To me, this movie is perfection.

Fresh and Exciting

Captivating movie !

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

An elephant named Horton tries to protect a microscopic community of "Whos" from his interfering neighbors who think it's all in his mind. Another wonderful Dr. Seuss tale brought to life by the great Chuck Jones. This isn't quite on the level of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which was perfection), but it is very enjoyable in its own right. It's written, of course, by Dr. Seuss (including the song lyrics). His words are what makes his stories so timeless. Like many of you, I grew up reading his books and being enchanted with them. This is a simple story on one level but, as always with Seuss, you can peel back the layers and see how much more there is to it than it seems at first. Solid voice work from Hans Conried and June Foray. The animation is great and the music pleasant. Definitely one you'll want to check out if you're a Seuss fan. Just make sure you watch out for those Wickersham Brothers!

Second animated adaptation of a Dr. Seuss story is narrated by Hans Conried (Boris Karloff having sadly passed away) and is about an elephant named Horton who discovers a microscopic community living on a plant that he desperately tries to convince his community exists, but they stubbornly refuse, both ridiculing Horton and trying to destroy the plant! Horton has a big heart though, and decides that this intelligent tiny civilization is worth preserving... Well-intentioned special has a good message but decidedly mediocre songs, and is mostly forgettable, though the joke at the end about what the tiny community really is (we've seen it before...) is amusing, but that's all.

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"...

I hesitate to criticize an adaptation of Dr. Seuss that is credited to Dr. Seuss himself, but I do think that the story suffers from being expanded for TV. I suppose that the point of the story was supposed to be emphasized by the added idea that just as in the larger world there is only one creature, much ridiculed, who believes in the smaller one, so too in the smaller world there is only one creature, much ridiculed, who believes in the larger one; but I think that rather than being emphasized, the point is weakened. The population that is being threatened is no longer any more innocent than the population threatening it; the only tension left is between the unbelieving majority and the lone believers. In addition, the longer the phenomenon of the tiny world is dwelt on, the more opportunity there is for inconsistencies to be noticed. How do the tiny people know what an elephant is? (That question is actually raised.) Or a dinosaur? (That question isn't.) One or two of the songs are nice, but still I prefer the book.