Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! is a 2008 American animated adventure comedy film based on the 1954 children's book by Dr. Seuss. Produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios, the film was directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, and written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. It stars the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell as Horton the Elephant and Mayor Ned McDodd, respectively, alongside Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, Jamie Pressly, Amy Poehler, Charles Osgood, and Carol Burnett. The plot follows Horton, an eccentric elephant who discovers the city of Whoville, led by Mayor McDodd, on a tiny speck. Horton begins a journey to take the speck to safety while a group of animals led by the Kangaroo attempt to stop him.
The film is the fourth screen adaptation of the book, following the 1970 Chuck Jones television special, the 1987 Soviet animated short, and the 1992 Russian animated short. Production began in 2005 after executive producer Chris Meledandri secured the rights to the book from Seuss's widow Audrey Geisel, who provided the studio with Seuss's original sketches and materials and was credited as an executive producer. Recurring Blue Sky collaborator John Powell composed the film's musical score.
Horton Hears a Who! was released theatrically in the United States on March 14, 2008, by 20th Century Fox. The film was well-received by critics, who praised its writing, visuals, and faithfulness to the source material, and grossed $298 million on a budget of $85 million. Horton Hears a Who! was the first Dr. Seuss film adaptation to be fully animated using CGI and the second to feature Jim Carrey after How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).
Contents
Plot
In the Jungle of Nool, Horton the Elephant, the jungle's eccentric nature teacher hears a tiny yelp coming from a floating dust speck. Believing that an entire society of microscopic creatures are living on that speck, he gives chase to it before placing it on top of a flower. Horton finds out the speck harbors the city of Whoville and its inhabitants, the Whos, led by Mayor Ned McDodd, whose family includes his wife Sally, 96 daughters whose names all begin with the letter H, and one teenage son named JoJo. Despite being the oldest child and next in line for the mayoral position, JoJo does not want to be the next mayor, and he does not talk because he is so scared of disappointing his father.
Once Horton begins carrying the speck with him, the city starts experiencing strange phenomena, and the Mayor finds his attempts to caution Whoville challenged by the Town Council, led by the opportunistic yet condescending Chairman.
After he makes contact with Horton, the Mayor finds out from Dr. Mary Lou LaRue that Whoville will be destroyed if Horton does not find a "safer, more stable home". With the help of his best friend Morton the mouse, Horton decides to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. The head of the jungle, the Sour Kangaroo, who refuses to believe that the Whos exist, demands numerous times that Horton give up the speck for overshadowing her authority, but Horton refuses. Also taking force toward Horton are the Wickersham Brothers, a group of monkeys who like to cause havoc around the jungle. Eventually, the Kangaroo enlists a sinister but idiotic vulture named Vlad Vladikoff to get rid of the speck by force. He initially only agrees to do it in exchange for the Kangaroo's son Rudy, but when she threatens to hire the Wickersham Brothers to do it, he eventually decides to do it for free.
After a few failed attempts, Vlad manages to steal the flower away from Horton and drops it into a massive field of identical pink flowers causing an apocalyptic tremor in Whoville. After unsuccessfully picking 2,999,999 flowers, Horton eventually recovers the flower (exactly the 3,000,000th flower), also revealing himself to the rest of Whoville. The Kangaroo eventually finds out that Horton still has the speck, fires Vlad, and rallies the adulfs from jungle, into capturing Horton, preying on their fears that their own children will become chaotic delinquents under his influence.
Voice cast
Jim Carrey as Horton the Elephant, an eccentric, outgoing and good-hearted Elephant and teacher in the Jungle of Nool who possesses acute hearing abilities. Unlike regular elephants, he lacks tusks.
Steve Carell as Mayor Ned McDodd, the high-strung eccentric fun-loving yet good-hearted mayor of Whoville who has 96 daughters, 1 son named JoJo, and a wife named Sally O'Malley.
Carol Burnett as the Sour Kangaroo, an egomaniacal Kangaroo who mistrusts and sees Horton's inquisitive nature as a threat to her legal authority over Nool.
Will Arnett as Vlad Vladikoff, a scary, savage, ravenous, and murderous yet egocentric, and dumb vulture-like monster with a slight Russian accent hired by the Sour Kangaroo to steal Horton's clover.
Seth Rogen as Morton the Mouse, a Mouse and Horton's best friend in the Jungle of Nool who does not believe his story, but still helps him.
Amy Poehler as Sally O'Malley-McDodd, Mayor McDodd's wife and mother to Jojo and her 96 daughters.
Jesse McCartney as JoJo McDodd, Mayor McDodd and Sally O'Malley's quiet (until the end) eldest son and the elder brother of his 96 sisters who does not want to be the next mayor of Whoville.
Fletcher Sheridan provides JoJo's singing voice in the film's final song.
Josh Flitter as Rudy Kangaroo, the Sour Kangaroo's doubtful young son who is much kinder than his mother.
Laura Ortiz as Jessica Quilligan, a chick of Red-Headed Palooski, Mrs. Quilligan's daughter, and one of Horton's students.
Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Angela Glummox, a young female Glummox antylope, Mrs. Glummox's daughter and one of Horton's students.
Production
After the critical and commercial failure of the 2003 film The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, was so dissatisfied with the film that she then decided not to allow any more live-action feature films based on his work. In March 2005, as Blue Sky Studios was completing Robots, the studio and 20th Century Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri approached Geisel about getting the adaptation rights for Horton Hears a Who!. The art director for Robots, Steve Martino, along with story consultant and additional scene director Jimmy Hayward, created a model of protagonist Horton and some animation tests to showcase their design ideas to Geisel, who eventually agreed on "a seven-figure deal" for both the book and its predecessor Horton Hatches the Egg. Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio were then hired to write the script, to be directed by Hayward and Martino with a set release date of early 2008.
Geisel was credited as an executive producer and watched production up close, and also gave the directors full access to her late husband's archives, including his original sketches, 3-D sculptures, work done for the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953), and even memos Dr. Seuss traded with Chuck Jones during the production of the Grinch TV special. For references in doing the character animation, along with footage of the voice actors performing their lines, the Blue Sky animators recorded themselves performing the script in an "acting room" to see what of their body language could translate well into the film. Geisel had personally requested that Jim Carrey voice Horton following his performance as the Grinch, which she liked despite initial doubt.
To make Horton different from the mammoths Blue Sky created for the Ice Age series, he would at times stand and walk upright and bipedally on two legs in a way that made him look like "a fat man in an elephant suit". The directors noticed Horton's design in the book varied according to his emotion, and the 3D wireframe tried to allow for the same effects, with a bigger mouth to allow for wider facial expressions like those of Jim Carrey.
Soundtrack
The original score for the film's soundtrack album was composed by John Powell, conducted by Pete Anthony and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. A soundtrack consisting of the film's score was released on March 25, 2008, by Varèse Sarabande. Near the end of the picture, the cast comes together and sings the song "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon.
Other songs featured in the film include:
Reception
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 135 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's consensus reads, "Horton Hears A Who! is both whimsical and heartwarming, and is the rare Dr. Seuss adaptation that stays true to the spirit of the source material." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film version an "A−" grade on an "A+" to "F" scale.
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a delight, brimming with colorful, elastic characters and bountiful wit."
John Anderson of Variety wrote: "The real stars of the movie are the animators, who imbue even the overgrowth in Horton's jungle with a certain floppy Seuss-ishness."
Box office
Horton Hears a Who! grossed a total of $298.5 million on an $85 million budget. $154.5 million came from the United States and Canada, and $145 million from other territories.
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $45 million in 3,954 theaters, averaging $11,384 per theater in the United States and Canada, and ranking #1 at the box office. The film also had the strongest opening for a film starring Jim Carrey since Bruce Almighty, with the same applying to his costar in both films, Steve Carell.
The film previously had the fourth-largest opening weekend in March, behind Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown and 300, and as of September 2012, it ranks 15th place. In the United States and Canada, Horton Hears a Who! was also the #1 film its second weekend of release, grossing $25 million over the Easter frame, in 3,961 theaters and averaging $6,208 per venue. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend grossing $17.8 million in 3,826 theaters and averaging $4,637 per venue. At the international box office it remained at #1 in its third week.
Interpretations
Horton Hears a Who!, like other Dr. Seuss creations, contains layered subtexts and messages. A major theme regards learning about universal values between vastly different places and people, as shown by the quote "A person's a person, no matter how small". This is employed on many levels: primarily with Horton and the Mayor of Whoville making contact and championing each other to the point where everyone around them eventually learns the truth about the speck that Whoville resides on; but also with the Mayor and Sour Kangaroo's relationships with their respective sons, Horton and the Mayor being challenged by Sour Kangaroo and the chairman, the fickle herd mentality of the jungle community (save Horton's students and Morton) and Horton still forgiving Sour Kangaroo, and the ending shot of all of the worlds being specks in space.
Home media
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 9, 2008. Three versions of the DVD are available: a single-disc edition, a 2-disc special edition, and a gift set packaged with a Horton plush. All three versions included the Ice Age short film Surviving Sid.
In the United States, the film earned $77,630,768 from DVD sales and $180,434 from Blu-ray sales for a total of $77,811,202 in video sales.
