Price Tag: $14.98
Official URL: whv.warnerbros.com
Rating:

*** EDITOR’S NOTE: We strongly recommend that parents avoid allowing young children to watch the fourth episode on this disc: “Horton Hatches an Egg”.  See review for details. ***

This DVD contains 4 feature episodes from Dr. Seuss. The main presentation is, of course, Horton Hears a Who!, the original animated version. Watching this DVD with my 3-year-old daughter just reminded me what a master of children’s stories Dr. Seuss was. Somehow with each one, he manages to teach kids about morality and human nature in an entertaining, rhyming way that holds the attention of adults as well.

THE MENU

When you insert the DVD into your player, it automatically starts playing trailers for other cartoon movies. While I find this feature a bit annoying, it is common these days. Fortunately, the Horton DVD allows you to press “menu� and go straight to the main menu. The main menu has three subsets, Features, Special Features and Languages.

Features: This option allows you to choose how you’ll watch the movie. You can select “play allâ€? to watch all four mini-movies or select them individually.

Special Features: Here there is a documentary called In Search of Dr. Seuss and a Singalong Music Video called “You Can Hear Horton, Horton Can Hear You!�. Trailers for other features are also included here.

Languages: You can choose to watch this DVD with English or Spanish subtitles or with English, Spanish or French voice tracks.

ANIMATION

The animation for this DVD is much like the illustrations in any Dr. Seuss book. They are very bright and whimsical and colorful. Don’t expect cutting edge computer graphics but the sketchy nature of this cartoon serves to reinforce the literary feel of the story.

THE EPISODES

Horton Hears a Who!

This is, of course, the feature presentation. It tells the story of Horton, a kind-hearted elephant who discovers a talking speck of dust and becomes convinced that there is someone living on the speck. He then makes it his responsibility to keep the little speck safe from harm. He learns that there is a whole community of people living on the speck, called the Whos. He becomes friends with Dr. Who-Vee, a ridiculed scientist living in Whoville who is an outcast because he believes there is life outside of their world. Horton puts the tiny planet on a clover flower for safekeeping but it is stolen by the evil Wickersham brothers and thrown into a field of clover flowers. Horton searches the field for hours, finally finding the Whos. In the end, the Whos come to believe Dr. Who-Vee and make enough noise to be heard by the villains, who come to see the truth as well.

This movie teaches some valuable lessons. Among the themes I see at work are perseverance, friendship, loyalty and respect. The villains in the movie have a change of heart when they learn the truth, showing that people can change when they choose to. The Whos all pull together to make a lot of noise, showing the importance of teamwork. My favorite line is the one that caused so much controversy in the full length film that hit theaters last spring, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.â€? Horton is willing to put his own well-being at risk to save his new friends. There is some mild peril in the movie, which may frighten some children who are especially sensitive in this area but it’s all very cartoonish and benign. The 2008 movie, Horton Hears a Who! is based pretty solidly on this cartoon (or rather on the original book). This cartoon version is just a more abbreviated version, all rhyming and singing, whereas the animated movie takes the story beyond the rhyming to a more in-depth story.

Dr. Seuss’ Butter Battle Book

This episode is about the Yukes and the Zukes, two different “racesâ€? of people who live divided by a large stone wall. On one side of the wall, the Yukes butter their bread with the butter side up and on the other side, the Zukes put the butter on the bottom. On both sides, their youth are indoctrinated with the correct buttering technique and taught that the other side is wrong. The story is told from the Yukes’ point of view with the Zukes as the villains. One day, as the Yuke version of a policeman is patrolling the perimeter of the wall, the Zukes break the switch he’s using as his weapon with a sling shot. This leads to the development of more “modernâ€?weaponry by the Yukes for him to patrol with. In response, the Zukes come up with their own, more advanced design and the conflict escalates as each side tries to destroy the other with something bigger and better.

I laughed out loud when I started to watch this one. I think adults in diversity training should be routinely required to watch this video. The difference between the two sides is which side their bread is buttered on! What better way to show us just how stupid it is to judge another group of people on something so surface or so silly! It also goes a long way towards showing how trying to prove which side is better can become a huge and devastating battle. In the end, we see that the Yukes and the Zukes don’t really know each other at all and that beneath the surface, they are very much alike, much like the humanity that lies beneath the color of our skin. The movie ends without resolution to the conflict. The opposing sides are poised on the brink of exterminating each other and the viewer is left to draw their own conclusions.

While I greatly enjoyed this little movie, my 3-year-old daughter found it very confusing. She could not understand why the Yukes and Zukes hated each other or why they wanted to build guns. I realized we must be accomplishing our goal of raising her to appreciate other cultures and races because she was truly clueless. She did seem to enjoy the musical component of the film.

This film definitely opens the door to dialog between children and parents about how wrong it is to stereotype groups of people and why racism occurs.

Daisy-Head Mayzie

This short, narrated by the Cat in the Hat, is about a little girl named Mayzie who grows a daisy out of her head. Her classmates at school make terrible fun of her for being different. Her teacher rushes her to the principal’s office, a “very wise manâ€? who knows just about everything and even he is stumped. As the daisy starts to wilt, so does Mayzie so the teacher and the principal begin to work to keep both the daisy and Mayzie healthy while they figure out how it happened. In the midst of the chaos, Mayzie signs a contract to become famous for her “talentâ€? (yes, that’s what the started calling the daisy growing out of her head). The whole world goes nuts and wants to be just like her for a time, wearing daisy hats and all lining up to see her. She makes a ton of money and has everything she could ever want materially, only to realize that she misses her friends and family and is very lonely. She’s worried that no one loves her anymore and her daisy loses its petals doing the traditional “they love me, they love me notâ€? routine and disappears temporarily but eventually comes back. Daisy goes home and lives happily ever after. The moral of the story? Love means much more than fame and fortune.

This is a very entertaining and cute message in appreciating what really matters in life. My 3-year-old’s review? “That was a really fun movie!â€?

Horton Hatches the Egg!

A mother bird named Mayzie, the lazy bird (I guess Dr. Seuss really liked that name!) is tired of sitting on her egg day in and day out and wants to get someone else to do it. Along comes Horton the elephant, pink in this episode, and agrees to care for the egg while the bird flies away. Horton sits on the egg for weeks, enduring storms and heat and then snow. Spring rolls around and Mayzie still hasn’t returned. Horton wants to leave but says he must be “faithful 100%â€? and stays on. Some elephant hunters come and take both Horton and the egg away to the circus.

Mayzie eventually finds Horton and her egg at the circus just in time for the egg to hatch and discovers that the egg contains an “elephant bird� that looks just like Horton.

I would not recommend this short for one simple reason. During Horton’s trip across the sea a fish surfaces and says something about having seen it all now, then takes out a gun and shoots himself in the head. I have to admit, I was shocked and appalled that this type of incident would be included on a kid’s DVD compiled in 2008! My little girl was watching it with me and I had no time to react or stop her from seeing it. I could only hope she wasn’t paying close attention. I actually took two stars away from this otherwise delightful DVD because of this. To be fair, it is an old cartoon and this particular short was only 9 minutes long, but there should have been some effort to warn parents of this scene or at the very least, a quick “viewer discretion advisedâ€? before it started. Better yet, why not leave that particular episode out? The episode itself didn’t fit well with the others, aside from being Dr. Seuss. The positive message of loyalty was there but overall, it was overshadowed by this scene and by the message that you can leave someone else to take care of your responsibilities and everything will work out okay.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I tremendously enjoyed the first three films on this DVD. They portray many positive messages and give a lot of opportunity for further discussion between children and parents. Unfortunately, the 10 seconds of violence in Horton Hatches the Egg! causes me to feel a responsibility to rate this DVD much lower than I would like. If you buy it, just don’t watch the third mini-movie. Otherwise, it would be a great addition to your DVD library.