The Film
It's not that I don't appreciate Fox's Horton Hears a Who! for what it is, I just consider it to be, y'know, blasphemy. I'm a guy who thinks that even his beloved animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas! drags a bit in the middle as Chuck Jones & Co. padded it to a mere 26 minutes, to bridge the gap between Dr. Seuss' book and a '60s TV half-hour. Don't even get me started on the live-action travesty, as I can't even listen to the Faith Hill Christmas single from the movie without my nether-regions clenching.
Somewhere at the heart of Horton--a star-studded, digitally animated multiplex-filler--is the essence of Seuss' timeless tale about open-mindedness, it's just buried under tons of newly added filler material to give talented comics like Jim Carrey and Steve Carell a chance to strut their stuff. At least the production design is largely faithful to the original artwork, and some of the bits are indeed amusing.
You can also check out Joe Lozito's take on the movie here.
The Picture
The greatest strength of the 1.85:1 image is its frequent photo-realism, striking in the opening shots and elsewhere. Allegedly, even stars Carrey and Carell were fooled the first time early footage was screened for them, and the nuances of the minutest play of light are preserved beautifully. Colors are strong in a deliberately wild, cartoonish palette, and the image demonstrates great stability, even for example when a dive sends the pool splashing into countless tiny beads of rushing water. Most characters are either covered in wrinkles or fine hair, and typically these reproduce extraordinarily well, however there are minor instances of artifacting as well as a disappointing quantity of video noise in the shadows, on certain textures or areas like backgrounds that are rendered with softer focus.
The Sound
There is some bold use of the 5.1 high-resolution channels available to the filmmakers, who definitely embrace modern sound capabilities as another storytelling weapon in their arsenal. The front-to-back panning effects are engrossing as characters or the virtual camera moves, and an ample supply of respectable, sometimes punchy bass underscores the big pachyderm Horton as he galumphs about the jungle. I was also caught pleasantly off-guard by a very nifty 360-degree pan down in tiny Whoville as Horton is speaking up above, his voice moving from speaker to speaker to speaker in DTS-HD Master Audio. Great creativity and care was put into this track.
The Extras
"Watch Horton Hears a Who! with a Who" is a picture-on-picture graphic of the littlest Who, JoJo, who watches the movie along with us from time to time. We can also interact with him when he holds up a sign asking for something, but that sub-feature did not work for me. The Deleted Footage, with introduction and optional commentary, is presented as storyboards (15 minutes), then rough animation (two-and-a-half minutes) and "almost final" form (one minute), all standard-def. Animation Screen Tests are also included for Horton, The Mayor and the Whos, seven minutes total plus the intro, again SD.
From here it is a bevy of featurettes in high-def: "Bringing the Characters to Life" (five-and-a-half minutes about actors, and animators as thespians), "The Elephant in the Room: Jim Carrey" (five minutes, explaining "Why him?"), "That's One Big Elephant: Animating Horton" (eight minutes, about the hero's movie incarnation), "Meet Katie" (four minutes, charting the evolution of the scene-stealing critter), "Our Speck: Where Do We Fit In?"" (four minutes, kids' views of the world and the environment), "Elephant Fun: The Facts" (five-and-a-half minutes on the real thing), "A Person Is A Person - A Universal Message"(four minutes driving home the importance of the theme), and lastly "Bringing Seuss to Screen" (eight minutes, about the work of Theodor S. Geisel, a.k.a Dr. Seuss).
"We Are Here!" is a set-top game in HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 which requires that our player's bitstream audio out be disabled to work properly. "Surviving Sid" is an exclusive new Ice Age short (eight minutes) in HD and quite good Dolby Digital. As you might expect, the audio commentary from directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Marino is a lot of fun. Disc Two is a DVD carrying a Digital Copy of the movie, for Windows PC/portable and iTunes/iPod use.
Final Thoughts
The less you know about the original Horton Hears a Who! and the more you enjoy the talents of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Will Arnett et. al., the better time you're bound to have with this recent attempt. The animation is lovely, the mix is a treat, and the extras are in education in modern adaptation.
Where to Buy:
Product Details:
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Movie | |
| Extras |
