This is an abridged version of a review I wrote for Christianity Today Movies. To read the rest of this review, click here.

The work of Dr. Seuss has an admittedly lackluster history when it comes to big screen adaptations. While Chuck Jones’ animated Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is a beloved, generation-spanning holiday classic, Ron Howard’s The Grinch proved to be an abomination, bereft of the original’s magic and weighed down with an overabundance of additional material. Mike Myers’ Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, a ridiculous and, at times, downright creepy presentation of another Seuss classic, fared little better.

Perhaps it is proof of our culture’s deep and abiding love of writer and cartoonist Dr. Seuss that Hollywood keeps trying, again and again, until they finally get one right. And while Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who may not be that perfect film, it certainly comes the closest so far.

As if atoning for his sins in The Grinch, Jim Carrey returns as the voice of Horton the Elephant, a playful pachyderm of boundless imagination whose enormous ears allow him to hear a barely audible cry for help emanating from a tiny speck of dust floating through his jungle one day. It turns out that voice is but one among thousands. For on that single microscopic speck live the sub-atomic Whos in their infinitesimal city of Who-ville, led by their bumbling but well-intentioned Mayor (Steve Carell).

It isn’t long before Horton’s friends think he has lost his mind. Determined to save the tiny particle and deposit it somewhere in the jungle where it will be safe from harm (any time Horton jostles the flower on which Who-ville is perched, cataclysmic tremors rock the city), Horton becomes an object of ridicule and embarrassment.

One member of the jungle, Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett), takes it one step further. Threatened by what she sees as an overabundance of imagination that endangers the rational stability of the jungle and, most of all, the impressionable minds of the children, she demands Horton desist with his silly quest. “Horton is a menace. He has these kids using their imaginations,” she claims.

Meanwhile, back on the speck, things aren’t going so well for the Mayor either. He too has become a laughingstock as he tries to explain to his constituents that the seismic events endangering the usually placid Who-ville are the result of it being mishandled by a giant elephant.

As Sour Kangaroo whips the jungle into an anti-Horton frenzy, she sets out to have the speck destroyed and Horton caged. Will Horton and the Mayor manage to make everyone see the truth in time, or will the end of Who-ville and all its people occur without anyone even noticing at all?

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, from the creators of Ice Age, is just about what it would look like if Dr. Seuss’ bizarro imagination collided with live action, a sort of psychedelic smorgasbord of intensely colored and peculiarly imagined creatures, landscapes and props that allows Seuss’ effervescent imagination to come to life as it never has before.

For those afraid of losing Seuss’ signature evocative and rhyming text, rest easy. While not all of Seuss’ beloved words make it into the story, much of the book is replicated in the wonderful narration by Charles Osgood. A few other key lines are given to Carrey and Carrel, who are allowed a certain amount of free-rein improvisation the rest of the time and really seem to be enjoying themselves beneath their cutting-edge CGI masks. As is mercifully par for the course these days, the two throw in enough adult oriented jokes to keep mom and dad satisfied.

The filmmakers have had to pad the story to bring it to feature-length. In addition to stretching out the action and adding some new scenes, they’ve incorporated some traditional 2-D moments — glimpses into Horton’s vibrant imagination. Plundering the Japanese Pokemon anime craze, the dream sequences are certainly funny but equally dissonant and inharmonious with the rest of the film.

Dr. Seuss had the matchless ability to distill complex issues into clear and comprehensible philosophical declarations both kids and adults alike could easily understand. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! is supercharged with a number of such positive messages. It is a story of resolute faithfulness and diligence in the face of overwhelming peer-pressure. But it is Seuss’ beloved phrase, “a person’s a person, no matter how small,” that embodies a principle as simple as it is profound, and has become a mantra for everyone from pro-lifers to environmentalists.

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! is sure to be a zany and delightful romp for children. But it has the added benefit, thanks to Dr. Seuss’ deceptive simplicity, of being a conversation starter about deeper topics as well.

© Copyright 2008 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.