Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Who's in Horton Hears a Who

Fox's Blue Sky animation studio have announced that they will be making a CGI-animated film version of Dr. Suess' classic story Horton Hears a Who! (Currently scheduled to be released March of 2008).

Remember the Story?
Horton Hears a Who! is the story of an Elephant (Horton) who with his impecable hearing, hears the pleas for protection from teeny-tiny people (the Whos) who live in a world of their own on a floating piece of dust. Horton risks his own life on countless occasion to save the Whos.
Interesting to me because: Many feel this book's original intention was to make an anti-atomic bomb statement. It's a story about self-sacrifice and being accepting of all people, "A Person's a Person no Matter How Small." It is not surprising in our current war enviornment that this would be a message that film makers might consider representing in a new medium.

Jim Carrey
Fox announced that Jim Carrey has been cast as the voice talent for Horton.
Interesting to me because:Jim Carrey's already played an iconic Dr. Suess character. Carrey, of course, was the grinch in Ron Howard's adaptation of Dr. Suess' famous story, How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Steve Carell
The other announced cast member is Steve Carell who will provide the voice talent for the mayor of Whoville.
Interesting to me because: Steve Carell performed as the news anchor with speaking problems in Bruce Almighty, and will headlining in the upcoming Noah-esque sequel Evan Almighty. Also, Carell did lead voice talent as Hammy in Dreamwork's Over the Hedge this year.

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10 comments:

Darrell said...

Jim Carrey's already played an iconic Dr. Suess character.

I say this with no disrespect intended to Strange Culture... but whatever the hell Jim Carrey was playing in that film, it was NOT a Dr. Seuss character.

Attila the Mom said...

Thank GOD they're going to animate it instead of producing it in the same format as "The Cat in the Hat".

Or as one critic called it, "The Asshole in Fur".

Anonymous said...

I don't know about this - as far as I can tell, Jim Carrey's only played like 3 or 4 good roles (most of them serious... ie. Joel in Eternal Sunshine!), so this is scary as hell. I don't like when he's "funny."

I enjoy your blog! Can't wait for The Queen!

- Ms. Phalange (top-that.blogspot.com)

Terence Towles Canote said...

Even animated I have grave concerns about a movie adaptation of Horton Hears a Who. As I said on Reel Fanatic's blog, the movie industry doesn't have a good history with adapting Seuss's works.

Anonymous said...

I have to say I'm another one who's not been too thrilled with the Seuss adaptations to date. I love Seuss's books, and The Grinch that Stole Christmas and Horton Hears a Who are, IMO, two of his finest. Horton is one profound little book. It's about the atom bomb, sure, but it's also about understanding other people who are different than you, and even suggestive of how God views the world -- why would he care about any of us with such perspective and power? In a sense, I guess, it's like a cross between Seuss and Bruce Almighty in that way.

So...I'm happy that this book is being put in front of more people. I'm just not sure it's going to look like itself once it gets there.

cube said...

I didn't watch Carey's remake of the Grinch, but the animated version narrated by Boris Karloff was a favorite of mine growing up.

I loved the Horton book as well. To bad my kids will be too old to want to watch the new animated feature.

Anonymous said...

I haven't really enjoyed the recent Seuss adaptations either and I'm not particularly interested to see this one either. I'm a little interested because Carell is involved but Carey does VERY little for me.

Darrell said...

Regina: (most of them serious... ie. Joel in Eternal Sunshine!)

Carrey is outstanding in that role. He's so good, in fact, that it makes it that much harder for me to accept that he (apparently) prefers to do Bruce Almighty type crap. The guy can actually act... it just seems that he doesn't want to.

Mark said...

Seuss's books have such an impact (having read Green Eggs and Ham a few million times to my kids) that it's amazing that they're so short. How will Hollywood stretch out the story--throw in hatching the egg?

Eudora said...

I am so excited to see this movie, I can hardly stand to wait. It is going to make a difference to America when this movie comes out and we get to hear Horton toot His trumpet loud and clear that the 'little creatures', really do have a voice.

Horton hears a cry for help from a speck of dust, that no one else can hear.

Horton, the lovable elephant, tries to protect tiny creatures on a speck of dust.

He calls an assembly and speaks to the Mayor. Horton wins in the end, after persuading the "Who's" to make as much noise as possible and prove their existence.

"Hallelujah, they have a voice, and they will be heard!"