CGI house Blue Sky Studios imparted the Ice Age series with crossover appeal. The animation, basic story, and animated characters appealed to children. The humor and character attitudes smacked of a slightly more mature approach; perhaps that’s why the films earned a PG rating. I, for example, am a huge fan of Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel, whose abuse at the hands of the animators never fails to amuse. However, when bringing a Dr. Seuss book to the big screen, not only is the source material rated G, but the film is too. With any potential edginess removed, the result is sweet and colorful, but the adult rewatchability factor drops precipitously.

I do admire the author and the filmmakers’ abilities to wrap life lessons and philosophy around such a deceptively simple and imaginative story… “A person’s a person, not matter how small.” But I can’t help wonder if a little adult assistance isn’t necessary to educate tykes as to the significance and implications of that well-know quote from the book and screenplay. There is much to admire about the messages the book and film send: reliability; truth; faith; keeping one’s word; open mindedness… but these are messages I hope any good parent would impart. Perhaps that places value on Horton as entertaining reinforcement; you can never have too much in a child’s life.

Charles Osgood, the host of CBS TV’s Sunday Morning, a man no stranger to rhyme, narrates, quoting from the book and setting a light tone. For those who may be unaware, this is the tale of a rather jovial and pleasant elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey). He lives in the Jungle of Nool and delights in the simple pleasures of life, like cooling off from the heat of the day in a clear pool, or imparting his vast questionable store of knowledge to a little group of young creatures that range from adorable to oddly creepy. Horton, as all healthy pachyderms do, has enormous ears that tend to collect and direct sounds, making his hearing particularly acute. And therein lies the foundation for this story.

A tiny speck of dust floats by; from this unlikely source, Horton hears voices. He immediately deduces that there must be people living within the speck. He chases the tiny dust ball, ultimately to capture it with a pink clover flower. He establishes a dialog with the Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell). It seems that there is a complex society of thousands of Whos living their Who lives, tiny innocents with tiny families, all with a will to survive no smaller than our own. Horton promises to transport them to a place of safety where Whoville will thrive, undisturbed.

Enter the prig. The jungle of Nool has its own authoritarian, intolerant, busybody in the form of Kangaroo (Carol Burnett). Among other things, she’s the self-appointed arbiter of proper behavior and beliefs. She immediately deems Horton’s irrational belief in the people living in dust as unacceptable, complaining that his rants might motivate children to assume unacceptable beliefs of their own. Kangaroo insists that Horton stop his nonsense and discard the clover on which is perched the dust speck. And when he refuses, she gets downright mean, talking a nasty but dim vulture named Vlad (Will Arnett) into tracking down Horton, snatching away the clover, and destroying it. Horton can expect little help from the animals of Nool; Kangaroo has turned them against him. If she can’t hear, see, or smell the people in the speck, they simply don’t exist. And since his neighbors can’t hear what Horton can hear, they simply don’t share his belief.

There is a similar crisis of faith in Whoville. No one believes the mayor when he claims that Whoville is in danger and he’s in touch with a giant, invisible elephant in the sky who promises to help. On an even smaller level, there’s the mayor’s young son, JoJo, the only male child in a family of ninety-seven children. He needs his father’s respect and approval of his individuality; the mayor seems fixated on passing down the mayoralty to his son, whether JoJo wants it or not.

Although the tale ostensibly focuses on strength of character and perseverance in the face of increasingly desperate challenges, there is clearly an underlying message about believing in a powerful, invisible being who can be a savior. Not very subtle, but perhaps that’s what Theodor Seuss Geisel intended when he wrote the book.

The film is colorful and full of gentle humor that is more smile-inducing than laugh out loud funny. I was pleased to have seen it, but the film’s simple approach, lacking all complexity in both dialog and plot structure, was a see-once and put-on-the-shelf experience. Even Jim Carrey seemed uncharacteristically constrained. Children, on the other hand, will likely be drawn repeatedly to the images and the imaginative ways the animators expanded the book to create a tangible three-dimensional world.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 has been expanded slightly to fill Blu-ray Disc’s high definition 1.78:1 frame. The transfer was compressed at a high bit rate with the AVC video CODEC, and the result is nearly flawless. This is a film that is a perfect demonstration of Blu-ray Disc’s wide chroma palette. The creatures and environments are a riot of color, from vivid primaries to more subtle greens and browns within the jungle of Nool. Whoville is a land of bright colors against white backgrounds. The tiny citizens massed to look up at the mayor during his pronouncements from high on a balcony, populate the scenes with remarkable detail. I could almost make out expressions on the hundreds of minute faces, a wonderful demonstration of the resolution of the format. Shadow detail isn’t an issue, but there is plenty of detail in Vlad’s complex covering of black feathers. My only nitpick is that blacks don’t quite plumb the depths of the video dynamic range, but this might have been precisely what the CG artists intended; it gets a pass. I saw no artifacts, nor did I see any unwelcome halos.

The DVD’s video is excellent for a standard definition disc. As you would expect, it shares many of the characteristics of the BD, but with a noticeably less vibrant palette and obvious a softness that keeps the viewer at arm’s length. But kudos to Fox; there is a welcome lack of edge halos.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The BD’s uncompressed DTS-HD Master 5.1 track is terrific. I was immediately struck by the subtle but powerful bass, felt as well as heard with each of Horton’s footfalls early in the film. Deep bass would entertain repeatedly. John Powell’s orchestral score is both lighthearted and emotional, with orchestral timbre convincing and transparent across a broad soundstage. I was also impressed with the voiceover narration by Charles Osgood; his voice has a satisfying in-the-room presence. All dialog is distortion-free and clean, but not quite as convincing as the narration. Sound effects are sharp and detailed. The surrounds are used to good effect for both discrete effects and amusing travelling pans. But perhaps not to startle the kiddies, the mix has a subdued dynamic range. This is a track that satisfies without impressing.

I think you know how I’m about to characterize the DVD’s Dolby Digital 5.1 track. It shares the characteristics of the BD’s lossless track, but sounds a little messier, has a bit of distortion that gets more obvious as the sounds become more complex, and doesn’t have as much bottom end impact. Regardless, without a direct comparison, you’ll find it more than satisfactory.

The BD’s alternate languages are in French and Spanish, both in Dolby Digital 5.1. The optional subtitles are in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean.

The DVD’s alternate languages are in French and Spanish, both in Dolby Surround 2.0. The optional subtitles are in Spanish and English, for which Closed Captions also are included.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Comapred to the BD, the single disc DVD edition has very few supplements. This is a dual-sided disc, with an anamorphic transfer on one side and a full screen transfer that I did not bother sampling on the other. On the widescreen side of the DVD, you’ll find trailers for Dr. Doolittle: A Tinsel Town Tail (0:57, non-anamorphic widescreen), Elephant Tales (1:09, non-anamorphic widescreen), Angel Wars: The Messengers (0:43, 1.78:1, anamorphic video), and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in Digital 3-D (1:54, non-anamorphic widescreen). On the full screen side you’ll find four more trailers: City of Embers (1:43, non-anamorphic widescreen); Meet Dave (2:02, non-anamorphic widescreen); Space Chimps (1:17, non- anamorphic widescreen); and, Garfield’s Pet Force (0:27, full screen).

Both formats (and both sides of the DVD) offer a new CGI short called Surviving Sid (7:59), inspired by characters in the Ice Age series. Scrat makes a cameo appearance that was entirely too short. It’s in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is shown in respectable anamorphic video on the DVD and great high definition on the BD.

Both formats (and both sides of the DVD) offer a directors’ commentary by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino. Is it just me or have you also noticed that the imaginative and playful nature of CGI animated film directors make for playful and animated commentaries? They discuss their artistic and thematic intentions for the film and touch upon the challenges of transforming the book to the screen.

As for the DVD, that’s all you get. The BD, on the other hand is chock full of supplementary material. We begin with the Bonus View PiP supplement that features the mayor’s son, JoJo. He indicates when to activate the extras and you’re expected to press your remote control’s red button to make them visible. I ran out of time before could evaluate this feature in any detail.

Deleted Footage is available with an optional directors’ introduction (0:25, 1.78:1, HD) in which the content is explained. It’s organized into three sections of different content in different forms: storyboard versions (480p, 14:50, 1.78:1, SD), rough animated versions (2:39, 1.78:1, SD), and almost-final versions (1:09, 1.78:1, SD). Each may be watched with an optional directors’ commentary. Interesting, but not compelling; just more of the same.

Animation Screen Tests are introduced by character animator Nick Bruno (0:43, 1.78:1, SD). There are demonstrations of three characters: Horton (2:49), Mayor (3:47), and Whos (0:23).

Bringing the Characters to Life featurette (5:29, 1.78:1, HD) reveals the contributions of the voice actors, in this case it’s mostly Carell, and the CGI artists. The animators are shown acting out scenes while they are being recorded so they can capture instinctive moves, expressions, and gestures for the picture. We see voice actors working in front of the microphone, adding their personalities to the animated characters.

The Elephant in the Room: Jim Carrey featurette (4:52, 1.78:1, HD and SD) is similar, but puts the spotlight on Carrey. We watch him in front of the microphone, mugging and improvising. The directors tapped into his abilities to project both emotionally and humorously.

That's One Big Elephant: Animating Horton featurette (8:08, 1.78:1, HD) reveals the creation of the title character. I found it interesting that the animators used a handheld laser-scanner to capture the three-dimensional characteristics of small, sculptured maquettes to help create the lowest level of initial computer model. Several different models were sculpted with a variety of expressions and positions to give the animators the most complete fundamental basis of the character. The animators then demo the controls used to manipulate Horton’s expressions.

Meet Katie featurette (3:49, 1.78:1, HD) is a very brief discussion of a bright yellow, furry character, apparently a Yak, that occasional seems to have a psychic break. The artist explains that he based her on a creepy childhood neighbor. I wonder how she feels about that.

Our Speck: Where Do We Fit In? featurette (4:01, 1.78:1, HD) is a highly simplified short about ecosystems. Children describe their ideal worlds and that segues into their talking about being responsible residents of planet Earth. This one is strictly for kids by kids.

Elephant Fun: The Facts (5:28, 1.78:1, HD) is a little nature-based featurette about African elephants. We learn about their personalities and their physiologies. Did you know that an elephant has a brain four times the size of yours? Their outstanding memory is no myth. Interesting stuff.

A Person is a Person: A Universal Message featurette (3:42, 1.78:1, HD) is another very short piece. Here, cast and crew comment on the concept of both belief and how all life should be respected.

Bringing Seuss to Screen featurette (8:14, 1.78:1, HD) examines challenges of adopting Dr. Seuss for the motion picture screen. The directors and screenwriters discuss how the book was transformed into a feature-length film. Much embellishment was added to fill in gaps and create continuity and a coherent story arc. Artists discuss the challenges of adapting the book’s illustrations into a three dimensional world. From that effort came a style guide to be used by all the CG artists for consistency.

We Are Here! is an interactive kid’s game in which players must recall and mimic sequences of five instruments played during each level of the game. This is strictly a memory game, reproducing the sounds as they get more complex.

There are high definition trailers on the BD: City of Ember; and, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in Digital 3-D.

The second disc in the Blu-ray release is a Digital Copy DVD for portable entertainment devices.

The 86- minute film is organized as thirty-two chapters on both formats.

Final Thoughts

Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who! is mild-mannered fun for the youngsters in the household. Parents might enjoy it once. The film contains worthwhile themes that could inspire life lessons, but don’t expect very much adult crossover appeal. A splendid high definition presentation with great sound and a generous portion supplements make the BD appealing. The DVD is a much less satisfying viewing experience and the supplements are mighty thin.