Movie Review: Jim Carrey’s Animated Elephant Can’t Quite Carry ‘Horton’ on His Own

Jim Carrey, as it turns out, was born to play an animated pachyderm.

Carrey’s gentle and vulnerable qualities, previously obscured in rubber-faced comedic roles or exposed too fully in awkward dramatic outings, find their perfect outlet in Horton, the floppy but determined elephant in "Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!"

As Horton tries to keep the town of Who-ville, which sits on a tiny clover, out of harm’s way, Carrey (who also went Seussian in the live-action "How the Grinch Stole Christmas") lends him a think-globally, act-locally air of kindness and social responsibility. Carrey’s voice performance, along with some terrific action sequences, highlights a G-rated movie that can seem overlong even at 86 minutes.

Only Horton, equipped with extraordinary hearing as well as a crackerjack memory, picks up a distress call from what appears to be a mere speck of dust. Upon hearing the sound, Horton finds a sense of purpose: keeping Who-ville and its inhabitants, the Whos, safe. After all, he reasons, "A person’s a person no matter how small."

His tale of the speck elicits disbelief among the other jungle animals, such as a kangaroo (voiced with pageant-mom haughtiness by Carol Burnett) who views the whole speck-world concept as a threat. Just as she did in 1954 — when Theodor Geisel, writing and illustrating as Dr. Seuss, published "Horton Hears a Who!" — the kangaroo represents resistance based on fear and ignorance.

Though the computer-animated "Horton Hears a Who!" never reaches the visual majesty of say, a Pixar Animation film, its characters and settings are certainly distinctive. Directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino and the film’s artistic team capture and elaborate on Seuss’ visually skewed universe, rendering the Wickershams, a band of simian enforcers, as vividly as the mayor of Who-ville (Steve Carell).

Like other Seuss characters, the mayor is living with a severe cowlick problem. He also has 96 daughters, all of whom request a glass of water at bedtime, and one son, JoJo, who doesn’t talk at all and looks like a Who-ville Keanu Reeves. Intent on JoJo joining the family’s long line of city leaders, the mayor puts too much pressure on his son, blithely ignoring the kid’s own wishes.

Carell brings a thickheaded amiability to scenes between father and son that evokes his character on "The Office." In other words, Carell is as likable as ever, but he doesn’t bring much new to this character.

There’s also the troubling notion of the mayor pinning his hopes on the resistant JoJo, even though there could be a budding Hillary Clinton or Heather Fargo among his 96 daughters. A politician’s a politician, no matter how female.

Screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul faced a challenge in stretching Geisel’s book to movie length, and sometimes the strain shows. Though an elaborate bridge-crossing sequence is truly inspired, a Japanese-animation sequence falls flat. So do a few scenes involving a predatory eagle named Vlad (Will Arnett).

At times, the action in "Horton" overwhelms its softer, more Seussian traits. At these moments, the picture comes across as just another computer-animated film — and there must be 100 by now — about an animal on a quest.

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!

2 1/2 stars

VOICE CAST: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Isla Fisher, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill

DIRECTORS: Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino

WRITERS: Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, from the book "Horton Hears a Who!"

DISTRIBUTOR: Fox

THEATERS: Century (Downtown Plaza, Folsom, Greenback, Laguna, Stadium), Regal (Auburn, El Dorado Hills, Natomas, Placerville), UA Roseville, Sacramento Drive-in, Colusa, Holiday Davis, State Woodland

86 minutes

Rated G