This week is spring break for Jared and Sara, so my mother-in-law decided to take them and their cousin to see Horton Hears a Who, the latest Dr. Seuss book to be turned into a film. I took a long lunch and went with them. I'm extremely anti-violence, so, just to be safe, I checked the rating on Kids-in-Mind. They gave it a three for violence and gore, but the descriptions didn't sound too bad.

Well, I guess a rating of three is too much for my tastes (at least when it comes to the kids) -- I was somewhat disappointed. There is a whole series of scenes in sort of a Japanese anime style that depicts Horton's imagining himself fighting off other animals to protect Whoville. I'm not sure what the point of that was other than, perhaps, to keep kids who are used to seeing lots of violence interested. I think the movie would have been much better -- albeit much shorter -- if they'd left that whole sequence out.

There is also a section where a vulture goes after Horton to get the flower holding the speck that is Whoville away from the elephant -- that part was rather frightening. Sara sat there entranced and unafraid, but my sensitive Jared buried his face in my side for much of that part. I don't remember whether or not that's in the original book or not, but I wish I had known about it so I could have prepared Jared for it.

Other than those issues, the movie was enjoyable and more-or-less kept to the original plot. I do appreciate that they didn't try to introduce a love interest for Horton -- they just let him be lovable old Horton. Jim Carrey did a good job as Horton, but if you like Jim Carrey, you'd expect that. Steve Carrell was fine as the mayor of Whoville, but it was Carol Burnett that really shined as the bossy, self-important Kangaroo that tries to impose her way on the jungle, including Horton.

All in all, we enjoyed the movie, from my mother-in-law right down to three-year-old Sara, so if you're looking for a film to take your kids to, this would indeed be a good choice.