Wacky wonder

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Sometimes the answer is right in front of you, even if you can’t see it immediately. After giving Jim Carrey a gremlin costume and a speech impediment in ‘The Grinch’ and squeezing Mike Myers into (quite literally) a cat-suit for ‘The Cat In The Hat’, producers have finally figured out how to make a Dr Seuss movie. Turns out the best (and probably easiest) way to recreate his zany drawings on the big screen is through animation. Who’d have thunk it?

While previous adaptations of the good doctor’s work were most noteworthy for just how uncomfortable Carrey and Myers looked, ‘Horton Hears A Who’ simply gets down to the serious business of telling a silly tale.

With wacky but wonderful 3D animation that captures the spirit of Seuss, the guys behind ‘Ice Age’ charmingly recreate the simple story of Horton the elephant who hears a small sound coming from a speck of dust. Convinced the noise was made by teeny tiny creatures, the clumsy but kind-hearted grey lump tries to communicate with the particle. Laughing off the ridicule, Horton persists and makes contact with the mayor of Who-ville, a microscopic city on the speck inhabited by Whos (of course).

They can’t see each other, but the giant mammal and the miniscule government official ignore accusations of madness to strike up a friendship, with the elephant agreeing to protect the little people.

After all, how hard can it be?

But Horton hadn’t counted on Sour Kangaroo. Concerned that his open-mindedness will encourage other animals to think for themselves, she ropes in henchmen Vlad (the vulture) Vladikoff and the knuckle-dragging Wickersham Brothers to thwart our hero’s promise.

It’s all as loopy as you’d expect from the author of ‘Green Eggs And Ham’. The writers have been as careful as the animators to maintain the book’s whimsical charm, seemingly mainlining Seuss’ wild imagination to pad out the story and wisely using his underlying themes and exact words wherever possible (“A person's a person, no matter how small"). It works a treat, even if the sentimental little tale and its morals can’t quite support the film’s 80-minute running time and lacks the well-rounded characters of a Pixar production.

But Carrey, this time voicing the elephant, and Steve Carrel (as the mayor) easily overcome such limitations — their loopy performances are pitch perfect. Carol Burnett too is impeccable as the cantankerous marsupial while Will Arnett impressively imagines Vlad as the bastard offspring of Bela Lugosi and Joan Collins.

It’s such attention to detail, when coupled with the faithful animation and dialogue, that makes ‘Horton Hears A Who’ a classic re-telling of a classic children’s story.