A Disappointing Continuation

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Dr Seuss was one of my childhood favourites and I still have a big soft spot for him now. Of the animated adaptations of his work, almost all are absolute gems and show an utmost respect for it. And Horton Hears a Who is no exception. The animation is bright and colourful with beautifully rendered character designs(they are also true to the illustrations in the book), and the songs deliciously catchy. The writing and rhymes are relatively simple(in a good way) as well as witty and very easy to get in your head. The story is zippily paced, upbeat and charming with a nice message, which is exactly what Dr Seuss should be like, and it doesn't suffer from too much padding or useless scenes. The ending is also very heartfelt. The characters are timeless and always engage you, and the voice acting especially from Hans Conreid is terrific. Overall, a treasure, every bit as good as the book and deserves its place among the other animated Dr Seuss adaptation classics. The Jim Carrey animated film I also found entertaining and easily the best of the feature length adaptations, but I'll always prefer this. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Horton the Elephant discovers the Whos, a race of people who live entirely on a speck of dust and know nothing of the outside world. His jungle friends don't believe him and turn against Horton, eventually threatening to boil the dust speck in beezlenut oil.There are at least three layers to this film. On the most superficial level, it's a cartoon featuring an elephant, some little people and a handful of catchy songs that kids and parents will love. This is what you'd get if you weren't following along at all, and you'd still have a good movie.On the next level, we have the film's core message: a person's a person, no matter how small. This is what most people will walk away with, and the intent is clear: we're all created equally. Whether Suess was focusing on race, gender, physical stature or handicap is unclear... but we get the point -- each of us is human, even if we're different.The third level is a bit convoluted and I'm not entirely sure I grasp it. The Wickersham brothers accuse Horton of trying to create civil unrest. Here we may see parallels to the events of the 1960s. The Wickersham brothers want to protect "free enterprise" and "compound interest rates" and hope to stop Horton from overthrowing the government. I'm not really sure how that relates to a dust speck... this seems a cheap attempt at attacking extreme right-wingers (such as Joseph McCarthy).So, you'll like the first and second levels... and the third one just might leave you scratching your head. Or, if you're me, liking it even more. I mean, politics is in no way foreign to Suess -- watch (or read) "The Butter Battle Book" or "The Sneeches" or "The Lorax"...

Dr Seuss' zippy rhymes brought generations of children together and this one, with its constant refrain 'a person's a person, no matter how small' is no exception.Beautifully animated, this tale of Horton the friendly elephant takes a step on from the 1940s Merrie Melodie 'Horton Hatches The Egg' and has just as much charm. Horton, a slightly dim but kindly elephant, hears a whole colony of 'Whos' who live in a dust speck housed on a clover head, and seeks to keep them safe from doubters who wish to do them and him harm.Memorable, funny, with bright colours and well-shaped characters such as Jane Kangaroo and the Doctor of Whoville himself, 'Horton Hears A Who' is probably the best of the Dr Seuss films.

Horton the Elephant (amiably voiced by Hans Conried) discovers a microscopic community called Whoville living in a speck of dust. Alas, Horton can't convince the other skeptical animals in the jungle that Whoville really exists. The second TV special team-up by master animator Chuck Jones and renowned children's book author Dr. Seuss (the first was the terrific yuletide classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"), this program offers a great deal of infectiously offbeat and imaginative fun for the whole family. The catchy rhymes, the bright, colorful animation, Eugene Poddany's jaunty, merry score, the charming songs, the engagingly quirky characters, the constant zippy pace, the warm, upbeat tone, the heartening conclusion, a strong moral about the power of free speech and democracy, and the nice central message about how there's much more to life than just the obvious and what you already know all make this tale an absolute joy to watch. Moreover, Conried makes for a pleasingly folksy narrator, June Foray does double duty as the haughty Jane Kangaroo and the adorable Cindy Lou Who, and Thurl Ravenscroft lends his great rumbling deep voice as one of the evil singing gorilla Wickersham Brothers. A real treat.