Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

Not to blow my own trumpet, but I love how I can enjoy an awarding, historical biography one moment and then watch an animated movie adapted from a Dr Seuss book that features an elephant looking after a world that exists on a speck of dust and love it just as much! Every computer animated movie nowadays inevitably gets compared with Pixar's peerless output, but I've seen films that rival them for humour, originality and beauty, including Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs Aliens, and now Horton Hears a Who!, from Blue Sky Studios, the people behind Ice Age. 

I had no idea what to expect from Horton and watching the credits my heart sunk a little to read Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen were providing voices, as they can be very hit and miss. I needn't have worried though, for they were mostly unrecognisable and the voice cast was mostly irrelevant next to the stunning visuals and hilarious story in which they co-existed. In a really bizarre concept for a movie (not an original concept I know, the book came way before), Horton, an elephant, is minding his own business when he hears a noise coming from a speck. It turns out a world of Whos live on the speck, which Horton captures on the top of clover and clasps in his trunk. 

Mayor of Whoville, Ned, is able to hear Horton and encourages him to take the speck/his world to a safe place in order to prevent disaster befalling Whoville. The whole concept of a world existing on a speck of dust is quite philosophical, especially for something masquerading as a kid's movie. The two worlds of Whoville and the Jungle of Nool never interact, except through Horton talking through a drainpipe to Ned, and Horton's sanity is challenged by Kangaroo who doesn't believe anything she can't see with her own eyes. I suppose it's a comment on religion and belief, another odd choice for such a movie, but in many ways this is an animation to be enjoyed by adults as well as kids, in the best Pixar style. 

The humour is physical, wordy, visual, and steers away from pop culture references that so date the Shrek movies, although there is a superb pastiche of Japanese Pokemon-type cartoons, done in a 2D style and completely bizarre and hilarious, in keeping with the rest of the film. It's hard to describe all of the elements that go into making this elephant and his world so damn funny, it's a film that has to be seen to be believed. And it has the beautiful Jesse McCartney in a voice-cameo at the end. What more could one want in a movie?