Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

Wonderful character development!

One of my all time favorites.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

After many animation films of the last decades, the expectations are real precise and clear and unchanged. the role of this film is to remind the small details who are real fundamental. it is a lesson. or an old fashion parable. about an elephant, a dandelion and a small world. a hero. and a noble cause. to remind us ourselves. all is admirable, from animation to voices and nice plot. a film for entire family. without the ambitions to be first more than an useful lesson.

Horton the elephant (Jim Carrey) from the jungle of Nool hears a voice coming from a speck of dust. It turns out to be the voice of the Mayor (Steve Carell) of the microscopic town of Whoville where the Whos live. He tries to save the speck by placing it on top of Mount Nool. But nobody believes him, and the strict Kangaroo endeavors to stop him. No matter what the obstacle, Horton must save the Whos. After all, a person is a person, no matter how small.I find both sides of the story very touching. Neither character is believed by anybody. Yet they both risk it all for what they believe. The ending is especially touching. It doesn't get better than the idealism of Horton. I love Horton crossing the bridge, but Vlad may be too much. It puts a little too much ugly danger in an otherwise beautiful kids cartoon. It's a short movie, and they probably needed to pad it to fill out a full movie. It's a sweet kids movie with a good message.

I must first confess that it took me several days, almost a week, to watch the movie. The reason being that the DVD I watched it from was scratched and so I couldn't see halfway through. So a week later I got a different one and watched it again, this time seeing the rest of the film. So my true feelings of the movie kind of disappeared but in general I still have my opinions on it.First, it's definitely unique. Yet it's annoyingly political, which doesn't surprise me. It's a story about believing in something that you cannot see, hear or taste or smell or touch. And the character who does witness a sound from the speck is considered a fool and it comes to the point where he is actually threatened to lose his own life possibly or at least be injured for his views.The reason? A kangaroo who has a negative attitude about everything, like some political parties I know. Anyway, she refuses to accept any new ideas such as a speck containing life and because of that she tries to banish the elephant who does. A few things that bothered me include her use of "homes school" which was inappropriate. She used it after her son asked to play with the kids and she refused, saying he had to not be brainwashed by the silly views that the others had.This is rude because I (as I've admitted in another review for the movie RV) home school and find it wrong to make a bland assumption that home schoolers restrict themselves from the rest of the world like that. Some do, but so do public schoolers. Anyway that drove me mad but in general her negative attitude was annoying but it helped with the plot. And of course I found everyone's acceptance to quickly go and join and believe in the kangaroo's views so easily kind of fake and annoying, and in the end when..SPOILER BELOW... she finally does hear the voices and is shocked and is just sad. I mean, she goes all that way to prove she's right and then that happens? With her attitude I'd come up with an excuse and dismiss it, demanding visual proof until ultimately the small guys on the speck are able to grow (or these with the speck and the flower shrink) and then she'd be satisfied, apologize and end up being happy. But nope, she's just sad.END OF SPOILERBut anyway I still enjoyed the unique movie and liked how it was. The son who didn't speak until the very end was touching and his private location up by the planetarium building was cool.So anyway, I rate this 7 because of the unique plot. It sort of loses a point from being 8 for the silly political stuff but in the end I'm sure (and hope) that everyone knows that it's a movie so it's not all true.

Being English, Dr Seuss is not required reading. We ran one or two of them past the kids when they were small, but the kids didn't really take to them and they were a bit of an acquired taste for us. So Horton Hears A Who was not a particularly familiar piece prior to the film.I find it very difficult to put myself in the viewpoint of a child for this one. Yes, it is colourful, there are some reasonably accessible gags and OK songs and, maybe, the strange - some might say demented - story about an elephant trying to protect a colony of microscopic people-y things could appeal to kids more than adults. I just don't know.But I suspect that this movie has something of Yellow Submarine about it - superficially bright and loud, but maybe more appealing to adults for how well crafted it is than it is to children for how effective it is as a piece of children's entertainment. It is exceedingly well crafted but, I think, there may be times when it misses the mark for kids.