Review of Horton Hears a Who! (2008) by Chads. — 17 Mar 2008
"Horton Hears a Who!" is "The Truman Show" for kids. This time around, Jim Carrey plays Christof(Ed Harris) as a pachyderm named Horton, and Steve Carrell is Truman Burbank(Carrey) as the Mayor of Whoville.
Unlike recent animated films like "Cars" and "Happy Feet", in particular, "Horton Hears a Who" deals with the paradox of our being. This "children's film" engages the viewer with a fairly sophisticated dialectic between science and religion.
Horton is like a scientist. He knows that an invisible world exists. In this passion play of sorts, the second player: Kangaroo(Carol Burnett) is the embodiment of the religious fanatic who doesn't believe in science.
Under Christian dogma, baptismals are conducted to prevent a person's soul from spending an eternity in hell. Keeping this in mind, makes the kangaroo's actions during the film's climax all the more provocative.
Conversely, in Whoville, the mayor hears voices, like Abraham, or Moses, or any of the eighteen prophets. But Horton is more like a naive scientist than a god. And a scientist with ecclesiastical leanings to boot.
Horton has faith that a self-contained world exists on that speck...based on empirical observations...he heard a voice. Science and religion have a pretzel logic in "Horton Hears a Who"; it's own set of rules, which makes sense.
This is a cartoon, after all. This is science fiction.
This review of Horton Hears a Who! (2008) was written by Chads. on 17 Mar 2008.
Horton Hears a Who! has generally received positive reviews.
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