Horton Hears a Who U.K. Poster
Twentieth Century Fox Dr. Seuss Movie Stars Steve Carell, Jim Carrey
Check out another poster for Twentieth Century Fox's Horton Hears a Who, starring Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. Movie opens March 14th.
Okay, this writer is not going to go on yet another rant about how Jim Carrey is the absolute last person who should've been cast as the slow-but-good-hearted elephant in Twentieth Century Fox's upcoming flick Horton Hears a Who.
Despite the very good-looking CGI work from Blue Sky Animation (the same guys who animated the Ice Age franchise), it appears Fox has decided to make Dr. Seuss' classic children's story more "edgy" and "hip" in order to appeal to Generation Wii. In other words, they aim to fix what wasn't broken to begin with, a tendency which plagued previous silver screen adaptations of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat. And no, those live-action flicks didn't exactly light the box office on fire.
It's interesting to note that the only adaptation that didn't try to modernize Theodor Geisel's story was the 1966 The Grinch Who Stole Christmas special, which was animated by Chuck Jones. It's also the most successful of the various adaptations. Coincidence? Heck no.
Horton Hears a Who International Poster
Previous Horton international posters have been unsuccessful, and this one doesn't work either.
Again, Twentieth Century Fox doesn't seem to trust the source material. We have Ace Ventura as an elephant, plus other characters: the Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell) looking like that Horton had just stuck his trunk somewhere intimate, plus various Whos and forest animals. Nearly everyone in the poster looks happy, even the apparent villains of the flick.
In most other posters with cast shots, some care is taken so that the audience knows who the heroes and baddies are before they see the flick. The fact that Fox ignored this basic rule of poster design is kind of puzzling.
The only exception to the generalized sunniness is Jo-Jo. Who is supposedly "the smallest Who of all," according to Seuss, who plays a pivotal role in the story. Blue Sky is going for a vaguely Gothy-sourpuss look for the character, which fits with the movie but is a little confusing for those who know the story. Is Jo-Jo now the new villain of the flick? How much have Fox/Blue Sky changed the story?
On the plus side, at least they added Dr. Seuss' name to the credits this time.
You can check out the international poster in all its International Movie Poster Awards glory by clicking here. Horton Hears a Who lumbers into theatres March 14, not May 15th.*
*(Seuss joke)
