Horton Hears a II!

Theatrical release poster.

***Horton Hears a II!*** (also known as ***Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a II!*** or simply, especially in international ***Horton II***) is a 2010 American computer-animated adventure comedy film based on the 2008 Blue Sky film adaptation, it is the sequel to Horton Hears a Who! (2008), unlike the first, it was produced by Studio 4 Animation rather than Blue Sky, and was co-produced by Village Roadshow Pictures, and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the second time Roadshow and Fox collaborated with each other after *Don't Say a Word*. Directed by Michael Brannon, from a screenplay written by Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson. It stars Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, Amy Poehler, Freddie Highmore, Allison Janney, who reprise their respective voice roles of Horton, Ned, Morton, The Chairman, Dr. Mary, Tommy and Sally, minus Jesse McCartney and Carol Burnett as the voices of JoJo and Sour Kangaroo, which they were replaced, but were joined by new characters of the movie, all played by Tom Cruise, Josh Peck, Lewis Black and Sophia Bush. John Powell, who also scored the original movie, returned to compose the film with Daniel Pemberton providing additions.

The film follows The Mayor [Ned] being sent to a secret base with his long old friends and where Davey is while Horton takes The Mayor’s place, looking after everyone in the house and taking care of each job, but Davey was revealed as the opponent that Horton and the gang have to face.

The film was released domestically on April 16, 2010, accompanied with the release of short film *The Broadways Are Back in Town*, presented in RealD3D in select territories with a world premiere ten days earlier and on Australia on April 22, 2010, all to a mixed reception, against a $25 million budget, crossed $200 million worldwide, marking it as the highest grossing film from Studio 4 and Brannon’s career as a whole, Horton Hears a II! was the only Dr. Seuss feature film adaptation to receive a sequel.

## Plot

Years after the original movie, Ned wakes up to a new day, he finds the chairman and the others gathering for a mass extinction of larger animals, but The Mayor spreads the news that they will okay, as because the speck is capable of growing to a large planet, due to the animals' big sizes, he reveals he created a shrink ray that shrinks something smaller than an ant to fit the animals in, they plan to make it happen.

While Horton and the gang and living peacefully, now with the members believing Who’s exist, but they don’t know what they are capable of, Horton flies to Mount Nool while using flying bamboo technology, The Mayor tells him that the Jungle of Nool would be eradicated, but the solution is that he created the shrink ray to help the animals survive, Horton uses a megaphone to spread the news and come to the same spot, this drives the animals to panic, and flee to the speck, after they are all clear, Horton was the last, jumps in, before the speck flies off to space just in time as the planet explodes, Horton is sent falling through a void of crows and lands on the surface head first, knocking him out cold.

Horton wakes up to the who’s and the animals finally knew what they looked like, meanwhile, after the animals received apartments of their own while an island is on a search as planned, and that a mysterious who calls The Mayor, who reveals himself as his long lost twin brother, Davey, who wanted to see the Mayor for so long, invites him to a group party, leaving Horton to do the rest of the hard work, while having to deal with taking care of ninety-eight members.

Ned meets with him and his old friends from school, who they remember him before going into business course instead of graduation, Davey sends him on a few missions, including a factory breakdown, a ferris wheel losing track, an avalanche and stopping the cannons from collapsing the buildings, but Davey reveals he didn’t just want other missions, but also malice and destruction, betraying his brother and throws him to a jail cell.

Jojo awaits the return of his father while the island in the distance was being constructed, Horton comforts Jojo which they started doing things together, and started bonding with The Mayor’s family, Then the news prompted Horton and the gang to plunge into action, but Davey sends the mind controlled monkeys, who they were The Wickersham Brothers’ rivals to capture Jojo, but missed, Horton and the gang travel in a desperate effort to save The Mayor from his doom in a bus, and reach to his lair, in turn they free the friends, including the mayor, which Davey spied on, and went mad, he chases after the bus and arrives in Whoville, The crew tried to dodge Davey's shots, but Morton the Mouse fell into a brawl but Davey overpowered the blue mouse, Horton mourns his "death" while Davey tries to subdue The Mayor, but everyone went inside, realising that Whoville was turning into a planet at any moment, Jojo confidently approaches Davey and sends him flying, Whoville grows into a large planet and collides with an non-inhabited planet earth.

The crew were safe and sound and Horton celebrates Morton's revival, they praise The Mayor's heroism and the grand opening of "The Island of Nool" the animals, especially Vlad the Vulture, who he returns to them, thanks the Who's and Ned and his Family, but they have one thing to finish the day, they hosted a dance party, even with The Mayor's friends.

## Voice cast

* Jim Carey as Horton, a big-hearted, eccentric, goofy, naive, and outgoing elephant.
* Steve Carell as Mayor Ned McDodd.
* Freddie Highmore as JoJo McDodd, Mayor McDodd and Sally O'Malley’s oldest son.
* Tom Cruise as Davey McDodd, Mayor’s long-lost brother who he calls to a base, later reveals to be a traitor.
* Josh Peck as Blosidine, one of Mayor’s old friends who he has a good relationship with.
* Lewis Black as Tairk, a grumpy yet relaxed associate of the secret base and Mayor’s teacher.
* Sophia Bush as Zech, a quiet but energetic woman who studies english who is close friends with Ned.
* Allison Janney as Sour Kangaroo, a kangaroo.
* Seth Rogen as Morton, a mouse and Horton's best friend in the Jungle of Nool.
* Dan Fogler as the Chairman, the chairman of the Whoville government and the lead Whoville councilman.
	+ Fogler also voices Yummo Wickersham, the largest and oldest of the Wickersham apes, the leader of the Wickershams, and the older brother of Nits and Nuts Wickersham.
* Isla Fisher as Dr. Mary Lou LaRue, a professor, scientist and inventor at Who U.
* Jonah Hill as Tommy, a fat bear cub with a cow/hippo-like snout-shaped muzzle and tiger-like stripes and one of Horton's students.
* Amy Poehler as Sally O'Malley-McDodd, Mayor McDodd's wife and mother to Jojo and her 96 daughters.
* Jaime Pressly as Mrs. Quilligan, Jessica's blue-headed mother.
* Selena Gomez as Helga McDodd, one of the mayor's daughters
* Josh Flitter as Rudy Kangaroo, Sour Kangaroo's doubtful son who is much kinder than his mother.
* Niecy Nash as Miss Yelp, Mayor McDodd's secretary.
* Laura Ortiz as Jessica Quilligan, a Red-Headed Palooski, Mrs. Quilligan's daughter, and one of Horton's students.
* Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Angela, a female Glummox and one of Horton's students.
* Joey King as Katie, a cute and eccentric yet odd Yak calf and one of Horton's students.
* Will Arnett as Vlad Vladikoff, a scary, savage, goofy, eccentric, and idiotic vulture with a Russian accent.
* Bill Farmer as Willie, a bear and Tommy's father.
* Marshall Efron and Tim Nordquist as the Wickersham Guards/Nits and Nuts Wickersham, Yummo's two younger brothers. Efron and Nordquist also voiced the rest of his troop.
* Sigourney Weaver as the Narrator.
* Laraine Newman as Glummox Mom, Angela's mother.

## Production

Preceded by the critical and commercial success of Horton Hears a Who! (2008), and Blue Sky's lack of plans on producing a sequel, rights were eventually picked up thanks to Michael Brannon and his film company *Studio 4* and went ahead to use the same technology, workstations and models of the movie in order to maximize a planned $25 million budget and modifying the technology, however, unlike the first, it wasn't animated at Blue Sky, but 20th Century Fox, including the animation campus returned to distribute the movie, alongside Village Roadshow Pictures since *wikipedia:Don’t Say a Word* (2001), which the Australian counterpart, Roadshow Films co-handled Australian distribution for the film.

This was also the second Studio 4 Animation film to be based on intellectual property, whilst being co-produced by a distributor or a production company, it is also unknown why they signed Village Roadshow Pictures with its co-production and Australian distribution.

Most of the cast, with the exception to Jesse McCartney and Carol Burnett, reprised their roles. The new cast members were announced in June 2009, with Tom Cruise, Josh Peck, Lewis Black and Sophia Bush coming in line as new characters, alongside Allison Janney and Freddie Highmore replacing their previous actors.

### Soundtrack

The original motion picture soundtrack, including score were released on April 13, 2010, scored by John Powell who returned for this movie, which also brought in newcomer Daniel Pemberton, the album was released by Varèse Sarabande.

## Release

*Horton Hears a II!* was released in the United States and Canada on April 16, 2010, in some theatres, accompanied by RealD3D, with a world premiere ten days earlier, and in Australia on April 22, 2010, by Roadshow Films.

## Marketing

A 60-second teaser trailer was released with *Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel* on December 25, 2009, with Fox airing promotional TV spots from March through May 2010, also on other channels like Nickelodeon, CBS and even Disney Channel.

### Home media

*Horton Hears a II!* was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray on September 28, 2010 with a set of 4-discs, especially containing files for the movie similar to the Blender open movies when released on home media, features include the making of the movie, deleted scenes and an audio commentary especially before Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century [Fox] Studios, used a sneak peak of the 2011 film Violetward, which was removed from most post-October 2011 until November 2019 releases, and on Australian home media by Roadshow Entertainment on November 4, 2010.

## Reception

### Critical response

The reviews from *Horton Hears a II!* were mixed from critics and audiences, the film received a Rotten Tomatoes score of 46%, with 64 reviews, on a scale of 5/10. The website's critical consensus describes “While it may not have the same charm, moral or fun as the first, it still brings joy for the children watching this, while not being as good as adults hoped for it.” On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating “generally unfavourable reviews” Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C-" on an A+ to F scale (a slop over the first film's "A−").

### Box office

*Horton Hears a II!* made around $82.3 million in the United States and Canada, plus $118.2 million in international markets equaling the worldwide total of $200.5 million.

In the opening weekend, it opened alongside Death at a Funeral, Kick-Ass, The City of Your Final Destination, Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Joneses and The Perfect Game, however, the film made $19 million on its first weekend and made a profit of $12 million dollars for the first two week opening of $31 million at 3,669 theatres, the film screened for seventeen weeks until finishing completely on August 6, 2010.