Hollywood gets Dr. Seuss right

A wary moviegoer will note that Hollywood’s previous two attempts at making a feature film out of Dr. Seuss’ books have been, by most accounts, cinematic nightmares. It would stand to reason that a third attempt at extending one of Seuss’ 20-page classics into a full-length movie would result in an equally abysmal experience. Surprisingly, Hollywood’s most recent opportunity to mangle the doctor’s beloved books, the computer-animated adaptation of Horton Hears a Who!, bucks the trend.

Horton tells the tale of the titular elephant, voiced by Jim Carrey, who discovers a microscopic city called “Whoville” that only he can hear and no one else believes exists. The mayor of Whoville, voiced by Steve Carell, asks Horton to find a safe place for the civilization to reside, prompting Horton to set out in search of a location.

It would be nearly impossible to convert a work as short as Horton into an 88-minute film without creating any additional material, and so the screenwriters for Horton, Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, did just that. Even those who have never read the book will find it easy to tell which parts were directly lifted from the good doctor’s work, and which were the invention of the writers to extend the film and add humor. While some may see this as a bad thing, these additions are often outright hilarious, and don’t detract much from the heart of the original story, which, for all its simplicity, delves into some deep philosophical and theological issues.

The writers seem to have created the new material with Carrey and Carell in mind. Horton’s easy excitability and the mayor’s borderline ineptness are similar to the characteristics of other characters they have played, allowing them to perform their roles effortlessly. While Jim Carrey doing his Jim Carrey … thing … sometimes distracts, he manages to make Horton as heartwarming as the role calls for him to be. Carrey and Carell’s acting complement the film as a whole.

The decision to make Horton into a computer-animated film, as opposed to live-action flick— á la the ill-fated How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat—has proven to be a wise choice, as DreamWorks’ animation manages to stay faithful to the whimsically imaginative nature of Seuss’ illustrations. His bizarre character designs, twisting landscapes and unlikely architecture are all well-represented, leaving viewers with no doubt that what they are watching is, in fact, a Dr. Seuss film.

While it remains to be seen how well Horton will stack up to Pixar’s upcoming animated film Wall-E, DreamWorks proves that it is just as capable as Pixar of making a children’s film that is enjoyable for all ages.