Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A playful pachyderm named Horton becomes a reluctant hero when he discovers the microscopic city of Who-ville on a floating speck of dust and embarks on a hilarious adventure to save the town from the dangers of the jungle.

It would seem that translating any of Dr Seuss’ works to film would be very difficult. They have a very particular style to them and since most are short stories you have that brave attempt at filling in the gaps. This didn’t go very well with the recent The Cat in the Hat but the efforts have paid off with the previous Grinch attempts. This time around animation gurus Blue Sky take a crack at Horton and do an amazing job of capturing the world of Seuss. The animation looks like it is right out of the pages and showcases just how far this studio has come since the first Ice Age. The story representation is a bit hit or miss though. All the key moments are captured perfectly but some of the filler left me a bit flat. The comedy tries a bit too hard at times leaving me a bit wishy washy on the overall experience. Some scenes I found to be hilarious but how well they fit into the production as a whole left me scratching my head (the anime sequence comes to mind). Still, as a adaptation of Seuss they’ve done a tremendous job.

CG animation nearly always look impeccable in HD. It was like it was designed to be shown in the high resolution format. This is no exception. The sense of dimension with the characters is outstanding and the color palette is dead on for Seuss material. The image truly has a “looking through a window” feel and you could swear you could reach in and grab the characters. My only minor complaint was the minute amount of noise I saw from time to time in fine detail or on the characters. It was sparse, but there. Overall though this Blu-ray is actually a better visual experience than the one I saw in D-Cinema which had quite a few visible artifacts throughout the showing.

Big budget feature animation is always a showcase for great sound design and this is another knock out audio track. The DTS-HD Master Audio mix has plenty of great dynamics, perfect soundstage presence and great voice work. The track has a very open quality to it and spatial design is excellent. The surrounds add just the right amount of ambiance and environmental cues to keep you locked in the experience. Low bass response is system threatening at times but slightly toned back for the family experience. The balance within the mix is dead on and I was impressed with the quality of the voice work.

Fox has loaded this one up with extras. The two disc set features a digital copy of the film on the second disc and a nice assortment of production features and fun extras for the family. A feature audio commentary is included along with a couple deleted scenes that are in mixed stages of production. You get an inside look at the animation style used in the film and the creation of the characters and Horton himself. For the kids there is a nice feature on the themes of the film and one on the moral ground of the film. Fox has even included a Bonusview enabled picture-in-picture feature where Who Jo-Jo pops in on occasion to comment on some of his favorite scenes. Blue Sky includes a new animated short with Sid the Sloth that was funny but not quite as good as the Scrat shorts. Overall though this is a very nice supplemental package.

Fox has done a tremendous job with the presentation for this one. Family films don’t get much better than this. Highly recommended!