Horton Hears an Unironic Who

Took the kids to see Horton Hears a Who last week. I had my expectations. It had Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell, Will Arnett, and Seth Rogan as voice artists. Of course they would wind up being crazy, I mean, look what Jim Carrey did to the Grinch. Plus, animated films today have slipped into the morass of post-modern hipster ironicism. The pop culture references, the playing with story conventions with winking grins. Even my children's beloved Veggie Tales ended their latest movie with a musical number performed by all of the characters from the film (a spoof on the B-52s "Rock Lobster"). When the Veggie's succumb, all is lost.

Well, maybe not all. Horton was a straight-forward film that was quite faithful to the original material (some padding was needed to create a feature length movie) and was refreshingly old-fashioned. No big musical number. No pop culture references. No parody. It was wonderful and effective. I gave in completely to the film's charms. My only complaint was with Morton, who seemed to be an awkward plot device, but not intrusive enough to disrupt my enjoyment much. My children responded well to it, and it has been successful at the box office, so I hope there is a trend towards less ironic children's fare.

It was interesting to read viewer comments of the movie on IMDB and see that while many people enjoyed the film, several complained of it being boring, not funny, stupid, and slow. They had Grinch expectations, and they were sorely disappointed. But, what I found more interesting was that they said that their children were similarly disappointed. I felt a bit sad for children unwilling to accept a straightforward Dr. Suess film that relies more on story than design (though the animation was lovely) and an over-the-top central performance a la the aforementioned Grinch and Cat in the Hat.

In talking with students who have seen the film, they are fairly non-commmital. It was fine, they say. It was not exactly the most entertaining film. Mehh. And that is acceptable. They are not the target audience. But when children reject this film, which box office would suggest is not the case for a majority of children, then the idea of childhood may be slipping away. My sons have 4-6 year old friends who watch movies like Revenge of the Sith and Transformers. Post-modern animated films are the gateway drug to PG-13 movies for young children. My only hope is that Pixar and Horton-type movies will exist long enough that my kids will not have to sacrifice their childhood to the twin gods or irony and parody.

I tried to discuss this idea briefly to my students, but living in a post-modern world, they could not understand what was unique or compelling about Horton. Most movies made for mass consumption, by design, have little impact or lasting memory for many of my students. Horton was just another that they forgot about in the theatre parking lot. They couldn't see the difference. I don't know if this exploration of structuralism and postmodernism is something I would try to tackle in my film classes. It is an argument for a different generation.