Horton Hears a Who! (1970) (TV)

Directors:

Chuck Jones
Ben Washam (co-director)

Writer:

Dr. Seuss (teleplay)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Short

Plot:

Horton The Elephant struggles to protect a microscopic community from his neighbours who refuse to believe it exists.

Plot Keywords:

Elephant | Miniature People | Based On Children's Book | Character Name In Title

Cast

Hans Conried	...	Narrator / Horton / Dr. H. Hoovey (voice)
June Foray	...	Jane Kangaroo / Mother Who / Baby Who / Cindy Lou Who (voice)
Chuck Jones	...	Junior Kangaroo / Various Whos / Quizmo McKwoff / JoJo (voice)

Runtime:

26 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | Germany:o.Al.

Company:

The Cat in the Hat Productions

Trivia:

The Grinch makes a brief cameo appearance as one of the Who's in Whoville.

Quotes:

Mother Who: Is Horton an elephant?
Baby Who: No, ma'am, Horton's a pickle.
Other Baby Who: What's a Horton?

Movie Connections:

References How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Horton the Elephant's Going to Be Caged

A Strange Message Hidden in a Children's Tale

Horton the Elephant discovers the Whos, a race of people who live entirely on a speck of dust and know nothing of the outside world. His jungle friends don't believe him and turn against Horton, eventually threatening to boil the dust speck in beezlenut oil.

There are at least three layers to this film. On the most superficial level, it's a cartoon featuring an elephant, some little people and a handful of catchy songs that kids and parents will love. This is what you'd get if you weren't following along at all, and you'd still have a good movie.

On the next level, we have the film's core message: a person's a person, no matter how small. This is what most people will walk away with, and the intent is clear: we're all created equally. Whether Suess was focusing on race, gender, physical stature or handicap is unclear... but we get the point -- each of us is human, even if we're different.

The third level is a bit convoluted and I'm not entirely sure I grasp it. The Wickersham brothers accuse Horton of trying to create civil unrest. Here we may see parallels to the events of the 1960s. The Wickersham brothers want to protect "free enterprise" and "compound interest rates" and hope to stop Horton from overthrowing the government. I'm not really sure how that relates to a dust speck... this seems a cheap attempt at attacking extreme right-wingers (such as Joseph McCarthy).

So, you'll like the first and second levels... and the third one just might leave you scratching your head. Or, if you're me, liking it even more. I mean, politics is in no way foreign to Suess -- watch (or read) "The Butter Battle Book" or "The Sneeches" or "The Lorax"...