to read by showing what they already know; he mixes a few hundred words from a child's vocabulary with phonetic nonsense words--while at the same time coining new words. He remains true to the fact that alphabetic language is not just a matter of phonics, while at the same time not putting on dreary airs that phonics has nothing to do with alphabetic language. He also tells meaningful stories without talking down to his readers; he tells truths that children can understand but ones which adults need every bit as much to hear. In 'Green Eggs and Ham,' for example, he reminds us not to judge things we don't understand, and that persons can freely be who they are--'I am Sam'--while at the same time not pretending that 'good' is purely relative and that 'right and wrong' are simply a matter of the situation; while oblivious to being bombarded by Sam's arguments--'Would you like them here or there?...in a house...with a mouse?'-the character still concludes: 'Say!...I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!...I will eat them ANYWHERE!' In 'The Sneetches,' he points out the absurdity of racism--but free of the hidden prejudice which offers equality as a concession--; 'that day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars, and whether they had one or not, upon thars.' Thars? And in 'Horton Hears a Who' (which invokes Seuss' all-important, whole language concept, 'who-ville'), he teaches that a person's a person, no matter how small-yet with the one still in the kangaroo pouch being that last to realize it: 'ME, TOO!' Political correctness may be defined as morality without any tie to truth. Dr. Seuss tongue-ties the most elaborate political correctness--in favor of the simplest of truths.
I've long been a fan of the cartoon versions of both 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' and 'Horton Hears a Who,' and, that being said, I also do think this cinema, computer animated version of the latter is the best "action" adaptation of Seuss' yet made. Visually as well as otherwise, this film somehow or another is unsurpassed in capturing Seuss-and I think 'Horton Hears a Who' is Seuss' masterpiece. Refreshingly, unlike some other movie renditions of Seuss--which have sometimes even seemed intentionally ugly (something not very Seussian)-: who-ville is simply who-ville, as Seuss-like as can be. A delight--and perhaps even something before only beheld in the imagination--even given Seuss' unique and distinctive illustrations in his books; certainly the best use of pure CGI I've seen.
Yet there is also a curious dimension of the film, one which, perhaps despite itself, only goes to show Seuss' genius. The movie takes several liberties with the book, as movies do, but two are especially worth mentioning: In the film, the mayor of who-ville is made out to be the father of a big, even 'absurdly big' family-though of many many girls and just the one boy the mayor wants as heir; it is the defiance of the baby kangaroo, living in Horton's own Jungle of Nool (albeit still in its mother's pouch), that in siding with Horton changes the mind of its mother, who then also finally realizes too that there really are tiny people in the speck on the clover (in contrast to the book, where the mother kangaroo changes her mind on her own, after hearing what Horton could hear all along with his big elephant ears--telling Horton that 'I'm going to protect them with you'-with the baby kangaroo merely echoing her--). Curious here too is that the film even throws a punch against home schooling, having the narrow minded, prejudiced, kangaroo mother, speak on its behalf. What was the point of these liberties? To poke fun at big families and home schoolers? Yet these very twists also come together in the end, when in a special way it is just these children of the who-ville mayor, joining forces with the baby in the kangaroo pouch, that finally succeed in conveying the message that Horton tried to convey in vain: 'We are here! We are here! We are here! We are here!' Hollywood underscores Seuss' pro-life message? Curious...
Was that dimension already in the book, or not? The standard response of Seuss' widow: no. Was giving a different response the intent of the makers of this movie? That might be strange. So do we have here, instead, a sort of blow-back from a fumbled attempt to man-handle Seuss--and make him speak politically-correct-ese? Was this an attempt automatically foiled, like trying to escape from Chinese finger-cuffs by force, or tampering with a child-resistant cap on a medicine bottle?
I think an analogy with great music is in order. Some people say that the masterpieces of Mozart or Beethoven or Chopin cannot be truly appreciated or understood unless you know the biographies of the artists, because art, ultimately, is self-expression. Other people say that if art is nothing but self-expression, then the best artists would and should never be appreciated or understood by anyone but themselves. Yet other people say that an artwork itself tells us something about the artist, and in the great, timeless masterpieces, that is precisely because it shaped and influenced the artist as much as anyone else who will ever have contact with it and appreciate it.
If Dr. Seuss' 'Horton Hears a Who' does not have a pro-life message, then nor is about McCarthy and 1950s' paranoia, nor is it about celebrating diversity in opinions, values and lifestyles-nor even about the Japanese victims of the atomic blasts, to whom Seuss evidently, in some way, dedicated the story. Perhaps it rises above all of these themes in the same way that Chopin's etudes rise above his love life. Perhaps, in the end, its simply about how carefully we are willing to listen. Whatever the meaning of the story (it seems to me there are multiple levels, and multiple possible interpretations), what does not seem to be left to a matter of opinion is whether or not "there are any whos in who-ville." The truth is the truth no matter how small, and a lie is a lie, no matter how tall.
By whatever Seuss-like crooked lines it took to get there, this is a very good film, and faithful enough to Seuss to at least make people--young and old--think, laugh--and really care that all the whos in who-ville shout loud enough to be heard...
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Horton Hears a Who (Widescreen and Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition)
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