John Hears Happy Children (but is that enough?)

Coming out next Friday is the computer-animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss's classic Horton Hears a Who! Here's the trailer for it:



There's a few things I have to say about this. First, the animation looks great - very colorful and expressive, but not over-the-top cartoony (which, considering it is from a Dr. Seuss book, would have been an easy road to take). The Whos, in particular, are well-animated. This, of course, is aided by the ever-hilarious Steve Carell; you can easily envision Mr. Carell making the same movements and expressions as his animated persona. It looks as if the interaction amongst the Whos will provide plenty of comedy for the parents and older kids, while the little ones laugh it up for Jim Carrey's presentation of the happy-go-lucky Horton (Carrey may not have been my first choice for the role - still hard to look past Ace Ventura and Lloyd Christmas - but he was a lot of fun as the Grinch, and it looks like he'll elicit quite a few laughs from the crowd this time around). The one worry I may have about this film (though this is just a teaser) isn't particularly aimed at Horton or the Whos, or even Fox and Blue Sky Studios - it's more of a general lamentation.

At their core, Dr. Seuss' books all provide a lesson for the juvenile audience. Horton Hears a Who! is about tolerance and acceptance. In the book (as you may recall), the other animals persecute and imprison Horton because they can't hear or see the Whos. The Whos manage to save Horton - and themselves - by shouting as loud as they can, and even then, it is only the added volume from the littlest Who that makes them heard to all the other animals. The well-known line from that book, "A person's a person, no matter how small", not only teaches children to be kind to others, but it also lets them know that they should be respected and appreciated themselves. Granted, if the child is acting like a little monster, it can be fairly difficult to appreciate the brat, but you get my point.

The problem I have in general is that too often, the studios will be willing to sacrifice the true morals and lessons of the stories in order to get a few more laughs out of the audience. Part of the blame falls on the parents, too - it seems to me that parents nowadays care more about keeping their child entertained, and education is only secondary. We've regressed from Sesame Street (pre-Elmo) to Barney to the Teletubbies to Boohbah (if you don't know, don't ask). And I worry that a bunch of animals threatening to turn an entire colony of Whos into beezlenut stew may be seen as "too dark and scary" for the young ones, which would be really unfortunate. Dr. Seuss' books have been a staple of childhood for generations - I would hope that the folks at Fox have the common sense and respect for the good doctor to keep the essence of the story intact. We'll see in seven days.