We actually had some friends volunteer to watch dos amigos diablos for a few hours on Sunday, so we decided we'd go catch a flick and some dinner. To start with, it was slim pickings to find something we actually wanted to go see and then line up w/ a showtime within our window of freedom.
Funny enough, we settled on 20th Century Fox Animation's take on the classic Dr. Seuss joint, 'Horton Hears a Who'. I know seeing what could arguably be called a 'kids movie', when given an opportunity to be away from the kids sounds a bit crazy...but it really ended up being the best looking option.
Anyhow, being both a Dr. Seuss and animation fan, I was actually kind of stoked to check it out. I'll spare a long-winded review, but all-in-all I was left a little underwhelmed. There are moments where the animation is really beautiful and stays true to the Doctor's wacked-out artistic vision that was the staple of his books. There are just as many other moments where it becomes a little fuzzy and lost in all the action.
Then, when paired w/ some (surprise) ham-handed voice work from Jim Carrey...wooden performances from Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen and (WTF?) Carol Burnett...a cheesy, unfunny musical # at the end...the whole thing kind of ended up merely 'okay' to me. There were some funny moments and fun stuff from Isla Fisher, Amy Poehler and (especially) Will Arnett...but it wasn't enough.
Throw in that 'Horton Hears a Who' is one of the more cerebral Seuss stories, I think the kids might end up a little bored w/ it too. While worth renting to find out, i'd just tell you to hold onto your scratch for another couple of weeks until the Summer movie season begins. Granted, I don't how your toddler would do w/ 'Iron Man' on the big screen...but i'm sure as hell looking forward to it.
1 comment:
Dr. Seuss' stuff is classic, i forgot how much that guy packed into such simple storylines... they didn't add much to the original story either except for the usual Jim-Carryisms.
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