Horton hears a...... who ?

I didn't get to catch Horton Hears a Who ! on the big screen. But I randomly switched channels yesterday and I saw this movie being played, so I decided to watch it. After all, it's Dr Seuss... it's gotta be good.

Story's about Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey), an elephant living on Mount Nool, who hears and finds out that there are people living on a clover... a tiny speck compared to all the residents of Nool. He vows to protect that clover and not destroy it, because to him, a person is a person, no matter how small.

That tiny little city on Horton's clover is known as Whoville, and the first person to realise that there are greater living beings outside their tiny little universe is Mayor Ned McDodd. The entire world thinks he's crazy... just as the entire population of Nool thinks Horton's crazy about conceiving the theory of lesser existence. Mayor has some ninety-something daughters and a son named Jojo (voiced by Jesse McCartney - Kingdom Hearts fans will recognise him for his portrayal of Roxas), and a wife named Amanda. He wants Jojo to succeed him as Whoville's mayor, but Jojo is more interested in going up to his usual hanging spot, the Star-Studying Tower. He dreams, deep inside, to be an inventor and a musician.

One particular character who gets irritated with Horton's theory is the Sour Kangaroo, the jungle's official. Determined to wipe out Horton's "theory", she seeks "help" from Vlad the vulture. Vlad plans to consume the clover...

After seizing it from Horton, he drops it in a field of three million clovers... Horton, half dead, finally finds it, but someone else is alerted and tells the Sour Kangaroo. The Sour Kangaroo sends an angry mob, led by the Wickerham brothers, a group of apes, to imprison Horton and destroy the clover once and for all. But Horton urges the people of Whoville to make a deafening noise !

Mayor soon realises that Jojo came up with an orchestra-like machine to help with the noise-making. In a last resort to make the residents of Nool hear them, Jojo grabs a horn and yells "Stop !" (Wikipedia says "Yop !"). The sound is so loud, it pierces the atmosphere of Whoville and is finally heard by Rudy, the Sour Kangaroo's son, just as the clover is about to drop into the beezlenut oil. Rudy, who has always been in his mother's pouch throughout the film, defies his mother's orders and returns the clover to Horton.

Towards the end of the film, we see that Nool is a speck among the many worlds in our universe, and that Horton's theory rings true : a person is a person, no matter how small.

Enjoyable watch all round. I was especially moved by the general message of the film, as well as the character of Jojo (I can relate to him a lot). The only one thing that irked me a little was the lack of texture in some areas (Vlad's beak, the texture of the animals - ironically enough, the baby yak and the Wickersham brothers were very, very detailed) - in short, the rendering.

The narration followed that of the book. On a side note, I've noticed that Dr Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" features a city on a snowflake, also known as Whoville, and that the one that manages to save the day by moving the Grinch was the smallest Who of them all, similar to Jojo's role in thie film - which kinda inspires me because it gives me the confidence that no matter how insignificant I am, I have the hope of being able to move mountains one day.

I rate this ★★★★☆, one miss for the CGI rendering (pretty unrealistic textures sometimes). Otherwise, this is a film that almost moved me to tears. If you haven't watched it already despite it having been in existence for a year, I say watch it whenever you can.