Horton International Poster
Twentieth Century Fox Movie Comes to Theatres March 14th
Check out the international poster for Twentieth Century Fox's Horton Hears a Who, starring Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. Movie comes out March 14th.
It's tough getting a read on Twentieth Century Fox's upcoming CGI animated flick Horton Hears a Who. On the one hand, it's an adaptation of the classic children's book by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel so the initial script should be bullet-proof.
On the other hand, previous attempts to bring Geisel's prose to the big screen have ranged from the (unintentionally) laughable to the completely cringe-worthy. The only person who ever got it right was legendary Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones, who produced 1966's The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Jones was a friend of Geisel's who let the late author in on the entire development and production process. And extra bonus points for bringing in former Scream Machine Boris Karloff to narrate the thing.
Movie Scriptwriters and Executives Don't Get Seuss
The 1966 Christmas special is a classic and deservedly so. Unfortunately, other attempts to bring Dr. Seuss to the (big or small) screen haven't done so well.
The biggest problem with adapting Dr. Seuss for cinema audiences seems to be scriptwriters and executives who try to make Geisel's storytelling more modern and "edgy" and, in the process, completely lose that element of wonder that made Dr. Seuss' stories classics in the first place. By trying to fix what ain't broke, those scriptwriters and executives end up breaking it.
Then, of course, there's the unfortunate inability of screenwriters to deal with anapestic tetrameter, the poetic rhythm that Geisel used in the vast majority of his children's books. It's a subtle element that made his stories such wonderful reads, and a detail that bedevils those who would adapt his books.
Will Twentieth Century Fox's Horton Hears a Who go down as a success or failure? The final analysis comes on March 14th, when this flick hits theatres, but so far it ain't looking good. Leaving aside casting Jim Carrey as the titular elephant, the movie appears to be erring on the "make it hip" side of the spectrum.
Horton International Poster
Which brings us to the latest, French-language poster for Horton Hears a Who. And if this one-sheet is any indication, Twentieth Century Fox is committing the same error that doomed the 2000 live-action film How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which also starred Jim Carrey) and 2003's The Cat in the Hat, whose numerous detractors included Geisel's widow Audrey.
First off, there's no mention of Dr. Seuss anywhere on this poster. Considering the stature that his books have worldwide (Green Eggs and Ham was #4 on Publishers Weekly's bestselling children's books of all time), that's a pretty severe omission. The only credit is "from the creators of Ice Age," which is a reasonable statement to make, considering the franchise's success.
Secondly, let's discuss the worrying tagline "C'est la bombe!" (that means "It's the bomb!" for the linguistically challenged). Yes, it works with the image of Horton doing a cannonball into a pond, but there's nothing like using outdated slang to make your movie look hip and interesting, folks.
Finally, there's the image itself. The story of Horton revolves around a good-natured elephant who becomes the protector of a speck of dust that contains the city of Whoville. The speck of dust is contained in a clover, which Horton carries with him. Given that he's so protective of the clover (and the speck of dust within it), wouldn't Horton be too worried about the Whos to actually jump into a pool while carrying the clover?
Yes, the image looks good, but it's those pesky little details which dooms this poster. Overall, it appears the assessment of Horton Hears a Who's chances can be summed up with this pithy phrase: Don't be happy. Worry.
Horton Hears a Who comes out March 14th.
