Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

Director: Steve Martino

Cast: Jim Carrey as Horton (voice), Steve Carell as The Mayor of Whoville (voice), Carol Burnett as Kangaroo (voice), Will Arnett as Vlad (voice), Seth Rogen as Morton (voice), Dan Fogler as Councilman / Yummo Wickersham (voice), Isla Fisher as Dr. Mary Lou Larue (voice), Jonah Hill as Tommy (voice), Amy Poehler as Sally O'Malley (voice), Jaime Pressly as Mrs. Quilligan (voice), Charles Osgood as Narrator (voice), Josh Flitter as Rudy (voice), Joey King as Katie (voice), Niecy Nash as Miss Yelp (voice), Jesse McCartney as JoJo (voice)

I guess it wouldn't be remiss if I've approached "Horton Hears a Who!"
with some reservations as the trailers were anything but something to
be excited about. Had it not been for the Whos and the Dr. Seuss tag
that comes with the title, this latest computer-animated film from the
"Ice Age" team would come off as yet another animal-on-a-mission flick
straight from the assembly line. And films adapted from one of Dr.
Seuss' books haven't been as successful as when they were in print, to
put it lightly.

A relatively neutered Jim Carrey provides the voice for Horton, an
elephant who hears a voice from a floating speck and discovers that
there are people actually living in it in a place called Who-ville.
Called the Whos, these people have a Mayor (voiced by an also-neutered
Steve Carrell) who has 96 daughters and a son who won't speak. It's up
to Horton to find a safe place for the speck to save Who-ville from
destruction, even as the well-meaning pachyderm has to avoid all sorts
of obstacles, including Sour Kangaroo, Vlad the Vulture, the Wickersham
brothers, and other metaphors of McCarthyism.

As usual with such a thin material, the film has the obligatory
additional scenes to pad the running time but all in all, it captures
the spirit of its source, and it's a case where a G-rated film provides
entertainment both to kids and their older companions as well. (I would
have said "a rare case" but in this country, the G-rating is applied
more liberally by the local censor board.) The animation is
consistently good and a Japanese-inspired traditional animation does
not feel out of place from the overall enjoyment material. The voice
cast, according to the credits, involves some relatively big names, but
other than Carrey and Carrell, none of the actors take attention from
their characters and thus do not distract.

Fast-paced and touching, "Horton Hears a Who!" represents a step up for
Blue Sky Studios, who has played supporting roles to Pixar and
Dreamworks. I'm tempted to say that it's the best Dr. Seuss film
adaptation ever, but that won't be saying much considering the other
films involved. So maybe I'll just say it's one of the best animated
films, which is anyway true.