Horton Hears A Who

Starring: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451079/

This review contains minor spoilers.

I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this movie; previous Dr. Seuss adaptations have been pretty bad. How the Grinch Stole Christmas was sort of good but not something I’d really want to watch again, and Cat in the Hat was just horrible. However the trailers looked promising and the cast is nothing short of amazing so I figured I would give it a try; maybe I would love it. Now I probably wouldn’t go so far as to say I loved it but I did enjoy it so I guess thats a good thing.

3D animation really suits Dr. Seuss and I’m glad they went with it here. The graphics themselves were awesome, it amazes me to think what we’re capable of as far as computer animation goes. The first scene in the film, which I’m pretty sure was made for the sole purpose of showing off all the cool things they could do with 3D (like water effects and fluff particles), was some of the best 3D I have seen in a film. The rest of the movie wasn’t quite as cool which leads me to believe that they may have really pushed to make that first scene the best they could do, which might not have been feasible for the entire film.

The voice acting was great, especially Steve Carell and Will Arnett. I was also surprised that I enjoyed Jim Carey since it has been a long time since I have enjoyed his style of comedy. This movie really had an all star comedy cast, with almost all of the speaking characters voiced by familiar actors. Not all of them I enjoyed but that’s to be expected. Isla Fisher used an odd voice that I wasn’t too partial too, and the character Jojo had a surprisingly deep voice which doesn’t really suit him. It wasn’t enough for me to dwell on but it surprised me when he spoke.

It’s inevitable when your making an animated film for it to be compared to other animated features. I don’t really compare this to any of Pixar’s offerings since the styles are so different but I was comparing it to Madagascar and of course Ice Age; both of which I enjoyed. I perhaps liked Madagascar more but that doesn’t really tell you anything about this film. I laughed pretty hard at a few of the jokes and not too many of them fell flat which is a great sign. I’d much rather see a film with a constant stream of good jokes than one with a couple of amazing jokes and then a bunch of bad ones.

If your a fan of the Dr. Seuss stories (not the earlier films), or just enjoy a good 3D animated film every once in awhile then I would recommend checking this one out. It’s probably not for everybody, some people don’t enjoy movies aimed at children but I liked it. I may never watch it again but I definetly enjoyed it this time.

~ by Hobbes on April 13, 2008.