We are here! We are here!

So, I think it's safe to say I was having an off night (more on this, almost assuredly, will come in a later post). Mike, being the awesome that he is, dropped the road trip itinerary he was typing up and swept me away to go see Horton Hears a Who!, which I've been eagerly anticipating since I first saw the teaser trailer before The Simpsons Movie.

For those unfamiliar with the Dr. Seuss book, the set-up is basically as follows: Horton, a happy-go-lucky and 100% faithful elephant who has previously hatched an abandoned egg, now comes to the rescue of the tiny inhabitants of Who-ville, a town entirely contained upon a speck, which in turn resides on a clover flower. Also, for those unfamiliar with the Dr. Seuss book, shame! Shame! Hissssssssssss....

Fellows, the movie was awesome! It wasn't just funny and silly and heart-warming and all the bare-minimum things you'd expect from a movie with Dr. Seuss's name on the poster. It was also really beautiful-- blending the art of Dr. Seuss with the realistic elements of computer animation into something new and utterly delightful. And the funny and silly and heart-warming parts definitely went above and beyond the call of duty. There were several scenes that had me cracking up (particularly, for some reason, the ones involving Seth Rogan's Morton), and tears were threatening on at least two other occasions.

All in all, I think one of the things I loved most about this movie was that there wasn't a Central Theme or a Grand Lesson. Pro-lifers have been co-opting the line "A person is a person, no matter how small" for their own purposes, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that this wasn't really the Ultimate Focus of the film. The story and the characters within champion individuality, imagination, friendship, and faithfulness. But I felt like the point of the movie can best be encompassed by a phrase like "Be good" or, maybe, "Be the best you can be at being who you are." Towards the end of the movie, Horton gives his thanks to everyone who's been involved in his journey. And he thanks his best buddy (for sticking with him), he thanks the mayor of Who-ville (for always believing in him), and he thanks his neighbors (for caging him and poking him with sticks). I like that, in this movie, there are no villains. Only folks doing their best at being who they are, playing their part in the story to the best of their ability. Even Horton, the hero of the story, is just being who he is: after all, an elephant is faithful, 100%.

Anyway, this movie is fantastic. It takes a great story by a genius of children's literature and it makes it, somehow, into something more. What more could you ask for?