Horton Hears a Who!, also known as
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, is a American
CGIComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
-animated feature film based on the
Dr. SeussTheodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen name Dr. Seuss. He published over 60 children's books, which were often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of trisyllabic meter...
book of the same nameHorton Hears a Who! is a 1954 book by Theodor Seuss Geisel, under the name Dr. Seuss. It is the second Seuss book to feature Horton the Elephant, the first being Horton Hatches the Egg...
, the fourth feature film from
Blue Sky StudiosBlue Sky Studios is a CGI-animation studio which specializes in photo-realistic, high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering...
, and the third Dr. Seuss-based feature film, following
How the Grinch Stole Christmas and
The Cat in the HatThe Cat in the Hat is a 2003 American comedy film, itself a loose adaptation of the 1957 book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. It was produced by Brian Grazer and directed by Bo Welch, and stars Mike Myers in the title role of the Cat in the Hat, and Dakota Fanning as Sally...
.
It is the first Dr. Seuss adaptation fully animated using CGI technology.
Plot
In the Jungle of Nool on the fifteenth of May where a
warthogThe Warthog or Common Warthog is a wild member of the pig family that lives in Africa....
breifly ran, a caring, imaginative
elephantElephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant...
named
HortonHorton the Elephant is a fictional character from the books Horton Hatches the Egg and Horton Hears a Who, both by Dr. Seuss. Horton is a kind, sweet-natured elephant who cares about other animals or people...
(
Jim CarreyJames Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and stand-up comedian. Carrey is best known for his performances as multiple characters in the sketch comedy show In Living Color, as the title character in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, as the unlucky TV...
), the jungle's nature teacher, takes a dip in the pool. A dust speck floats past him in the air, and he hears a tiny yelp coming from it. Believing that an entire family of microscopic creatures are living on that speck, he places it on top of a pink, fuzzy clover that he holds in his trunk.
In fact, he finds out the speck harbors the city of Who-ville and all its inhabitants, led by Mayor Ned McDodd (
Steve CarellSteven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. Carell rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2004, and as Michael Scott on The Office since 2005...
). He has a loving wife, Sally (
Amy PoehlerAmy Meredith Poehler is an American actress and comedienne. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls alongside Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008...
), 96 daughters (
Selena GomezSelena Marie Gomez is an American actress and singer best known for her portrayal of Alex Russo on the Disney Channel series, Wizards of Waverly Place. She has starred in the television movies, Another Cinderella Story and Princess Protection Program.Before Disney, she had one of the kid roles on...
) who all have names that start with the letter H, and one son named JoJo (
Jesse McCartney Jesse McCartney is an American singer-songwriter and actor. McCartney rose to fame in the early 2000s as member of the boy band Dream Street. He branched into a solo career, having appeared in the television series Summerland and as a recurring character in the ABC Family series Greek.-Early...
), who, by Who custom, is next in line for the mayoral position. JoJo does not want to become mayor, which leads him to become sullen and refuse to talk, despite Ned's giving him extra attention.
The Mayor finds out from Dr. Larue (
Isla FisherIsla Lang Fisher is a Scottish-Australian actress and author. She began acting on Australian television, on the short-lived soap opera Paradise Beach before playing Shannon Reed on the soap opera Home and Away...
) that Who-ville will be destroyed if Horton does not find a "safer more stable home." So Horton resolves to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. This outlook earns Horton nothing but ridicule from the inhabitants of Nool, especially from the strict official of the jungle, the Sour Kangaroo (
Carol BurnettCarol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she debuted on television...
), who tries to get Horton to give up the speck, so as not to put supposedly ridiculous ideas into the heads of the children. Ever faithful to his motto, "A person's a person, no matter how small," Horton refuses. Also taking force toward Horton are the Wickersham brothers (
Frank WelkerFranklin W. "Frank" Welker is a veteran American actor, who specializes in voice acting. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American television and motion pictures.Welker is listed as number one on the...
and
Dan CastellanetaDaniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American film, theatre and television actor, comedian, voice artist and television writer...
), a group of bullying monkeys who love making misery.
All the small incidents that Horton experiences on his trek across the jungle have a catastrophic effect on Who-ville. He almost falls off a rickety bridge over a gaping chasm with a river of dangerous
crocodileA crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
s at the bottom, which causes a dentist's needle to accidentally slip into the Mayor's arm while getting a
root canalEndodontic therapy is a sequence of treatment for the pulp of a tooth whose end result is the elimination of infection and protection of the decontaminated tooth from future microbial invasion...
. When Horton left the clover outside overnight, it frosted over, which created winter in the summer down in Who-ville. As the other Whos become suspicious, the Mayor finally reveals the truth, but at first, the Whos do not believe him any more due to the Chairman than the animals believe Horton.
In the meantime, the Kangaroo has enlisted a nefarious buzzard named Vlad Vladikoff (
Will ArnettWilliam Emerson "Will" Arnett is a Canadian actor known for his role as George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II on the FOX comedy Arrested Development. Since his success on Arrested Development, Arnett has landed major film roles. He recently played supporting roles in the comedy films Semi-Pro, Blades of...
) to get rid of the speck by force. Vlad manages to steal the clover with the speck on it, flee from a chasing Horton and drop it from hundreds of feet into a valley full of nearly identical clovers, (the one holding the speck has a striped stem). The impact nearly demolishes Who-ville like an earthquake. Horton painstakingly picks 2,999,999 clovers through the field and finally finds it "on the 3 millionth flower." The earthquake, combined with hearing Horton's voice through the drain pipe, is enough to convince the rest of the Whos that the mayor is not crazy, and they all tell Horton they believe in him.
The Kangaroo finds out that Horton still has the speck, and, as her patience completely runs out, organizes a mob by telling lies to get rid of the speck once and for all. The animals plan to rope and cage Horton, but the Kangaroo turns this into a chance for attention, and offers Horton an ultimatum: give up the speck and "admit" he was wrong and that she was right, or pay the price. Despite a heartfelt speech from Horton that clearly touches the animals, Kangaroo still takes this refusal as an insult to her authority, orders them to proceed, and drop the speck into a pot of boiling beezlenut oil to "teach him not to make up stories of people on specks!"
The Mayor enlists all of his people to make noise by shouting, "We are here," as well as playing a variety of instruments, so the animals can hear them. JoJo runs off to Who-ville's abandoned Star-Studying Tower and soon Ned takes off after him. Inside, he reveals his ingenious invention: the Symphony-Phone, a giant machine that serves as an orchestra, and proceeds to add it to the mix of sounds. Still, the sound is not loud enough. The animals do not hear anything and the Kangaroo, who has had Horton caged, takes the clover, holds it over the oil and releases it. In a last-ditch effort to be heard, JoJo grabs the horn used to project Horton's voice, runs up the highest tower and yells "YOPP!" A sound wave emerges and ripples up to the already pressured clouds and collides with them, causing the clouds to break and the sound to come through.
Hearing the Whos' cries, Rudy (
Josh FlitterJoshua "Josh" Flitter is an American actor. He is known for playing Corky in Nancy Drew, Eddie in The Greatest Game Ever Played, and voiced Rudy in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who!.-Life and career:...
), the Kangaroo's son (who has been in his mother's pouch throughout the film despite being old enough to be out and too large for her pouch), grabs the clover before it hits the oil and returns it to Horton, refusing his mother's orders to return to her pouch. The animals finally realize the atrocity they almost committed. The Kangaroo is miserable for her behavior, but Horton forgives her, and offers his friendship, which the Kangaroo accepts. At the end of the film, everyone helps Horton carry the speck up to the top of Mt. Nool. After a big number of the cast singing
REO Speedwagon'sREO Speedwagon is an American rock band from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois United States. Formed in 1967, the band grew in popularity during the 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. REO Speedwagon has charted two number one songs, "Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling", both power ballads...
"
Can't Fight This Feeling"Can't Fight This Feeling" is a number-one power ballad from REO Speedwagon about a man falling in love with a girl with whom he has been a friend for a long time....
", the camera zooms out, revealing that along with numerous other worlds in our universe, the jungle of Nool is just one speck among numerous others like our planet.
Traditional cartoon animation
Two
traditional animatedTraditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation...
sequences were featured in the first act of the film, both representing Horton's over-active imagination. The first (which is shown twice; the first time being a single person and the second time being a family) is rendered to resemble Dr. Seuss's original pen-and-ink illustrations from the book, shown when Horton first hears a Who. The second is a more elaborate montage inspired by Japanese
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
cartoons. In this sequence, Horton is seen fighting off "enemies" and defending the speck; this is shown promptly after Horton's quote of "We must become invisible, travel silently, for there are forces that would seek to destroy us." During this scene, the characters' mouth movements do not match the spoken dialogue, which is overblown and exaggerated, spoofing how many anime are
dubbedDubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting schedule. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who...
in English. Both sequences were created by House of Cool. The end credits feature still drawings resembling Dr. Seuss's illustrations as backgrounds. Also, as in Dr. Seuss's books, all of the plants are red and blue, contrasting a white background.
Cast
- Horton the Elephant
Horton the Elephant is a fictional character from the books Horton Hatches the Egg and Horton Hears a Who, both by Dr. Seuss. Horton is a kind, sweet-natured elephant who cares about other animals or people...
, voiced by Jim CarreyJames Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and stand-up comedian. Carrey is best known for his performances as multiple characters in the sketch comedy show In Living Color, as the title character in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, as the unlucky TV...
, is the main protagonist. Horton the elephant is that rare grown-up that never lost the rich imagination he had as a child. It was that imagination along with his unwavering dedication that makes Horton a great teacher, unconditional friend and a force to be reckoned with. He is usually found saying funny lines ("We're all mammals!" "Oh, I'm an elephant. An elephant never forgets." "Vlad. I know two Vlads. Is it the bad Vlad or the bunny Vlad that makes the cookies?"). Horton holds strong to his belief that "a person's a person, no matter how small" so much so that he promises to risk everything for a world of people so tiny, he can't even see them. He also says that, "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, and an elephant's faithful, 100%".
- Ned McDodd, the Mayor of Whoville is voiced by Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. Carell rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2004, and as Michael Scott on The Office since 2005...
. Ned McDodd is the mayor of a microscopic world, and father of ninety-six daughters and a son named JoJo. He is very proud and formal and cares very much for his city and its people, but when he starts hearing the voice of Horton, whom he cannot see, things begin to unravel for the Mayor. It is noted that the name of the character wasn't revealed until the theatrical release. He can be described as "The mayor of Who-ville, a man named McDodd, was devoted, fair, and a little bit odd."
- Morton the Mouse is voiced by Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer and film producer. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy for four years during his teens, coming in second place in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest when he was 16. While still living in his native Canada, he landed a supporting role in...
. Morton the mouse is Horton's best friend who makes up in speed what he lacks in size. He's smaller than the elephant's big toe, but when Morton speaks, Horton listens. Morton will endure Horton's whims, but when the elephant takes off on flights of fancy, Morton knows it's his job to bring him back to earth. He's successful, most of the time. Morton also acts as a messenger for Horton, bringing him news about Vlad, and warning him about the oncoming mob. Morton is one of the few characters created for the film.
- Sour Kangaroo is voiced by Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she debuted on television...
. Kangaroo is a busybody and creator of the jungle's laws who is skeptical about the existence of the Whos and Whoville on a dust speck. Sour Kangaroo is the main antagonist of the film. As Horton's claims begin to drive her towards darkness, she believes that once other people start listening to Horton, they'll start to come to her with questions she won't be able to answer. In order to avoid this, she begins making deals with the Wickershams and the vulture hitman Vlad Vladikoff. As the movie progresses, her aims start to shift towards crushing Horton's spirit and building up her own reputation. Sour Kangaroo is too dismissive of the products of imagination and creativity even to the point she keeps her son Rudy jammed inside her pouch. She believes that outside the "comfort" her ideas provide him, non-conformity and anarchy are minutes away from turning their ordered life into chaos. Yet, in the end, Horton's convincing changes her mindset.
- Rudy is voiced by Josh Flitter
Joshua "Josh" Flitter is an American actor. He is known for playing Corky in Nancy Drew, Eddie in The Greatest Game Ever Played, and voiced Rudy in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who!.-Life and career:...
. Rudy is Kangaroo's young joey. He lives in his mother's pouch. Over the course of the movie, he starts to question his mother's ethics as she continually tries to demolish the cloverClover , or trefoil, is a genus of about 300 species of plants in the pea family Fabaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution; the highest diversity is found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, but many species also occur in South America and Africa, including at high altitudes on...
on which Horton has caught the Whos' speck of dust. But his stifling environment can't contain his free-thinking spirit, and Rudy is ready to take the next step, even if it's his first. He is the first animal to hear the Whos after his mother drops the clover and catches it just in time. When he examines a clover and his mother grabs it, he states, "Mom! Be careful! My best friend, Thidwick, lives on that!". Thidwick is actually a character from Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose-Plot:Thidwick, a moose who lives in a herd "about sixty or more" , accepts a bug living on his antlers for free, who tells a spider of the free housing, and both accept a "Zinn-a-zu" bird. The herd rejects Thidwick after the Zinnazu bird's wife, a woodpecker, and four squirrels move in...
. Rudy's mother does not let him attend the school Horton teaches, and he is "pouch-schooled", or homeschooled.
- JoJo McDodd is voiced by Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney is an American singer-songwriter and actor. McCartney rose to fame in the early 2000s as member of the boy band Dream Street. He branched into a solo career, having appeared in the television series Summerland and as a recurring character in the ABC Family series Greek.-Early...
. JoJo is the Mayor's only son and the eldest of the mayor's children. Since he is the oldest, JoJo is next in line to become the Mayor of Whoville, though he doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps. He is afraid to speak because he is worried that he will disappoint his father. Because of this, he hardly ever speaks. His undiscovered voice is a vital asset for the Whos' survival. He also shows a surprising talent for inventions and is somewhat of a prodigy and a musician. In fact, he turns the inside of Whoville's abandoned observatory into a giant mechanical musical instrument called the "Symphony-Phone". After saving the town with his new found word, "YOPP", he begins speaking to his father and Horton. In the deleted scenes commentary, it is revealed that at the time of the "Horton Incident," JoJo was 14. JoJo sticks out as the smallest who in Whoville (for his age, as the very young Whos are still smaller than he) and as he's adorned in black and gray,noticeable as an "emo" look.
- The 96 Daughters of Ned McDodd are voiced by Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez is an American actress and singer best known for her portrayal of Alex Russo on the Disney Channel series, Wizards of Waverly Place. She has starred in the television movies, Another Cinderella Story and Princess Protection Program.Before Disney, she had one of the kid roles on...
. The Mayor's 96 daughters are all younger than JoJo, who is the eldest and only son. Each of the girls are very different. One is intelligent, one is a baby, the other wants a WhoPhone (parody of an iPhoneThe iPhone is an Internet and multimedia enabled smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Because its minimal hardware interface lacks a physical keyboard, the multi-touch screen renders a virtual keyboard when necessary...
), and so on and so forth. Throughout the movie, they are usually seen running around and having fun. The Mayor can only spend 12 seconds with each one as he's hard pressed for time. Some of the sisters include Helga, Holly, Hailey, Heidi, Hilda, Hannah, Hooley, and Hedy, the baby.
- Sally O'Malley is voiced by Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American actress and comedienne. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls alongside Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008...
. Sally is the Mayor's wife and mother of 96 daughters and one son named JoJo. With all of these children, Sally's responsibilities dwarf even those of her husband. Still, she's able to juggle them with the grace of a first lady. The last thing she needs is another problem child with an overactive imagination, but when her husband starts hearing voices, that's exactly what she gets. It's a situation even her sharp wit and pointed sarcasm can't defuse, but when the truth is revealed, she's willing to give it her all to help her husband save Whoville. Sally deeply cares for her husband and children.
- Dr. Mary Lou Larue is voiced by Isla Fisher
Isla Lang Fisher is a Scottish-Australian actress and author. She began acting on Australian television, on the short-lived soap opera Paradise Beach before playing Shannon Reed on the soap opera Home and Away...
. Dr. Larue is an eccentric Whoville scientist who can be a bit scatterbrained at times. However, being the smartest of the staff at Who University, she is willing to help the Mayor find out how they can preserve the peace that holds their town together. She is one of the first Whos to believe that the Mayor was right about Whoville being a speck. She speaks with a lisp.
- Vlad Vladikoff is voiced by Will Arnett
William Emerson "Will" Arnett is a Canadian actor known for his role as George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II on the FOX comedy Arrested Development. Since his success on Arrested Development, Arnett has landed major film roles. He recently played supporting roles in the comedy films Semi-Pro, Blades of...
. Vlad is a reclusive vulture who lives in a tree stump in a swamp surrounded by thorns and snakes, feasting on a zebra carcas and shooing a jackalThe jackal is a member of any of three small to medium-sized species of the family Canidae, found in Africa, Asia and southeastern Europe...
. The Sour Kangaroo hires him to get rid of Horton's clover. At first, he agrees to do it in exchange for her son Rudy, but he stated a brand new pair of objects never specified beforehand. After "thinking" it over, she uses reverse psychologyReverse psychology is a persuasion technique involving the false advocacy of a belief or behavior contrary to the belief or behavior which is actually being advocated...
to get him to do it for free. He speaks in a thick Russian accent and extremely theatrical in his wickedness to the point of embarrassing himself.
- Yummo is voiced by Dan Fogler
Daniel Kevin "Dan" Fogler is a Tony Award-winning American actor, playwright and filmmaker.-Career:Fogler originated the character William Barfée in the original Broadway cast of the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee...
. Yummo is the rumbling leader of the Wickersham brothers who serves as a bully for Horton, as he sees him as an annoyance. He's hot-tempered, power-hungry, and just plain hungry. He helps with the capture of Horton because he agreed that Horton was poisoning the youth of the jungle, first said by Kangaroo.
- Mrs. Quilligan is voiced by Jaime Pressly
Jaime Elizabeth Pressly is an American actress and model, best known as Joy on the NBC sitcom My Name Is Earl. She was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series in 2006 and 2007; for a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2006; and for a Golden Globe Award in 2007.In...
. Mrs. Quilligan is a jungle bird that is a two-faced and easily influenced busybody. She sways with public opinion and everybody knows it. It's not unusual for her to be caught flip-flopping and backtracking to cover herself, keeping her firmly entrenched in the" in crowd".
- Jessica Quilligan is voiced by Laura Ortiz
Laura Ortiz is a 5 ft 2 in American actress, who appeared as Ruby, one of the deformed hill people in The Hills Have Eyes . She was also the chatty caffeinated cheerleader named Ashley Hall in a television advertisement for T-Mobile. So far, only two T-Mobile ads featuring Ortiz have aired...
. Like any teenager, Jessica might be embarrassed by her mother's busybody behavior, but it's obvious to everyone else in the community that she's Mrs. Quilligan's mini-clone. She views herself as an independent thinker, but since conformity leads to acceptance, she's just another cog in the wheel. She is vain. When she and her classmates tell Horton about their clovers with worlds, Jessica states that her world is called Jessica-Land, where everyone worships her, Queen Jessica, because she is so awesome.
- Tommy is voiced by Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill Feldstein is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. Hill has had a successful career as an actor in comedy films, and has appeared in Accepted, Grandma's Boy, Evan Almighty, Superbad, Strange Wilderness, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Funny People.-Personal life:Hill was born ...
. Tommy is an orange WombatWombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a very short tail. They are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania...
-like creature that is one of the children of the Jungle of Nool that looks up to and views Horton as a teacher. He seems to have somewhat of a frat boy/smart aleck persona, but truly believes in what Horton is trying to do, even if he is being ridiculed for it. He tends to get out of the way of trouble, such as the time when Sour Kangaroo approaches them after hearing "nonsense" about the clover worlds, he says, "Oh, um... You guys with worlds are in trouble!"
- Katie is voiced by Joey King
Joey King is an American child actress.-Career:Joey King started acting professionally when she was four years old. A national spot for Life Cereal was King's very first commercial...
. Katie is a small baby yakThe yak is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population. In Tibetan, the word gyag refers only to the male of the...
with strange habits and abilities. She tends to say 'ahhhh' a lot and speak random thoughts, e.g. when Horton's students create worlds of their own on their own flowers, Katie explains that everyone in her world is a pony that eats rainbows and excretes butterflies. She also has a frog's tongue, and the ability to float, which she demonstrates at the end of the film. Katie is one of the female pupils of Horton.
- Miss Yelp, voiced by Niecy Nash
Niecy Nash is an American comedian and actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Deputy Raineesha Williams on the Comedy Central television series Reno 911!.-Life and career:...
, is the Mayor's assistant. She talks in a bored voice, and does all her tasks mechanically, before she is asked. She has a MySpaceMySpace is a social networking website. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media, which is owned by News Corporation. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in the United...
profile (named Whospace in the film), which she mostly spends her time on during work.
- The Chairman, voiced by Dan Fogler
Daniel Kevin "Dan" Fogler is a Tony Award-winning American actor, playwright and filmmaker.-Career:Fogler originated the character William Barfée in the original Broadway cast of the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee...
, is the head of the Whoville City Council and views the Mayor as a 'blathering boob', and appears to have more power than him. It is Horton who takes him down a peg or two. He and his cronies all have blue or green hair and skin, black suits and resemble The GrinchThe Grinch is a cartoon character created by Dr. Seuss. He first appeared in the 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. This was followed in 1966 by a popular television special also titled How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's MGM Animation/Visual Arts...
. It is said in the DVD comentary that the last one is named Pugerson and he can't fly his box kite very well.
- The Wickersham Brothers, voiced by Frank Welker
Franklin W. "Frank" Welker is a veteran American actor, who specializes in voice acting. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American television and motion pictures.Welker is listed as number one on the...
and Dan CastellanetaDaniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American film, theatre and television actor, comedian, voice artist and television writer...
, are a group of vicious monkeys who serve as bullies for Horton, and huge henchmen of the Kangaroo. They have a very large family consisting of many members who help bind Horton. When Horton speaks up to all the animals of Nool about his protected speck, the Wickershams actually take pity on him, only to be forced by Sour Kangaroo to rope and cage him, but after a while, the Wickershams realize they do hear the people on the speck, and they also reject the still-resenting Sour Kangaroo
Additional voices
- Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez is an American actress and singer best known for her portrayal of Alex Russo on the Disney Channel series, Wizards of Waverly Place. She has starred in the television movies, Another Cinderella Story and Princess Protection Program.Before Disney, she had one of the kid roles on...
- Debi Derryberry
Debi Derryberry is an American voice actress who won an American Anime Award.-History:Debi has provided the voices of numerous characters, mostly young boys and tomboyish girls, and is probably best known as the voice of titular hero of the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy...
- Madison Davenport
Madison Danielle Davenport is an American child actress and singer, best known for her role as Quillo in Over the Hedge. She has also appeared on shows such as Numb3rs, and CSI...
- Laraine Newman
Laraine Newman is an American comedienne and actress.-Early life:Newman was born on March 2, 1952 in Los Angeles, California, the granddaughter of a Jewish cattle rancher from Arizona...
- Jimmy Hayward
Jimmy Hayward is an Canadian/American film director, screenwriter and animator. He's been a major influence and contributor to many commercial, television and film productions...
- Shelby Adamowsky
- Madison Pettis
Madison Angel Pettis is an American child actress.-Life and career:Pettis was born in Arlington, Texas to Michelle and Steven Pettis. She has two older half-siblings....
- Joe Pasquale
Joseph Ellis "Joe" Pasquale is an English comedian from Grays, Essex, arguably most famous for his high-pitched voice, use of visual gags and more recently being crowned "King of the Jungle", on the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!...
as the dentist
- Charles Osgood
Charles Osgood is a radio and television commentator in the United States. His daily program, The Osgood File, has been broadcast on the CBS Radio Network since 1971. He is also famous for giving the voice of the narrator of Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film released in 2008, based on the book...
as the narrator
Soundtrack
The original score for the film's soundtrack album was composed by
John PowellJohn Powell is an English film score composer, based in Los Angeles.-Early life and career:Powell originally trained as a violinist as a child, before studying at London's Trinity College of Music. He later ventured into jazz and rock music, playing in a soul band "The Fabulistics"...
. Near the end of the picture, the cast comes together and sings the song, "
Can't Fight This Feeling"Can't Fight This Feeling" is a number-one power ballad from REO Speedwagon about a man falling in love with a girl with whom he has been a friend for a long time....
" by
REO SpeedwagonREO Speedwagon is an American rock band from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois United States. Formed in 1967, the band grew in popularity during the 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. REO Speedwagon has charted two number one songs, "Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling", both power ballads...
. This version of the song was not featured on the soundtrack. The song used in the theatrical advertisements was the theme to
BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice is a American comedy horror fantasy film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros. The plot revolves around a recently dead young couple who become ghosts haunting their former home, a quaint and quiet house on a hill overlooking the...
.
Critical reception
The film received generally positive reviews from film critics. As of May 8, 2008, the review aggregator
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
reported that 78% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 123 reviews, and an even better 84% rating from the top critics on the site based on 31 reviews, both classifying the film as "Certified Fresh", and making it by far the most favorably reviewed Dr. Seuss film adaptation on the site.
MetacriticMetacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the film had an average score of 71 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 31 reviews, also the most favorably reviewed Dr. Seuss film on the site. Brian Eggert of Deep Focus Review gave it one and a half stars out of four, criticizing its numerous pop-culture references, calling it a "mish-mash of incoherent babble" and claiming it ends up "reducing Seuss' otherwise admirable message to ordinary storytelling, when Seuss' work is anything but."
Box office
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $45,012,998 in 3,954 theaters, averaging $11,384 per theater in the
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and
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, and ranking #1 at the box office. The film had the 4th largest opening weekend in March, behind
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,
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, and
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. In the United States and Canada,
Horton Hears a Who was also the #1 film its second weekend of release, grossing $24,590,596 over the Easter frame, in 3,961 theaters and averaging $6,208 per venue. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend grossing $17,740,106 in 3,826 theaters and averaging $4,637 per venue. Its fourth weekend ranked at #4 grossing $9,115,987 in 3,571 theaters and averaging $2,553 per venue. Its fifth weekend ranked at #6, grossing $5,920,566 in 3,209 theaters and averaging $1,845 per venue.
As of July 20, 2008, it has grossed a total of $295,133,433 worldwide; $154,245,889 in the United States and Canada and $140,887,544 in other territories. This makes it the first theatrical film in 2008 to pass the $100 million domestic mark.
Home media release
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! was released on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
and Blu-ray on December 9, 2008. Three versions of the DVD are available: a single disc edition, a two-disc special edition, and a gift set packaged with a Horton plush.
The DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released in the UK on October 20, 2008 and in Australia on September 20, 2008.