“Daisy-Head Maysie” is a slapstick take on “be yourself”. “Horton Hatches the Egg”, the first, less famous adventure featuring our talking elephant, is a wonderful little lesson in perseverance and responsibility in the face of ridicule. This latest DVD iteration of Horton’s tale is, actually, an impressive collection of Seuss’s fables, in which he hid morals amongst fantastical tales of talking animals and nonsensical contraptions. Whether or not you agree with the lessons, the grace with which they’re integrated into a tale of a benevolent elephant and his talkative dust speck is quite admirable. Hidden within the tale as well, however, are also lessons decrying the “wisdom” of the masses (a lesson potentially extrapolated into an indictment of the influence of the media), and there might even be a shot or three at the death penalty hidden in there. Despite the implication that a “big” champion is necessary, it was and is a comforting lesson in eras marked by the distrust of and distaste for government and politics. It’s actually more of a lesson in democracy and in open-mindedness, that if enough “little” people speak up, then eventually the “big” people have to listen. You know the lessons: “A person is a person, no matter how small” is perhaps the most famous, and it’s an appropriately universal lesson despite the attempted co-option of it for the pro-life agenda. The narrator-heavy, storybook quality to the feature lends an air of timelessness to the story - well-done or not, the CGI animation is destined to date the recent film - and the lessons hidden within the story are only enhanced by this particular version of it. Seuss features that sticks very, very closely to Seuss’s original material, a probable result of the production credit attributed to Ted Geisel, not to mention the popularity of Chuck Jones’ previous Seuss adaptation, that of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Horton Hears a Who! is, indeed, a classic. Seuss’s books can only be a good thing, and uncovering the original, classic animated features spawned from those books is almost as fun. Despite the fact that the reviews have pegged this year’s Jim Carrey-fied CGI remake of Horton Hears a Who! as actually not that bad, perhaps the most beneficial side effect of these movies’ releases is the fact that they draw attention to the original material from which they were derived. Seuss’s most popular books turned into a feature film (and yes, I am sorry for reminding you of 2003’s Mike Myers catastrophe The Cat in the Hat), so it seems we were due.

It’s been five years since last we had one of Dr.

Doctor seuss horton hears a who