"Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who" is a rare film

(Jenny McCarthy isn't in the picture, but she was at the premiere with her beau Jim Carrey...therefore I am totally justified in running this photo of her.)

First, the trailer for Ice Age 3 made me want to see it. As you can yourself see...



...there are dinosaurs.

Picture Scrat vs. a T-Rex.

Now, our feature presentation:

(There may be spoilers...though if you don't know the story...)

It's a rare film that could mix the lovely surrealism of Dr. Seuss with the radio-ready rock of REO Speedwagon and still win my approval.

Fortunately, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who is a rare film. It so totally won me over with its great animation (and well-paced story) that when Horton and the Whos start an inter-world duet in the last act...Well, there was nothing to be done but just go with the total loopy-ness of it all.

I'd lay odds on this one being a joy forever, the most beautiful (cinematically) animated film since Finding Nemo, diverting and colorful.

The designs stay true to the Seuss originals while giving the Whos individual personalities (a Goth! A punk!), and also creating a world in which you'd like to live.

Mostly CGI, there are a couple of funny frame-animation sequences which should probably be left as a surprise.

And yes, when I took my nephew to a park afterwards, he started listening to flowers.

He also liked the slapstick and the cute parts.

On another level, though deeper or not I wouldn't say, at a few points in the movie I found myself drifting towards thinking of it as political allegory.

This is obviously not what Seuss intended--and even if he had, it would not be today's political figures--and it probably wasn't what (the filmmakers) Blue Sky intended either.

So I'm not claiming anything for this being what it "really" means--just reporting to you what occurred to me, in hopes you'll get a kick out of it.

The jumping off point for me was the introduction of the sour Kangaroo character (voice by Carol Burnett).

She's described by the narrator as one "Who always thinks she knows better than you."

Given what I was saying about her yesterday, it suddenly became irresistible to start seeing the sour Kangaroo as Hillary Clinton.

And then I went further. The mayor of Whoville (voice of Steve Carell), who knows there's a threat to his world, while the town elders make fun of him and call him a boob?



Al Gore, of course.


As for Horton (voice by Carrey)...Horton the listener, Horton the eloquent, Horton the profound and visionary elephant (heh...elephant. Irony, some call it)?

Horton our hero, who never gives up? Why, that's just Barack Obama, who'll soon grab the cup.