Horton Hears a Who!

Viewed: 03.22.08
Theater/DVD/Cable: Theater
Overall Review: 3.5 out of 5

Plot:
Horton the Elephant struggles to protect a microscopic community from his neighbors who refuse to believe it exists.

Memorable Quote:
"I wonder what ASAP means anyways. Maybe act swiftly awesome pachyderm. "

My Thoughts:
I love Dr. Seuss books very much indeed.
KajaKid loves them too and it's pretty much all I get to read.
So when we were staring at a long weekend with not much to do, the family decided to go see 'Horton Hears a Who!'.

We sat in the darkness, we sat there us three.
When the lights went out we all shrieked with glee.
We munched on our popcorn, we drank with a slurp.
Everyone jumped when I had a big burp.

OK, well enough of that then.

Horton is a great family movie. Jim Carrey and Steve Carell do a terrific job as the voices of Horton the elephant and the Mayor of Whoville. I guess it takes an animated character to tone down Carrey a bit. Or maybe it's just old age catching up with him.

The animation is fantastic in that it's just silly enough to be great 3D, but also make the Seuss characters shine. You really feel like the book comes to life. This is much better than previous live costume attempts like 'The Cat in the Hat' (which was so bad I never actually saw it) and another Carrey film 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. Animation is the way to go in my opinion.

It's hard to take a short story and turn it into a full length feature, but aside from a couple of strange editing choices I think the film was just long enough. I can't really understand the Japanese Anime scene somewhere in the middle. It was so out of place and was pretty scary to a little kid. But the rest of the film was adorable and made everyone laugh at the right spots.

There aren't many choices when it come to G-rated films these days and when you want to take a 3-year old to the movies, Horton is a fantabulous choice. And it's fun for the adults in the family too.

Don't forget to check out the trailer in the player below.

Monster House

Viewed: 1.21.07
Theater/DVD/Cable: DVD
Overall Review: 3 out of 5

Plot:
A neighborhood house is causing all kinds of havoc, eating toys, people and whatever else walks on its lawn. Three kids dare to figure that shit out.

Memorable Quote:
Girl: "No, that's not the heart, it's the uvula."
Boy: "Oh, so it's a girl house."

My Thoughts:
If you don't have a child, then chances are you've never seen or heard of this movie. I had never heard of it until this afternoon. TripBoy and TripGirl stayed at Granny's house last night and they picked it up at the movie store so TripBoy would have something to watch. He watched it last night, but wanted me to watch it with him again today.

When they got home, I was about to fire up a poker game, but decided to shut down the computer after he asked if we could watchthe movie. He told me it was really scary and I might want to get a blanket to hide under. As it turns out, it was a little scary, but in a kid kind of way. I admit to jumping at least once when a scene caught me off guard. I've never heard of a childrens cartoon horror movie, but this one comes close. Think Toy Story, but scary.

As for the guts of this movie, I decided from the get go to take this for what it was...a chance to spend some time with boy and enjoy a simple movie. I'm really glad I did because we had a fun time huddling under the blanket waiting for the next scary thing to happen. He was definitely into this movie and I was caught up in his enthusiasm.

Now that I've gotten you into the idea of seeing this movie, let me throw a few warnings out there. This movie does not go deep. It will not knock your socks off or leave you ready to watch it again the next day. Take this movie for what it is...a kids movie with a couple of funny jokes and scary moments. If you start questioning plot holes and story lines, then you've missed the point. If you have a kid between the ages of 5 - 13, rent this movie and just have a good time with it. I did.

I give this one a 3 out of 5 as I had a good time with it. Had I not been with boy, it would probably drop some, but maybe not. I'm a simple guy and I take movies for what they are. This movie won't find its way in my DVD collection, but I'm guessing I'll have to buy it for the boy. That's cool with me.