Horton Hears a Who! is a 1970 television half-hour long special based on the
Dr. Seuss book of the same name,
Horton Hears a Who!. It was produced and directed by
Chuck Jones - who previously produced the Seuss special
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! - for
MGM Television. The special contains songs with lyrics by Seuss and music by Eugene Poddany, who would later write songs for Seuss' book,
The Cat in the Hat Song Book.
Today, the rights to the special are owned by
Turner Entertainment, as the latter owns the pre-1986 MGM library.
Plot
Horton is an
elephant splashing in the watering hole of the Jungle of Nool on the fifteenth of May when he hears a person calling for help. The sound is coming from a small dust speck. , an
astronomer on the speck, believes that there's a world beyond the speck, but the rest of the Whos don't believe him at first. He explains to Horton that the speck is in danger if it's floating around. "A person's a person, no matter how small," says Horton as he decides to save the Whos. But the other
jungle citizens don't believe him as they are unable to see them and can't hear as well. Meanwhile, the citizens of Whoville refuse to believe the existence of Horton, but eventually they do. Jane
Kangaroo, the Wickersham brothers,and the Black-Bottomed Eagle are Horton's main and worst tormentors, but at last, the Whos make themselves heard. At the end of the special, Dr. Hoovey is relaxing in his chair, exhausted from the ordeal, when he sees...
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