Movie: Horton hears a Who

[elfs]

Omaha and I took Kouryou-chan off to see Horton Hears a Who last night. While it wasn't an abomination in the same way as The Grinch or The Cat in the Hat, it was still only mildly entertaining. I noticed in the credits that there were different animation teams for different textures: the feathers team, the fur team, and so on. The water team needs to be shot, and whoever thought it was a good idea for Horton to be patchily glossy when he was wet needs be shot twice. The animation of water was sickly. The snow was done on the cheap; when Horton plows through it chasing the vulture, it blocks up badly in a number of places. There were a number of sequences where you could hear the director saying, "Dudes, we need something to fill up three more minutes, or we're not going to make it to 87."

The Lovecraftian themes of the movie are quite entertaining: if there are forces greater than ourselves out there, they might just squash us unthinkingly, by accident, or they might be as perverse and annoying as we ourselves. I think if the faithful want to hear faith in this film they can, but nobody else is asked to believe in Horton's world until both worlds find a way to intercommunicate. Both sides demand evidence. Tolerance of Horton's beliefs is important, yes, but acceptance of them requires more than tolerance. I think the whole "pro-life" angle is a stupid one to take. And yes, while the mayor's clearly sexist for doting on his #1 son while #2-97 daughters get an allocate 12 seconds each from their parents, that was more or less in the book. ('Course, Rudy was a jerk in the book and he's not in the movie, but that's a different story.)

It's an okay film, good for the kids, no harm to be had here. (Bummer, there's no CAP Alert for Horton.)

Comments

[amythis.livejournal.com]

Surely CAP would want to alert us to the "poop" joke in a G-rated movie?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

You'd think. I got one heck of a giggle out of this "new" review:

10,000 BC? How can that be since non-ape biped life is only about 6,000 years old? Only in the movies. The title would be more accurate if it were, say, 3,000 BC. Or 2,000 BC. At any rate, 10,000 BC is a very violent film.

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

"Non-ape biped life"? What's that supposed to mean, kangaroos?

[amythis.livejournal.com]

Worse than violent, it is anachronistic! Um, we're just not sure by how much.

[patrick roberts (from livejournal.com)]

Horton Hears a Who is classic, i forgot how much Dr. Seuss packed into such simple storylines... they really didn't add much to the original story except for the usual Jim-Carryisms.

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

CAP isn't trying to axe the film because the fundies are hoping to use it to promote their anti-abortion stance.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and it's the biggest stretch imaginable for them to do so, but they are doing it anyway. sigh.