message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

              
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who Rated G
 Directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino.  Animated Feature

Photos © 20th Century Fox
This film was released just prior to Holy Week, which seems appropriate timing to me, since Horton Hears a Who! is a wonderful story about faith.  Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey) is a fun-loving, freewheeling elephant who frolics in the storybook jungle of Nool with hardly a care in the world.  That is, until the day he discovers that, on a speck on the top of a pink clover blossom is the town of Who-ville.  This precarious location requires protection and, as Horton and the mayor of Who-ville (Steve Carell) devise a way to communicate with one another, the world around Horton is willing to be blissfully unconcerned with something that they cannot see.  But “a person’s a person no matter how small” and Horton stands up to the scientific inquiries of a kangaroo (Carol Burnett) and her minions, which include a Russian vulture and a horde of monkeys.  When Horton’s clover blossom gets lost in an entire field of clover, the elephant’s search for Who-ville amongst the thousands of blossoms is a moving act of sacrificial love.  The film isn’t perfect – the middle section moves kind of slow, Jim Carrey’s adlibs (which include impressions of Henry Kissinger and John F. Kennedy!) detract from the solid and lovable character of Horton, and I could have lived without the REO Speedwagon sing-along at the end.  But the animation is glorious, most of the new plotline works, and the heart of the Dr. Seuss book is maintained.  Every Christian needs to reflect from time to time about why we place great faith in something the human eye cannot see.  Horton hears things clearly: It is love and faith that demand our loyalty.  Just as God has graced this little world of ours with the love of Jesus Christ, may we learn from this tale as well how to care for others with such great love.

Pitchfork Rating: Five halos.  (A positive message about faith and loyalty.) One pitchfork. (For one childish “poop” joke.)

 

 

 

                       
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