This may seem like blasphemy to some, but I've never been a big fan of Dr. Seuss. I know that most of my generation loves his books and sees them as touchstones of childhood, but I never saw the appeal. I can remember reading One Fish, Two Fish as a child and thinking, "Did my parents pay money for this?" Despite my ambivalence to his work, I have actually read most of his books and I'm familiar with the characters. Given that, I'm always interested in how filmmakers will take the simple text and create movies or shows from them. The latest offering, Horton Hears a Who!, actually transcends the source material, while retaining the important central theme.

Horton Hears a Who! introduces us to Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey), a kind and gentle elephant who lives in the Nool. He likes to teach the local kids and talk to his friend, Norton (voiced by Seth Rogen). One day, a tiny speck flies by Horton and he thinks that he hears a voice coming from it. Horton chases the speck and is able to capture it on a clover. Again, Horton is convinced that he hears a voice coming from the speck. Meanwhile, we learn that the town of Whoville is on the speck, and that the Mayor (voiced by Steve Carell) is having some problems. Despite the fact that he comes from a long line of mayors, the town council does not respect him. Even when he notices odd meteorological changes in the area, the council won't take him seriously. Then, using a series of gizmos, the Mayor is able to converse with Horton! Learning that there is indeed life on the speck, Horton decides to take it somewhere that it will be safe. But, jungle busy-body Kangaroo (voiced by Carol Burnett) disapproves of Horton's behavior and is convinced that he's a bad influence on the children. Thus, she not only encourages other to not believe Horton, but to try and stop him as well. Will Horton be able to protect the speck and therefore, the people of Whoville?

At 72-pages, Horton Hears a Who! is fairly long for a children's picture-book (and it certainly seems long when one is reading it aloud), but those responsible for the movie still faced a challenge in adapting it into a movie. With The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (which also starred Carrey), we learned that certain stories shouldn't be dragged out too far. Fortunately, Horton Hears a Who! never truly suffers from this. True, the movie does drag a big in the middle, and it's lacking in plot twists, but things also move along at a nice pace, even when the movie feels like it's repeating itself.

This is assisted by two primary factors. First, the story is simple and straight-forward. Too many family films today want to add layer-upon-layer to a story and tack on multiple finales (Yes, I'm looking at you, Pixar), but Horton Hears a Who! keeps things very simple. Horton must save the speck and the Mayor must save Whoville, and that's the basic premise. As noted above, there aren't many plot twists, which may disappoint adults, but children will love the fact that the movie picks a plotline and sticks to it. The other endearing factor in the film are the characters. Again, many movies want to present wacky and over-the-top characters which are meant to get our attention, but often become annoying. By, once again, keeping it simple, Horton Hears a Who! is able to offer fun characters who have personality, but are never overly complicated -- Horton is a nice guy, Kangaroo is a troublemaker, Morton is a good friend, etc. These archetypes are easily identifiable and save the film from being bogged down with too much character development.

The Horton Hears a Who! Blu-ray Disc contains many extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Directors Jimmy Hayward and Steven Martino. This is a good chat as the two offer continuous scene-specific comments. They discuss the voice actors, the animation, and how ideas from the book were expanded. "Watch Horton Hears a Who! with a Who" offers a picture-in-picture feature where JoJo will appear on-screen to watch the film with you. He sits in a little chair and eats popcorn. "Deleted Footage" contains three sections. There are "Storyboard Versions" for nine scene. We get two scenes in "Rough Animation Versions". "Almost-Final Versions" has two scenes as well. "Animation Screen Tests" is introduced by Animator Nick Bruno and shows us several different tests for Horton, Mayor, and the Whos. Some of these are very detailed and some look like animatics. "Bringing the Characters to Life" (5 minutes) shows how the animators act out various facial expressions and movements in order to animate the characters. There are many side-by-side examples showing how this was done. "The Elephant in the Room: Jim Carrey" (5 minutes) has the actor discussing his character, while the directors talk about why Carrey was right for the part. "That's One Big Elephant: Animating Horton" (8 minutes) explores the work which went into creating the character, including pre-planning, animation tests, sculpted models, and then all of the computer work which goes into making Horton move. "Meet Katie" (4 minutes) introduces us to the odd character who shows up in the film from time-to-time. "Our Speck: Where do we Fit In?" (4 minutes) has a group of children talking about what they would like to see on their "speck". "Elephant Fun: The Facts" (5 minutes) is a brief documentary about real-life elephants. "A Person is a Person - A Universal Message" (4 minutes) has the cast and crew talking about the the important of the film's core theme. The filmmakers discuss how they approached the source material while wanting to be faithful to the book in "Bringing Seuss to Screen" (8 minutes). The final extra is "Surviving Sid" (8 minutes), featuring the sloth from Ice Age. This is pretty pedestrian stuff and the saving grace is an appearance by Scrat.