Horton Hears a Who! (film)

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jimmy Hayward Steve Martino
Written by	Cinco Paul Ken Daurio Dr. Seuss (Book)
Produced by	Bob Gordon Bruce Anderson
Starring	Jim Carrey Steve Carell Carol Burnett Seth Rogen Will Arnett Dan Fogler Isla Fisher Amy Poehler
Narrated by	Charles Osgood
Edited by	Tim Nordquist
Music by	John Powell
Production company	Blue Sky Studios
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	March 14, 2008 (2008-03-14)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$85 million
Box office	$367,679,954

Horton Hears a Who!, also known as Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, is a 2008 American CGI-animated feature film based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name, the fourth feature film from Blue Sky Studios, and the third Dr. Seuss-based feature film, following How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat.

It is the first Dr. Seuss adaptation fully animated using CGI technology.

Plot

In the Jungle of Nool, a caring, imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey), the jungle's nature teacher, takes a dip in the pool. A dust speck floats past him in the air, and he hears a tiny yelp coming from it. Believing that an entire family of microscopic creatures are living on that speck, he places it on top of a pink clover that he holds in his trunk. Horton finds out the speck harbors the city of Who-ville and all its inhabitants, led by Mayor Ned McDodd (Steve Carell). He has a wife, Sally (Amy Poehler), 96 daughters (Selena Gomez) who all have names that start with the letter H, and one teenage son named JoJo (Jesse McCartney), who, by Who custom, is next in line for the mayoral position. JoJo does not want to become mayor, which leads him to become sullen and he almost never talks, despite Ned's giving him attention.

The Mayor finds out from Dr. LaRue (Isla Fisher) that Who-ville will be destroyed if Horton does not find a "safer more stable home." Horton resolves to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. This outlook earns Horton nothing but ridicule from the inhabitants of Nool, especially from the strict de facto leader of the jungle, the Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett), who tries to get Horton to give up the speck, so as not to put supposedly ridiculous ideas into the heads of the children. Ever faithful to his motto, "A person's a person, no matter how small," Horton refuses. Also taking force toward Horton are the Wickersham brothers (Frank Welker and Dan Castellaneta), a group of bullying monkeys who love making misery.

The other Whos become suspicious of the various phenomena in their world (actually caused by Horton's various mishaps), the Mayor finally reveals the truth, but at first, the Whos do not believe him any more than the animals believe Horton. In the meantime, the Kangaroo has enlisted a nefarious buzzard named Vlad Vladikoff (Will Arnett) to get rid of the speck by force. Vlad manages to steal the clover with the speck on it, flee from a chasing Horton and drop it from hundreds of feet into a valley full of nearly identical clovers, (the one holding the speck has a striped stem). The impact nearly demolishes Who-ville like an earthquake. Horton painstakingly picks clovers through the field and finally finds it "on the 3 millionth flower." The earthquake, combined with hearing Horton's voice through the drain pipe, is enough to convince the rest of the Whos that the mayor is not crazy, and they all tell Horton they believe in him.

The Kangaroo finds out that Horton still has the speck, and decides to rally the jungle community into a hateful mob who attack Horton and corner him. Kangaroo offers Horton a mocking ultimatum: give up the speck and "admit" he was wrong and that she was right, or else, he will face the wrath of the people. But Horton refuses, and makes a heartfelt speech that clearly touches the animals. Kangaroo won't hear it, and orders the animals to rope and cage him, and that the speck be burned in a pot of boiling "beezlenut" oil, shown to have acidic propeties.

The Mayor enlists all of his people to make noise by shouting, "We are here," as well as playing a variety of instruments, so the animals can hear them. Horton is caged, and Kangaroo takes the clover and drops it into the oil. At the last minute, JoJo grabs the horn used to project Horton's voice, runs up the highest tower and yells "Yopp!" Just before the speck hits the oil, Jojo's sound finally causes their noise to be heard.

Hearing the Whos' cries, Rudy (Josh Flitter), the Kangaroo's son Rudy grabs the clover in the nick of time and returns it to Horton, refusing his mother's orders to return to her pouch. The animals finally realize the atrocity they almost committed. He sees the Kangaroo is miserable for her behavior, but Horton forgives her, and offers his friendship, which the Kangaroo accepts. She and the animals resolve to join Horton in returning the clover to Mount Nool. Here the people of Who-ville and the animals of Nool gather in song and recite the chorus from Can't Fight This Feeling Any More. In the final shot of the film, the camera zooms out, revealing that along with numerous other worlds in our universe, the jungle of Nool is just one speck among numerous others..

Cast

• Horton the Elephant, voiced by Jim Carrey, is the main protagonist of the film. Horton the elephant is that rare grown-up that never lost the rich imagination he had as a child. It was that imagination along with his unwavering dedication that makes Horton a great teacher, unconditional friend and a force to be reckoned with.
• Ned McDodd, the Mayor of Whoville, voiced by Steve Carell, is the mayor of a microscopic world, and father of ninety-six daughters and a son named JoJo. He is the main protagonist at Who-ville. He is very proud and formal and cares very much for his city and its people, but when he starts hearing the voice of Horton, whom he cannot see, things begin to unravel for the Mayor. It is noted that the name of the character wasn't revealed until the theatrical release. He can be described as "The mayor of Who-ville, a man named McDodd, was devoted, fair, and a little bit odd." However as smoothly as he runs the town, at the beginning of the movie, his relationship with his son JoJo is very strained, as JoJo doesn't talk to him.
• Sour Kangaroo, voiced by Carol Burnett, is the main antagonist of the film. Kangaroo is a busybody and creator of the jungle's laws who is skeptical about the existence of the Whos and Whoville on a dust speck. As Horton's claims begin to drive her towards darkness, she believes that once other people start listening to Horton, they'll start to come to her with questions she won't be able to answer. In order to avoid this, she begins making deals with the Wickershams and the vulture hitman Vlad Vladikoff. As the movie progresses, her aims start to shift towards crushing Horton's spirit and building up her own reputation. Sour Kangaroo is too dismissive of the products of imagination and creativity, even to the point where she keeps her son Rudy jammed inside her pouch. She believes that outside the "comfort" her ideas provide him, non-conformity and anarchy are minutes away from turning their ordered life into chaos. Yet, in the end, Horton's convincing changes her mindset.
• JoJo McDodd is voiced by Jesse McCartney. JoJo is the Mayor's only son and the eldest of the mayor's children. Since he is the oldest, JoJo is next in line to become the Mayor of Whoville, though he doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps. He doesn't want his Dad to know because he thinks he'll let his dad down. He never speaks to his father because of this, although from the deleted scenes commentary it is implied that he does speak, but since his scenes are mostly with his father, we don't hear him speak until he shouts "Yopp" and saves the town. After this he begins speaking to multiple characters, and even sings at the end to cap off the camera going into Whoville. He also shows a surprising talent for inventions and is somewhat of a prodigy and a musician. In fact, he turns the inside of Whoville's abandoned observatory into a giant mechanical musical instrument called the "Symphoniphone". In the deleted scenes commentary, it is revealed that at the time of the "Horton Incident," JoJo was 14. JoJo sticks out as the smallest who in Whoville (for his age, as the very young Whos are still smaller than he) and as he's adorned in black and gray. However, as the Whos are born with fur, his coloring cannot be helped. JoJo is also the second one to believe that his father actually has been hearing Horton, as is evidenced by his look after The Chairman says "Let the kite-flying race begin!"
• Rudy is voiced by Josh Flitter. Rudy is Kangaroo's young joey. He lives in his mother's pouch. Over the course of the movie, he starts to question his mother's ethics as she continually tries to demolish the clover on which Horton has caught the Whos' speck of dust. But his stifling environment can't contain his free-thinking spirit, and Rudy is ready to take the next step, even if it's his first. He is the flower and open the eyes.
• Morton the Mouse is voiced by Seth Rogen. Morton the mouse is Horton's best friend who makes up in speed what he lacks in size. He's smaller than the elephant's big toe, but when Morton speaks, Horton listens. Morton will endure Horton's whims, but when the elephant takes off on flights of fancy, Morton knows it's his job to bring him back to earth. He's successful, most of the time. Morton also acts as a messenger for Horton, bringing him news about Vlad, that him are come, and say if don't like you the idea that the claws cuttings rip your flesh let the flower and keep your eyes open.
• Sally O'Malley McDodd is voiced by Amy Poehler. Sally is the Mayor's wife and mother of 96 daughters and one son named JoJo. With all of these children, Sally's responsibilities dwarf even those of her husband. Still, she's able to juggle them with the grace of a first lady. The last thing she needs is another problem child with an overactive imagination, but when her husband starts hearing voices, that's exactly what she gets. It's a situation even her sharp wit and pointed sarcasm can't defuse, but when the truth is revealed, she's willing to give it her all to help her husband save Whoville. Sally deeply cares for her husband and children.
• Dr. Mary Lou LaRue is voiced by Isla Fisher. Dr. LaRue is an eccentric Whoville scientist who can be a bit scatterbrained at times. However, being the smartest of the staff at Who University, she is willing to help the Mayor find out how they can preserve the peace that holds their town together. She is one of the first Whos to believe that the Mayor was right about Whoville being a speck. She speaks with a lateral lisp.
• Vlad Vladikoff is voiced by Will Arnett. He is the antagonist in the scene where he tries to get the clover. There is a confusing matter about a good Vlad is a rabbit and he is a bad Vlad. Vlad is a reclusive vulture who lives in a tree stump in a swamp surrounded by thorns and snakes, feasting on a zebra carcass and shooing a jackal. The Sour Kangaroo hires him to get rid of Horton's clover. At first, he agrees to do it in exchange for her son Rudy, but he stated a brand new pair of objects never specified beforehand. After "thinking" it over, she uses reverse psychology to get him to do it for free. He speaks in a thick Russian accent and is extremely theatrical in his wickedness to the point of embarrassing himself.
• Yummo is voiced by Dan Fogler. Yummo is the rumbling leader of the Wickersham brothers who serves as a bully for Horton, as he sees him as an annoyance. He's hot-tempered, power-hungry, and just plain hungry. He helps with the capture of Horton because he agreed that Horton was poisoning the youth of the jungle, first said by Kangaroo.
• Mrs. Quilligan is voiced by Jaime Pressly. Mrs. Quilligan is a jungle bird that is a two-faced and easily influenced busybody. She sways with public opinion and everybody knows it. It's not unusual for her to be caught flip-flopping and backtracking to cover herself, keeping her firmly entrenched in the" in crowd".
• Jessica Quilligan is voiced by Laura Ortiz. Like any teenager, Jessica might be embarrassed by her mother's busybody behavior, but it's obvious to everyone else in the community that she's Mrs. Quilligan's mini-clone. She views herself as an independent thinker, but since conformity leads to acceptance, she's just another cog in the wheel. She is vain. When she and her classmates tell Horton about their clovers with worlds, Jessica states that her world is called Jessica-Land, where everyone worships her, Queen Jessica, because she is so beautiful.
• Tommy is voiced by Jonah Hill. Tommy is an orange Wombat-like creature that is one of the children of the Jungle of Nool that looks up to and views Horton as a teacher. He seems to have somewhat of a frat boy/smart aleck persona, but truly believes in what Horton is trying to do, even if he is being ridiculed for it. He tends to get out of the way of trouble, such as the time when Sour Kangaroo approaches them after hearing "nonsense" about the clover worlds, he says, "Oh, um... You guys with worlds are in trouble!"
• Katie is voiced by Joey King. Katie is a small baby yak with strange mannerisms and abilities. Aside from saying "ahhh" on a few occasions, her only line in the film is when Horton's students create worlds of their own on their own flowers: Katie explains that everyone in her world is a pony that eats rainbows and excretes butterflies. She also has a frog's tongue, and the ability to float, which she demonstrates at the end of the film. Katie is one of the female pupils of Horton. On the special features, it is revealed that the character of Katie was created to be creepy, and that she thinks of herself as a huge, demonic being. In a deleted scene, se is shown as huge, and terrorizing a village and consuming villagers.
• Miss Yelp, voiced by Niecy Nash, is the Mayor's assistant. She talks in a bored voice, and does all her tasks mechanically, before she is asked. She has a MySpace profile (named Whospace in the film), which she mostly spends her time on during work.
• The Chairman, voiced by Dan Fogler, is the head of the Whoville City Council and views the Mayor as a 'blathering boob', and appears to have more power than him. It is Horton who takes him down a peg or two. He and his cronies all have blue or green hair and skin, black suits and resemble The Grinch. It is said in the DVD comentary that the last one is named Pugerson and he can't fly his box kite very well. He is also an minor antagonist.
• The Wickersham Brothers, voiced by Frank Welker and Dan Castellaneta, are a group of vicious monkeys who serve as bullies for Horton, and huge henchmen of the Kangaroo. They have a very large family consisting of many members who help bind Horton. When Horton speaks up to all the animals of Nool about his protected speck, the Wickershams actually take pity on him, only to be forced by Sour Kangaroo to rope and cage him, but after a while, the Wickershams realize they do hear the people on the speck, and they also reject the still-resenting Sour Kangaroo. They serve as minor antagonists in the film.

Additional voices

• Debi Derryberry
• Madison Davenport
• Mona Marshall
• Laraine Newman
• Jimmy Hayward
• Shelby Adamowsky
• Bill Farmer
• Madison Pettis
• Heather Goldenhersh
• Ellie Martino
• Danny Mann
• Jack Angel
• Jan Rabson
• Jess Harnell
• Isabella Acres
• Connor Anderson
• Mickie McGowan
• Bob Bergen
• Grace Rolek
• Jennessa Rose
• Teresa Ganzel
• Ariel Winter

Trivia

• During the time the mayor addresses the town, on the right side of the screen are three green Whos and another Who carrying a plate of green eggs and ham.
• During the scene where the mayor introduces Horton to some of the people in Who-ville, the mayor introduces "Bert from accounting" who we see holding a coffee cup that appears to say "Who Sky" on it. This would be a reference to "Blue Sky", the animation studio that made this film.
• This is the first Dr. Seuss film adaptation to be both a critical and commercial success (How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat were both commercial successes, but How the Grinch Stole Christmas received mixed reviews and The Cat in the Hat received negative reviews).

Soundtrack

Main article: Horton Hears a Who! (soundtrack)

The original score for the film's soundtrack album was composed by John Powell. Near the end of the picture, the cast comes together and sings the song, "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon. This version of the song was not featured on the soundtrack. The song used in the theatrical advertisements was the theme to Beetlejuice.

Reaction

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from film critics. As of May 8, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 78% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 123 reviews, and an even better 84% rating from the top critics on the site based on 31 reviews, both classifying the film as "Certified Fresh", and making it by far the most favorably reviewed Dr. Seuss film adaptation on the site. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 71 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 31 reviews, also the most favorably reviewed Dr. Seuss film on the site. Brian Eggert of Deep Focus Review gave it one and a half stars out of four, criticizing its numerous pop-culture references, calling it a "mish-mash of incoherent babble" and claiming it ends up "reducing Seuss' otherwise admirable message to ordinary storytelling, when Seuss' work is anything but."

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $45,012,998 in 3,954 theaters, averaging $11,384 per theater in the United States and Canada, and ranking #1 at the box office. The film had the 4th largest opening weekend in March, behind Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and 300. In the United States and Canada, Horton Hears a Who was also the #1 film its second weekend of release, grossing $24,590,596 over the Easter frame, in 3,961 theaters and averaging $6,208 per venue. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend grossing $17,740,106 in 3,826 theaters and averaging $4,637 per venue. Its fourth weekend ranked at #4 grossing $9,115,987 in 3,571 theaters and averaging $2,553 per venue. Its fifth weekend ranked at #6, grossing $5,920,566 in 3,209 theaters and averaging $1,845 per venue.

As of July 20, 2008, it has grossed a total of $295,133,433 worldwide; $154,245,889 in the United States and Canada and $140,887,544 in other territories.

Home media release

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 two-disc special edition, and a gift set packaged with a Horton plush.

The DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released in the UK on October 20, 2008 and in Australia on September 20, 2008.

See also

• Seussical - The Dr. Seuss musical that the plot takes a part in.

External links

• Official website
• Template:Bcdb title
• Horton Hears a Who! at IMDb
• Horton Hears a Who! at AllMovie
• Horton Hears a Who! at Box Office Mojo
• Horton Hears a Who! at Rotten Tomatoes
• Horton Hears a Who! at Metacritic