Horton Hears a Who

On Sunday morning, we rolled out of bed and planted ourselves on the couch to watch Horton Hears a Who.

Jim Carrey was funny as the Grinch, though I didn't love the movie overall. Dr. Suess should not be live action. That big Grinch suit on a real person made it obvious that the Grinch probably should've worn pants. And the Who faces on the actors looked uncomfortable at best.

Jim Carrey as the voice of Horton was better. Though much sharper on Blu-ray, it reminded me of being a kid watching The Lorax or Green Eggs and Ham (except for a brief anime-style segment where Horton is imaging himself as a ninja who protects the tiny speck on which Whoville exists).

The evil Kangaroo who insists there are no people on the speck of dust felt like a blantantly obvious metaphor for the religious and political differences people clash over. That was part of the book, but it felt overshadowing in the movie.

There was nothing particularly outstanding about the movie - it was good because the book is great. When the Whos join together to make noise in an effort to save their world by proving to the other animals that they do in fact exist, it brought a tear to my eye.

And maybe it's just because I'm a crazy animal person, but I hoped that the line "A person's a person, no matter how small" could be interpretted not just as a cross-racial, cross-generational call for unity, but perhaps even as a call to respect animals - both wildlife and otherwise - more than we currently do.

That's probably just me being a crazy, but I looked down at the kittens scattered across the couch with me and wished that we as a society treated at least our companion animals better.