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For the film, see Horton Hears a Who! (film). For the animated short, see Horton Hears a Who! (TV special).

Horton Hears a Who! book cover

Horton Hears a Who! is a 1954 story by Dr. Seuss. It is the second Seuss book to feature Horton the Elephant, the first being Horton Hatches the Egg.

The Whos would later make a reappearance in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant who, on the fifteenth of May in the Jungle of Nool, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. It turns out the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a city called "Who-ville", inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants known as Whos.

The Whos ask Horton (who, though he cannot see them, is able to hear them quite well) to protect them from harm, to which Horton happily obliges, proclaiming throughout the book that "a person's a person, no matter how small". In doing so he is ridiculed and forced into a cage by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something that they are unable to see or hear. His chief tormentors are Vlad Vladikoff, the Wickersham Brothers and the Sour Kangaroo, and the small kangaroo in her pouch. Horton tells the Whos that they needed to make themselves heard to the other animals, lest they end up as part of "beezlenut stew", which they finally accomplish. The Whos finally make themselves heard by ensuring that all members of their society play their part. In the end it is the smallest Who of all, Jo-Jo, who provides the last volume lift to be heard, thus reinforcing the moral of "a person's a person no matter how small".

The book was published in August 1954, two months after the climax of the Army-McCarthy hearings. The comments of the Wickersham Brothers seem to come from Joseph McCarthy.

The book (most notably Horton the Elephant's recurring phrase "a person's a person, no matter how small") has found its way to the center of the recurring debate, in the United States, over abortion. Several pro-life groups have adopted the phrase in support of their views; the American Life League has even published a pamphlet using the phrase as the title. This has brought sharp criticism from Dr. Seuss' widow, Audrey Geisel, and at least one lawsuit was filed in Canada in 2001 to stop the use of the phrase.^[1] Before his death, Seuss himself threatened to sue a pro-life group for using the phrase. ^[2]

Horton Hears a Who! was adapted into a half-hour animated TV special by MGM Animation/Visual Arts in 1970, directed by Chuck Jones, produced by Ted Geisel, and with narration by Hans Conried. In this direction, the Sour Kangaroo's name is Jane, while her son is named Junior.^[3]

In Russia, Alexei Karayev directed I Can Hear You in 1992, a 19-minute paint-on-glass-animated film which is based on the Russian translation of Seuss's poetry but features a very different visual style. ^[4] The story also provides the basic plot for the 2000 Broadway musical Seussical.

Horton Hears a Who! was made into feature-length film in 2007, utilizing computer animation from Blue Sky Studios, the animation arm of 20th Century Fox. Its projected release is in 2008. ^[5] Jim Carrey voices Horton, and Steve Carell voices the Mayor of Who-ville.^[6]

Horton Hears a Who! also includes Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose as part of the Dr. Seuss Video Classics series

Jane Kangaroo, her child, and the Wickersham Brothers also appear in The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.

The Sour Kangaroo and the Wickersham Brothers appear in the Broadway play Seussical as a sort of evil gang trying to prove that the Whos are not there as is stated in the song "Biggest Blame Fool".

1. ^ New film: Doctor Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who" to raise pro-life questions.... LifeSiteNews (August 9, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
2. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk/stories/s1096785.htm
3. ^ Horton Hears a Who! (1970) (TV)
4. ^ http://www.animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=4811
5. ^ http://www.blueskystudios.com/content/company-pressrelease.php?id=20
6. ^ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=16457

• "Sense and Nonsense", The New York Times Magazine, Nov. 26, 2000.
• The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3th ed., edited by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 200
• "Ontario: Use of Seuss protested", National Post, Jan. 29, 2001.
• "Interview with Philip Nel", Booktalk, ABC Radio National, Jan. 5 2004.