Mommy Movie Review: Horton Hears a Who

Our drawing for the devotional The Confident Woman is closed.  And the giveaway goes to........ Kathy- Braselton.  Shoot me a quick email (godlyrose at yahoo dot com) with your address and I will send out your devotonal this week.  Congratulations!!!

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Today's review features Horton Hears a Who and Shiloh over on Kristi's blog.

This is one movie that I really enjoy.  Whether or not the creator realized it, there are amazing spiritual and social parallels. 

Horton the elephant is a sweet playful elephant who hears a noise as a speck flies past him.  He is able to save  it from hitting the ground and finds out that there is a another world in the speck.  The world of the Whos who live in Whoville.  He then begins a journey to take this little speck to a safe place where it and its inhabitants will no longer be in any danger.  However, no one else can hear the Whos.  The Kangaroo (the leader of the animals in the Jungle of Nool) gets everyone to agree with her that Horton needs to get rid of the speck. Despite the peer pressure from the entire jungle community, Horton stays steadfast in his mission and eventually the Whos are saved.

Suzette's Positives

This movie has some wonderful quotes which are all meant to teach a lesson. Here are a few examples:

I said what I meant and I meant what I said and an elephant's faithful one hundred per cent. (Horton)

If you can't see hear or feel it, it isn't there. And.... He's teaching the children to use their imaginations. (The Kangaroo after her initial meeting with Horton and the speck)

My favorite quote in the whole movie:

Horton to the Mayor of Whoville: Two vastly different worlds miraculously crossing paths.  Mine is awesome! Yours is minuscule, but somehow we have managed to make contact.  When you think of it, it's pretty amazing.  Is everything okay down there?  The Mayor replies: You tell me. You're the one holding the speck. 

Regardless of the pressures put on him and being ganged up on by the entire population of Nool, Horton never gives in.  He is even caged at one point for not going along with the others. 

I love the parallel of how we as Christians believe by faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross even though many around us do not believe and even view us as being different, odd, or narrow-minded.  The Mayor of Whoville was the only one who could hear Horton and was viewed as being crazy because no one else heard Horton.  The Mayor tried to warn the citizens of Whoville of the impending doom coming to them, but the other members of the city council ridiculed him publicly.  When a temporary disaster happens, everyone finally believes the Mayor and suddenly believes that Horton is trying to protect them.

Similarly, Horton is the only one who can hear the small sounds coming from the speck.  Because he is believing something that no one else can fathom, the citizens of the Jungle of Nool make it their mission to destroy the object he holds on to so tightly.  However, it takes the Kangaroo's own son to also hear the Whos and save them from being boiled in Beezulnut Oil.

I love the musical arrangement where the Whos all join together and sing "We are here!" while trying to get the citizens of Nool to hear them.

There are so many more lessons in this one movie.  I have only highlighted a small few.

Suzette's Negatives

There are two scenes that I fast forward through, not because they are bad but because they are a little scary for small viewers.  The first one is just a preference on my part.  The movie goes from digital animation to Japanese styled cartooning as Horton is imagining himself to be a ninja.  I personally don't care for that part so I zip through it (and Addie covers her eyes- her new thing lately). 

The second scene is when the Kangaroo goes to the vulture, Vlad, to hire him to take the speck away from Horton and destroy it.  The scene itself  is a bit scary, so again, I zip through it (and again, Addie covers her eyes and asks when she can open them). 

There is a little character who is not Dr. Seuss-like at all and is just a little odd.  If they had left this character out (her part really is not significant at all), her character would not be missed and nothing in the movie would change at all.

Suzette's Rating: 9