Horton Hears a Who /​Oh, How I Love Animation!

Today is Sunday and I take my Sundays off. However, I really didn’t have much to do today, and my mind kept going over things that I want to do in my new video (I’ll have screenshots on my homepage Monday morning) so I was tempted to just go to the office and get some of it done. But God gives us a Sabbath for a reason — because we’re human and we need rest — and so instead of working on my video, I had a fine lunch and went to a movie.

I went to see Horton Hears a Who. I checked it out on Rotten Tomatœs first to see if it was any good, and it had a 70-​something-​% approval rating, which is good for Rotten Tomatœs. But the reviews were all just “blah”. Every review I read compared the movie to how it conformed to political correctness. Some said it did well, and they threw in a few PC catch-​phrases like “tolerance” and “diversity”. The flamers criticized it for its poor voice acting (mainly criticizing Jim Carrey) and how un-​funny it was for adults, and blah-​blah-​blah, as faceless people on the internet tend to talk who think that their opinion is so super-​awesome-​and-​cool that they have their own…blog…wait…

Anyhow, I was turned off by the PC stuff, but I said, what the heck, I love animation and I haven’t seen a movie since I moved to San Francisco, and I am going to see this one. So I did. I hadn’t even gotten through the previews when I became so very glad that I did. I love animation! Every preview was about a new animated movie — or heavily CGId movie. There is just so much you can do with animation, and so much freedom that animation can give a film maker. I saw a preview for a new Pixar movie about a robot left on earth to clean it up, which looked delightful, and I saw a preview for a new Speed Racer movie, which looked hilarious. If only I could hold the reigns of an animation studio and make my own movies! That’s the cool thing about machinima. You can make a short little movie with just one guy. I’d still like to make something of Pixar quality and scale someday though.

Then the movie started, and the entire thing was a hoot. It was rated PG and based on a Dr. Seuss book which I’ve never read, but I laughed throughout the whole thing. The anime-​spoof in the middle was HILARIOUS, and the bridge-​crossing-​slash-​dental-​appointment bit was pure gold. I loved all the voice acting, even Jim Carrey’s, and the animation was spot-​on. I decided long ago that there are just haters out there who hate in order to hate — whom I have dubbed the “wolves” and “jackals” in a previous blog post — and live their lives to pick apart the work of others. God help me if I ever become a critic. God help me if I ever take more joy in tearing apart what others have made than in creating something of my own.

As for the PC stuff in the movie, it isn’t there. Well, I take that back. It is not there at the same time that it is there. See, people tend to project their beliefs onto things like movies and books, and interpret it to mean what they want it to mean. Horton Hears a Who was so benign that no one can really call it PC, and indeed, there are portions of the movie that, if I were a bra-​burning feminist, would cause me to throw a tantrum. It is nice that such things can be overlooked by the PC types when you throw some A-​list actors in the movie, especially ones that have their names attached to blatantly PC movies, like the ridiculous Evan Almighty (I mean, come on: God is mad at man for being mean to the environment, so he… floods the environment? What?).

But projection can go both ways. PC types can like Horton Hears a Who because they think it really says such-​and-​such, and I can like Horton Hears a Who because I think it really says this-​and-​that. There were a few things that I would have revised if I had made the movie, like the slight jab at home-​schooling, and a brief message of rebellion, but in fact, if I wanted I could say that the entire movie is Pro-​Life, as demonstrated by a recurring phrase and the final line of the movie: “A person is a person, no matter how small”. But enough of interpretations. The movie was delightful, the animation was top-​notch, the voice acting suited the movie, the music suited the movie, and the haters can just sit in their mom’s basement and rage against the world all they want to. There will always be haters and things to hate. I’ve found that life is much more fun if you go out of your way to enjoy where you are, what you are reading, what you are watching, what you are eating and with whom you are conversing. Ecclesiastes 2:24, for the win.

About Oxhorn I’m an author, songwriter and movie-​maker who lives in Seattle, WA. I earned my BA in history from the University of Washington and have been interested in arguments, reasoning, research, writing and history ever since. I’m best known for my animated comedy machinima movies and music which you can find at oxhorn​.com. Visit brandonMdennis​.com for more about me, and be sure to subscribe, follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Watch my weekly live show, Scotch & Smoke Rings, at 7:00 PM Pacific for more classiness.