Horst_In_Translation Review of Horton Hatches the Egg

Horton Hatches the Egg (1942)

Okay cartoon massively elevated by the ending

[6/10 · 9 March 2017]

"Horton Hatches the Egg" is a short film from 1942, so this one has its 75th anniversary this year. It is a co-production between Schlesinger Studios and Warner Bros. and unusually long for a cartoon from that time. Usually they ran for 7 minutes, but this one here stands at almost 10. So yeah, this is another one from the Golden Age of Animation and this of course means that visually, it is an absolute delight taking into account when this was made. There are not any of the Warner Bros. standard cartoon characters in here (Bugs, Daffy), but the focus here is on an elephant, who gets an A+ for dedication in the story here and a nice little reward at the very end that was pretty sweet, almost touching. Sadly, most of the action before that is not really too memorable, so the plot could have been better and even gets a bit repetitive. The three antagonists, if you can call them like that (Mother Bird also has something going for her), look as if they are taken right out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon though, also a bit on the incompetent side, but luckily the elephant is not as resilient as Bugs. Oh yeah, final note, this one here is actually based on a work by Dr. Seuss and he had many more adaptations to come in the following decades. It may not be as good as Elmer The Elephant, but it is still worth watching, mostly thanks to the revelation at the very end.