BY ABIGAIL GRABER

In print | Published April 3, 2008

As if every 6-year-old in America didn’t already know, Hollywood has finally come back around to the notion that animation is the natural cinematic medium for the classics of Dr. Seuss. “Horton Hears a Who,” a delightfully nutty romp, is such a vast improvement over the live-action adaptations of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat and the Hat” that it will hopefully put those mangy giant furry suits out of their misery for good.

If only Hollywood had completed the revolution away from the horrors of Michael Myers, 12 feet tall, on the big screen, in a cat-suit (can … scrub … and … scrub … and yet … never … be … clean) and made “Horton Hears a Who” into a television special along the lines of the 1966 adaptation of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” (You know the one: “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch …”) Because while an elephant’s quest to save a microscopic world perched on the bud of a clover is thrilling for 45 to 60 minutes, it’s a little thin in the gripping-material department as far as a full-length feature film goes.

But why dwell on the negative when directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino packed so much to appreciate into such a tiny plot synopsis? Animation studios, it seems, have at last outgrown their need to throw all of their energy into the minutely detailed rendering of each and every hair onscreen. We get it, — you can write a computer program that perfectly simulates the roundness of a prancing elephant’s butt. Good for you. Five gold stars. Now how about some real entertainment?

Entertainment is top priority for the team behind “Horton Hears a Who.” (And yes, some of that entertainment is to be found in prancing elephant butts.) As Horton (voice of Jim Carrey) embarks on his quest to find a safe home for the miniscule world of Whoville (represented to Horton by the Mayor of Whoville, voiced by Steve Carell), he encounters the usual obstacles an elephant finds on a journey through the world’s least ecologically-correct jungle. Rambunctious monkeys, evil vultures and prissy kangaroos vie with rickety bridges and elephantine ADD to foul his quest.

Hayward and Martino ably continue the welcome new trend of using animation to breath new life into the lost art of slapstick. Freed by the creative anatomy of a Seussian world, in which naturalism is hardly a requirement, the animators outdo themselves in feeding the audience a constant stream of silly, over-the-top physical comedy. It’s the kind of humor that never translates well when an intrepid reviewer attempts to describe it usefully — just trust me when I say that an elephant’s attempt to cross a rope-bridge is funny. “Horton Hears a Who” doesn’t have quite the classic screwball sophistication of “Ratatouille,” but with its jaunty confidence and breezy absurdism, it has a better comic eye than every previous Pixar comedy combined. (And from 20th Century Fox, no less! Oh, how the tables have turned.)

Carrey and Carell, an alliterative-minded marketer’s dream, are both as goofy and high-spirited as you would expect. Carrey is better as the elephant than he is in live-action, though it’s entirely possible that a live-action elephant could out-funny Carrey by mere virtue of eating straw with its nose. However, though more than serviceable, neither actor provides the kind of revelatory performances Eddie Murphy gave in “Shrek” or Robin Williams in “Aladdin.” They don’t have the kind of distinctive vocal style that lends itself so thoroughly well to animation — Carell’s always been known for his dead-on, dead-pan facial expressions (obviously totally lost here) and Carrey … well, he should work on that straw-with-the-nose thing. Seth Rogen as Horton’s side-kick, Morton, is the film’s greatest find, with his gravelly voice providing the personality animation needs.

Every now and then, the directors and writers (Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul) stray a little too far from the source text. A bizarre pseudo-anime interlude and later, a climactic rendition of “Can’t Fight this Feeling,” while sort of amusing in themselves, come across as trying too hard in the scope of the film. The other (thankfully) few pop references are equally awkward. The team is best when they stick to the sublime comedy of the simple things. The antics of the Whoville City Council seem much more in tune with the original story than a jarring reference to Henry Kissinger.

And antics are what “Horton Hears a Who” mainly specializes in. Dr. Seuss, so long left spinning in his grave by modern interpretations of his work (the cat-suit … the horror …) finally has occasion to break out his happy jig. We should all join in. Just not to the musical stylings of REO Speedwagon.

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