Who stays true, read the review

On the 14th of March, from the Land of L.A.,
Comes a film based on Seuss that I’m happy to say
Isn’t overblown junk like “The Cat in The Hat”—
A movie that messed with the book and fell flat.
This time, Seuss’ work, rendered in CGI,
Has the look and the feel and the wonder, oh my,
Of Ted Geisel’s creations, imagined as though
They were sculpted from toothbrushes, foam and Play-Doh.
The hero is Horton, and he Hears a Who!—
A whole city of Whos who can’t think what to do
When the speck that they live on, dislodged from a bloom,
Rumbles and tumbles, portending great doom.
They don’t know it’s a speck that they live on, of course,
Until Horton the Elephant yells till he’s hoarse
And gabs through a drainpipe with a muddled wee Mayor
(Who’s voiced by Steve Carell with vertical hair).
But the Whos, they refuse to believe him, and Horton
Stuck with a Seth Rogen sidekick named Morton
Finds himself mocked in the Jungle of Nool
As a fibber, a ninny, a rebel, a fool.
Will Horton, a pachyderm full of great spirit
Get the Whos to safe haven (or anywhere near it)?
Will the snide Kangaroo and a bicuspid vulture
Persecute Horton and destroy the Whos’ culture?
Will infinitesimal Whos win them over
Belting out “We are here!” from their speck on a clover?
Or will bossy marsupial Carol Burnett
Hold a kangaroo court until everyone’s dead?
Oh, suspense! Oh, the drama! Oh, the quick-fired wit
From Jim Carrey as Horton, who acts up a bit
With riffs on “Apocalypse Now” and John Kennedy
Yet projects Horton’s innocent, cuddly identity.
The film, co-directed by one Jimmy Hayward
And video-game man Steve Martino, isn’t wayward,
But REO Speedwagon? In Nool? Well, that’s strange.
And a Pokemon-esque 2-D clip seems deranged.
But with Charles Osgood narrating, and nods to old Seuss,
The movie seems updated without playing too loose.
Though the dialogue is mainly in modern-day prose
There are rhymes from the book that most anyone knows.
And the heart of the movie, like Horton’s, remains
One of sweetness and kindness, and so it maintains
Its message of courage and love: “After all,
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”
AMY BIANCOLLI (NYT)