THE third time’s the charm for Dr. Seuss after the grotesque live-action feature adaptations of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat in the Hat.”
The computer-animated feature based on Seuss’s “Horton Hears a Who!” from Blue Sky – the outfit behind the “Ice Age” cartoons – is frequently charming, beautifully drawn and far more faithful in spirit to the source material than those dreadful Ron Howard-Brian Grazer productions.
Jim Carrey, who overbearingly played the Grinch, is in comparatively restrained form as Horton, a genial elephant who lives in the jungle of Nool with his mouse buddy Morton (Seth Rogen).
One day, Horton discovers a speck of dust on a clover that’s actually a tiny planet – where mini residents live in a town called Who-ville.
Horton is somehow able to hear the much disrespected mayor of Who-ville (a terrific Steve Carell), but nobody else can. Especially not the overbearing Kangaroo (Carol Burnett, very good), who thinks Horton has a delusion that poses a danger to the social order of Nool. By some accounts, Seuss (aka Theodor Geisel) intended “Horton,” published in 1954, at least in part as a political commentary on the times, with Kangaroo a surrogate for Communist witchhunter Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
While that political subtext will still resonate for boomer parents, this cartoon is also a delight for their kids, with beautifully rendered images of Nool and Who-ville, and the book’s original beguiling rhymes recited as narration by the perfectly chosen Charles Osgood.
The simple story has Horton trying to save Who-ville from extinction by predators and from Kangaroo, arguing more than once that “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” (Geisel, adamantly pro-choice, once sued a pro-life group that appropriated his slogan).
Meanwhile in Who-ville, the mayor is having a hard time convincing the skeptical populace that Horton even exists, much less that they’re in danger unless they come together in a community effort.
Seuss’ short books barely provided enough story for half-hour TV specials (an animated “Horton” aired in 1970), so makers of features always have to pad things out with action sequences, and in this case, some clever visual gags.
Screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (“The Santa Clause 2,” “College Road Trip”) have added lines for characters voiced by Will Arnett, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill and Amy Poehler.
But they and directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino thankfully never stray far from the creator’s gentle whimsy in “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”
HORTON HEARS A WHO!
For kids of all ages. Running time: 88 minutes. Rated G At the Lincoln Square, the Union Square, the Orpheum, others.