| Horton Hears a Who! | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Screenplay by | Cinco Paul Ken Daurio |
| Based on | Horton Hears a Who! byDr. Seuss |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Edited by | Tim Nordquist |
| Music by | John Powell |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $85 million[3] |
| Box office | $298.6 million[3] |
Horton Hears a Who! (also known asDr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! or simplyHorton) is a 2008 American animatedadventure comedy film based on the1954 children's book byDr. Seuss, being the fourth screen adaptation of the book following the 1970Chuck Jonestelevision special, the 1987 Soviet animated short, and the 1992 Russian animated short.[4][5] Produced byBlue Sky Studios, the film was directed byJimmy Hayward andSteve Martino and written byCinco Paul and Ken Daurio. It stars the voices ofJim Carrey andSteve Carell asHorton the Elephant and Mayor Ned McDodd, respectively, alongsideCarol Burnett,Will Arnett,Seth Rogen,Dan Fogler,Isla Fisher,Jonah Hill, andAmy Poehler.[6] Recurring Blue Sky collaboratorJohn Powell composed the film's musical score.
Horton Hears a Who! was released theatrically in the United States on March 14, 2008, by20th Century Fox. The film was well-received upon release by critics, who praised its writing, visuals, and faithfulness to the original story, and grossed $298 million on a budget of $85 million. It was the third Dr. Seuss feature film adaptation,[7] the first adaptation to be fully animated usingCGI technology,[8] the first and only, thus far, theatrical film adaptation to receive positive reviews, and the second Dr. Seuss film starring Jim Carrey afterHow the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).[8]
In the Jungle of Nool,Horton the Elephant, the jungle's eccentric nature teacher, hears a tiny yelp coming from a floating dust speck and gives chase to it before placing it on top of a flower. Horton finds out the speck harbors the city ofWhoville and its inhabitants, the Whos, led by Mayor Ned McDodd, whose family includes his wife, Sally; 96 daughters whose names all begin with the letter H; and one teenage son named JoJo. Despite being the oldest child and next in line for the mayoral position, JoJo does not want to be the next mayor, and he does not speak due to his fear of disappointing his father.
Once Horton begins carrying the speck with him, the city starts experiencing strangephenomena (earthquakes and changes in theweather), and the mayor finds his attempts to caution Whoville challenged by the town council, led by the opportunistic yet condescending chairman.
After he makes contact with Horton, the mayor finds out from Dr. Mary Lou LaRue that Whoville will be destroyed if Horton does not find a safe location for the speck to reside. With the help of his best friend Morton the mouse, Horton decides to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. The head of the jungle, the Sour Kangaroo, who despises Horton for his lackadaisical influence on the children and subsequently "pouch-schooling" her son Rudy, demands numerous times that Horton give up the speck for overshadowing her authority, but Horton refuses. Also taking force toward Horton are the Wickersham Brothers, a group of monkeys and the Kangaroo's henchmen who like to cause havoc around the jungle. Eventually, the Kangaroo, refusing to believe that the Whos exist, enlists a sinister but idioticvulture named Vlad Vladikoff to get rid of the speck by force.
After a few failed attempts, Vlad manages to steal the flower away from Horton and drops it into a massive field of identical pink flowers causing an apocalyptic tremor in Whoville. After unsuccessfully picking flowers all day, Horton eventually recovers the flower (exactly the 3,000,000th flower), also revealing himself to the rest of Whoville, who have largely survived. The Kangaroo eventually finds out that Horton still has the speck, fires Vlad, and rallies the Wickersham Brothers and the other animals of Nool into capturing Horton, preying on their fears that their own children will become chaotic delinquents under his influence.
Upon an angry mob, stampeding to Horton and cornering him, the Kangaroo offers Horton a final chance to renounce Whoville's existence. Horton refuses, and despite the heartfelt speech that he gives, the Kangaroo orders the animals to rope and cage him, and to have the speck and Whoville destroyed in a pot of boiling beezlenut oil. The Mayor enlists all of his people to make noise, so that all the animals will find out they're really there, assisted by JoJo's "Symphonophone", an invention which creates a huge musical contribution and reveals that JoJo's true passion is music, but still fails to penetrate the surface of the speck.
The Kangaroo snatches the flower from the captured Horton and prepares to drop it into the pot. Meanwhile, JoJo grabs the horn used to project Horton's voice, runs up the highest tower, and screams his first word "Yopp!", breaking through the sound barrier just seconds before the speck hits the oil, and causing Rudy to grab the flower just in time before it reaches to the oil. Upon the animals hearing the Whos, they release Horton and shun the Kangaroo for tricking them while Rudy ignores her demands to return to her pouch and gives the speck back to Horton.
Despite this, Horton forgives the ostracized Kangaroo with a cookie from Vlad the bunny, who in turn provides a makeshift umbrella for Whoville as Horton and the animals of Nool carries them to Mt. Nool while saying farewell to each other by singing "Can't Fight This Feeling", and it is revealed that the Jungle of Nool (andEarth as a whole) is just one speck, like Whoville, among numerous others floating in space.
Other animals that appear as residents of the Jungle of Nool are Glummoxes (including Angela and her mother), Palooskis (including Jessica and her mother, Mrs. Quilligan), Deer Whose-horns-are-connected-from-one-to-the-other (includingthose that lack the antlers), fromIf I Ran the Zoo,[12] Zatz-its fromOn Beyond Zebra!,[13] Long-Legger Kwongs and Ruffle-Necked Sala-ma-gooxes fromScrambled Eggs Super!,[14] yaks (including Katie) (which resembled the Yawning Yellow Yak fromDr. Seuss's ABC),[15] bears (including Tommy and his father Willie) (which unlike regular bears have muzzles that are shape like and resemble those of abovidae andhippo snouts and have stripes), Ninks[16] (anteater-like creatures, which resemble walkingvacuum cleaners) fromThere's a Wocket in My Pocket,[17] and Zongs[16] (lizard-like creatures, which unlike regular lizards have snouts that are shaped like and resemble those ofbird beaks have fur that covers their entire bodies, and tufts on the tip of their tails, fromOh, the Thinks You Can Think!),[18] which were designed by Jason Sadler, a former animator, storyboard artist, designer, and voice actor onDick Figures, who also works for Blue Sky Studios as a character designer, and was also famous forHappy Tree Friends as an animator, storyboard artist, director, and writer. He would later work as a character designer forRio.[19]
After the critical and commercial failure of the 2003 filmThe Cat in the Hat,Dr. Seuss' widow,Audrey Geisel, was so dissatisfied with the film that she then decided not to allow any more live-action feature films based on his work.[20] In March 2005, asBlue Sky Studios was completingRobots, the studio and20th Century Fox Animation presidentChris Meledandri approached Geisel about getting the adaptation rights forHorton Hears a Who!.[21][2] The art director forRobots,Steve Martino, along with story consultant and additional scene directorJimmy Hayward,[22] created a model of protagonist Horton and some animation tests to showcase their design ideas to Geisel,[21] who eventually agreed on "a seven-figure deal" for both the book and its predecessorHorton Hatches the Egg.Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio were then hired to write the script,[23] to be directed by Hayward and Martino with a set release date of early 2008.[22]
Geisel was credited as an executive producer and watched production up close,[21] and also gave the directors full access to her late husband's archives, including his original sketches, 3-D sculptures, work done for the filmThe 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953), and even memos Dr. Seuss traded withChuck Jones during the production ofthe Grinch TV special.[24] For references in doing the character animation, along with footage of the voice actors performing their lines, the Blue Sky animators recorded themselves performing the script in an "acting room" to see what of their body language could translate well into the film.[25]
To make Horton different from themammoths Blue Sky created for theIce Age series, he would at times stand and walk upright and bipedally on two legs in a way that made him look like "a fat man in an elephant suit". The directors noticed Horton's design in the book varied according to his emotion, and the 3D wireframe tried to allow for the same effects, with a bigger mouth to allow for wider facial expressions like those of Jim Carrey.[26]
| Horton Hears a Who! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | |
|---|---|
| Film score by | |
| Released | March 25, 2008 |
| Recorded | 2007–2008 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Length | 59:56 |
| Label | Varèse Sarabande |
| Producer | John Powell |
The original score for the film's soundtrack album was composed byJohn Powell, conducted by Pete Anthony and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. A soundtrack consisting of the film's score was released on March 25, 2008, byVarèse Sarabande.[27][28] Near the end of the picture, the cast comes together and sings the song "Can't Fight This Feeling" byREO Speedwagon.[29]
Other songs featured in the film include:[30]
| Title | Performer |
|---|---|
| "Can't Fight This Feeling" | Jim Carrey,Steve Carell,Amy Poehler,Carol Burnett,Dan Fogler,Seth Rogen,Will Arnett and Fletcher Sheridan |
| "Quickie" | Thomas Foyer |
| "Swingville Sashay" | Muff & Rezz |
| "Água Melão" | Gilberto Cândido |
| "The Blue Danube" | Johann Strauss II |
OnRotten Tomatoes, 79% of 136 reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's consensus reads, "Horton Hears A Who! is both whimsical and heartwarming, and is the rare Dr. Seuss adaptation that stays true to the spirit of the source material."[31] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[32] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film version an "A−" grade on an "A+" to "F" scale.[33]
Kirk Honeycutt ofThe Hollywood Reporter called it "a delight, brimming with colorful, elastic characters and bountiful wit."[34]
John Anderson ofVariety wrote: "The real stars of the movie are the animators, who imbue even the overgrowth in Horton's jungle with a certain floppy Seuss-ishness."[35]
Horton Hears a Who! grossed a total of $298.5 million on an $85 million budget. $154.5 million came from the United States and Canada, and $145 million from other territories.[3][36]
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $45 million in 3,954 theaters, averaging $11,384 per theater in the United States and Canada, and ranking #1 at the box office.[37] The film also had the strongest opening for a film starring Jim Carrey sinceBruce Almighty, with the same applying to his costar in both films, Steve Carell.[33]
The film previously had the fourth-largest opening weekend in March, behindIce Age,Ice Age: The Meltdown and300, and as of September 2012, it ranks 15th place.[38] In the United States and Canada,Horton Hears a Who! was also the #1 film its second weekend of release, grossing $25 million over the Easter frame, in 3,961 theaters and averaging $6,208 per venue. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend grossing $17.8 million in 3,826 theaters and averaging $4,637 per venue. At the international box office it remained at #1 in its third week.[39]
Horton Hears a Who!, like other Dr. Seuss creations, contains layered subtexts and messages. A major theme regards learning about universal values between vastly different places and people, as shown by the quote "A person's a person, no matter how small". This is employed on many levels: primarily with Horton and the Mayor of Whoville making contact and championing each other to the point where everyone around them eventually learns the truth about the speck that Whoville resides on; but also with the Mayor and Sour Kangaroo's relationships with their respective sons, Horton and the Mayor being challenged by Sour Kangaroo and the chairman, the fickle herd mentality of the jungle community (save Horton's students and Morton) and Horton still forgiving Sour Kangaroo, and the ending shot of all of the worlds being specks in space.[40]
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annie Awards[41] | Outstanding Animated Effects | Alen Lai | Nominated |
| Outstanding Character Animation in a Feature Production | Jeff Gabor | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Character Design in an Animated Feature Production | Sang Jun Lee | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Music in an Animated Feature Production | John Powell | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Writing in an Animated Feature Production | Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio | Nominated | |
| ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards[42] | Top Box Office Films | John Powell forBolt,Hancock,Horton Hears a Who! andJumper | Won |
| Golden Reel Award[43] | Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects, Foley, Music, Dialogue and ADR Animation in a Feature Film | Randy Thom, Dennis Leonard, Jonathan Null, Sue Fox, Thomas A. Carlson, Steve Slanec, Colette D. Dahanne, Pete Horner, Kyrsten Mate, Mac Smith, Jeremy Bowker, Andrea Gard, Ronni Brown, Ellen Heuer, Dennie Thorpe, Jana Vance | Nominated |
| Golden Trailer Awards[44] | Best Animation/Family TV Spot for "Whomongous" | Horton Hears a Who! | Nominated |
| Houston Film Critics Society[45] | Best Animated Feature Film | Horton Hears a Who! | Nominated |
| Kids' Choice Awards[46] | Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie | Jim Carrey | Nominated |
| IFMCA Awards[47] | Best Original Score for an Animated Feature Film | John Powell | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society[48] | Best Animated Feature | Horton Hears a Who! | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards[49] | Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media | Horton Hears a Who! | Nominated |
| Best Original Score | John Powell | Nominated | |
| Saturn Awards[50] | Best Animated Film | Horton Hears a Who! | Nominated |
| Young Artist Award[51] | Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role - Young Actress | Selena Gomez | Nominated |
| Shelby Adamowsky | Nominated | ||
| Joey King | Nominated |
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! was released onDVD andBlu-ray on December 9, 2008. Three versions of the DVD are available: a single-disc edition, a 2-disc special edition, and a gift set packaged with a Horton plush. All three versions included theIce Age short filmSurviving Sid.[52]
In the United States, the film earned $77,630,768 from DVD sales and $180,434 from Blu-ray sales for a total of $77,811,202 in video sales.[36]
