Sunday, March 16, 2008
A+E, In this Issue...

No green eggs, but plenty of ham

Manic ‘Horton’ lays an egg

Jim Carrey voices Horton the elephant in “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”
CREDIT: Blue Sky Studios

“DR. SUESS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO!”
Voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell
Directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino
Rated G
Wide release
By Steve Murray

Does Jim Carrey really want to be the new Robin Williams? That’s what it looks like in “Horton Hears a Who!,” a computer-animated movie that inflates the delicate Dr. Seuss fable into an elephant-sized whatsit.

Giving voice to Horton—the lovable pachyderm guarding the microscopic world of the Whos—Carrey delivers a manic vocal performance that comes off like a wannabe version of Williams’ manic genie in “Aladdin.” The idea was new back then, and Williams was funny (back then). Here, trying on different voices and accents, Carrey transforms Seuss’ endearing character into a sugar-rushed wisecracker.

Made by Fox’s animation division, “Horton” is stranded in a no-man’s-land. It tiptoes into territories ruled by Disney (the zippy “Aladdin” element), DreamWorks (snarky, “Shrek”-like pop allusions) and Pixar (the CGI is gorgeous). But it never has an identity of its own. The 1970 animated television version worked hard to stretch Seuss’ tale into a 26-minute running time. This 88-minute feature version is almost all padding, with Horton plodding along in search of safe haven for the Whos, chased by the close-minded Kangaroo (Carol Burnett), who refuses to believe Horton’s claim that there’s a whole world perched on the clover he carries with his trunk. Meanwhile, down in Who-ville, its mayor (Steve Carell) deals with bureaucrats who refuse to believe their world is imperiled.

Oddly, the movie itself comes across like something made by bureaucratic committee, a patchwork of tones that feels like the result of too many compromises. It’s a betwixt-and-between experience, with those pop-culture references and digressions (like Horton’s fantasy of saving Who-ville, imagined as an anime cartoon) bouncing up against Seuss’ humanist whimsy.

I was one of the few people who kinda liked the 2000 live-action “Grinch” remake, also starring Carrey. As cluttered and loud as it was, that movie zoomed along, whereas “Horton” is the equivalent of a jet stuck in a holding pattern. And that’s frustrating, because clearly a lot of money and effort have been put into the visuals. You just wish the same attention was given to the script. (The screenwriting team’s illustrious credits include “Bubble Boy,” “The Santa Clause 2” and “College Road Trip,” so the suits at Fox knew the sort of mediocre script they were likely to get.)

The movie does feature hints of what might have been. Among Horton’s bizarre animal pals, there’s a yellow hedgehog-thingie named Katie. In our world, she’d be the girl in the classroom corner, eating paste and glowing beatifically, but nothing much is done with her. The movie introduces characters like hers, then shies away from giving them much to do. That includes Horton’s blue-mouse pal Morton, a character that wastes Seth Rogen’s vocal work.

Similarly, the script attempts to score points with references social intolerance and its easy catchphrases, with Kangaroo appealing to mob prejudice by painting Horton as a menace “to the children.” Like so many other things here, it’s an idea that goes by the wayside just when it’s starting to pick up speed.

The film also suffers from a general, subtle misogyny. Who-ville’s mayor has 96 daughters, none of whom make an impression. It falls to his sole son, JoJo, to help save Who-ville from destruction. Kangaroo is a shrew, and the mayor’s wife is a blank. Wow—even in cartoons, there aren’t any good roles for women.

In the end, “Horton” isn’t offensive—just disappointing. Kids may like it OK, and computer animation proves a perfect match for Seuss’ surreal worlds and characters. It’s just a shame the screenplay is as pedestrian as the visuals are fantastic, a disparity as big as the comparative sizes of Horton’s jungle and the Who’s teensy world. 2 STARS