The big-screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! succeeds in large part because the film's actors are not seen. "Unlike those behind the recent live-action grotesqueries The Grinch and Cat in the Hat," observes Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the makers of the CG-animated Horton succeed by calling on "the great, good medic of metrical writing."
James Berardinelli of ReelViews agrees. "Horton Hears a Who! doesn't enter the live-action realm, which is a good thing," making the movie "enjoyable in a family-friendly sort of way." Diva Velez of MightyGanesha.com goes a step further, writing that the film, about an elephant who perceives a plea for help from a speck of dust, "offers a welcome and wonderful respite to those convinced we might never see a worthy feature adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book." (More movie review stories.)