The Mayor of Who-ville is introduced as “devoted and fair, and a little bit odd” in Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.

MCT

Beloved by generations of children and their parents, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who, about an elephant who never gives up in his commitment to save a teeny-tiny world that exists inside a speck of dust, makes the leap to the movies with all its whimsy, fun and hold-your-breath adventure intact.

Writing partners Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio have remained faithful to the spirit of the Seuss book, first published in the 1950s, even using some of Dr. Seuss’ famous rhyming sing-song in their screenplay, while co-directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino have based the film’s look on Seuss’s own drawings and notes. The result is a magical spin on an old favorite that only enhances its thrills while not abandoning the book’s sweet, selfless message.

As Horton puts it so plainly and sincerely, the theme of the book and the movie is, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” That sentiment echoes strongly through the film as Horton, against great odds and the ridicule of his fellow creatures in the Jungle of Nool, sets out to save that tiny speck and the residents of Who-ville he’s certain exist inside it, carrying it to a safe place atop a mountain.

Horton’s odyssey begins when one day he hears a faint, tiny voice from inside the speck. It’s the Mayor of Who-ville (Steve Carell), a place of tall houses that have the lopsided look of having partially melted and where nothing has ever gone wrong . . . until now. Striking up a “long-distance” relationship with the Mayor, who hears Horton by muted echoes rumbling through a drainpipe, Horton explains the danger of impending total destruction that Who-ville faces. Nevertheless, he promises to help, no matter what.

It doesn’t help his cause that none of the jungle animals believe the far-fetched tale spun by Horton (Jim Carrey, who has been to Who-ville before in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Even his mouse pal, Morton (Seth Rogen), thinks Horton has cracked up. The Kangaroo (Carol Burnett), a self-important creature who believes she is the real leader of the jungle, wants all this “nonsense” about the speck of dust stopped, even threatening to boil it in a vat of bubbling oil once she snatches it from Horton.

What follows are a series of fast-paced, colorful adventures as Horton, never wavering in his promise to save the Whos, tries to bring the speck to safety while the Mayor tries to convince his fellow Whos of the imminent catastrophe they face. These include a sequence in which Horton rampages through the blue monkey territory in pursuit of the fly-away speck as the monkeys fire a barrage of bananas at him; the underhanded tricks of the toothy, demonic vulture Vlad (Will Arnett) who hopes to destroy the speck at the behest of Kangaroo. She’s a sour, letter-of-the-law creature who allows no leeway in her self-imposed rules.

One of the most exciting adventures Horton faces is trying to carry the speck, which rests atop a pink clover, across a rickety wooden footbridge over a deep ravine. Unfortunately, the bamboo boards break one by one as he passes over them. Each step the lumbering Horton takes results in an equal and opposite reaction in Who-ville where, in this funny/breathtaking sequence, the Mayor is sitting in a dentist’s chair with a novocain-filled hypodermic needle poised at his mouth.

Directors Hayward and Martino haven’t forgotten the clever little touches that make Horton so special, such as wrapping Horton’s huge ears into a bathing cap or a baseball cap or using them to help the giant creature do the backstroke.

The Mayor, who has 96 daughters and one son, Jo-Jo, has his own problems. Like Horton, no one believes the Mayor when he tells them he is getting dire warnings from an enormous elephant in the sky that no one can see or that their world exists on a speck of dust that the elephant is protecting. The Who-ville City Council, a team of overly cheerful civic promoters, wants him muzzled. Even worse, Jo-Jo is rebelling against his father’s plan to have him carry on the family tradition to become one of the long line of Who-ville mayors. Instead, Jo-Jo is setting out to become his own person. All these things will collide in Horton’s death-defying cataclysmic ending.

The vocal talents have been well matched to their characters. Standouts are Carrey, who makes Horton a sweet-natured creature with a heart of gold and a never-say-die resolve that’s affecting; Carell as the beleaguered Mayor who risks all to save his doubting family and constituents from doom; Burnett as the closed-minded law-and-order boss of the jungle; Arnett as the Russian-accented Vlad who revels in creating discomfort. The actors, as much as the animators, bring to life these three-dimensional creatures who face dilemmas that have parallels in our real world.

*****Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who

Voices: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Amy Poehler, Seth Rogen.

Rated: G

mjanuson@projo.com