My Movie Review on Horton Hears a Who! (2008 film) · 2:29pm Aug 21st, 2019

Greetings, my good peoples. Both big and small.

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another film review.

And today, I'll be making my debut of reviewing films by Blue Sky Studios by reviewing "Horton Hears A Who!".

Here's the summary of this tale:

Horton is a fun-loving but largely eccentric elephant, who has regularly been residing in the Jungle of Nool as a teacher for the children.

However, when he suddenly hears a small voice inside of a floating speck that he caught on a clover, he soon discovers that the speck contains the city of Whoville!

The Mayor of Whoville, who is the only one who becomes aware of this and makes contact with Horton, requests that he put them in a safe place, or else their world would be destroyed.

His mission being clear to him, Horton goes on a journey to find the perfect place that's safe for Whoville. While the Mayor tries to keep himself calm and the keep the citizens unaware of the potential danger.

Will Horton be able to keep Whoville safe? Or will the word in the speck unfortunately perish?

Fun fact about this movie, really, is that it was another I had been wanting to review for quite some time. From the very beginning of my reviewing days even.

Let me tell you guys something:

This film does not disappoint! It's really fun!

The animation, for instance, was absolutely astounding.

I mean, sure, it may not have reached the kind of quality or height as Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks, but I can also see that it wasn't Blue Sky's intention to either. To me, the real goal was obviously to capture the heart and spirit of Dr. Seuss's illustrative style while also making sure the animation was as beautiful and well-worked as ever, and Blue Sky did an amazing job at doing just that. Personally, out of all of them, the brief hand-drawn animated moments are my favorite.

The screenplay by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, and the direction by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, were also really fun.

They were absolutely faithful and true to the vision of Dr. Seuss. But, at the same time, they were able to extend themselves creatively and put their hearts and souls into making this film a pleasure for all to see. They incorporated lots of heartfelt moments and dramatic tension that are compelling enough to tug at your heartstrings.

On the subject of the humor, I really must say that the comedy the writers and directors incorporated was all-out hilarious! Each and every gag executed was marvelously timed, innocent, and gave the impression that they were given much thought. As a matter of fact, the style and timings of the comedy was something that I found to be reminiscent of early films done by the Walt Disney Company.

Likewise, the music by John Powell was brilliantly melodious.

Powell not only gave the music a cinematic-feel that could immediately get people immersed into a movie, he was able to help it be the kind of music that was a perfect fit for an adaption of a Dr. Seuss story. The rendition of "Can't Fight This Feeling" that was sung by the voice cast near the ending of the film, might I add, was a harmonious experience.

And speaking of the voice cast, as well as their performances, they too were amazing. So were the characters and character development.

Each and every cast member fit their parts like they were meant for them, and they performed their characters with mind-blowing emotion, personality, and commitment. Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, and Will Arnett were the ones whom I thought delivered the funniest performances with their characters of Horton, the Mayor, and Vlad the Vulture, while Carol Burnett gave her character of Kangaroo a remarkably intimidating and authoritative presence with her voice alone.

In conclusion, Blue Sky's "Horton Hears A Who!" is what I'd like to call a barrel of consistent fun, and to my point of view, it's by far the best film adaption of a story by Dr. Seuss to date. Seuss himself would be very proud.

So, I rate "Horton Hears A Who!" a solid five out of five stars.