Making a trunk call
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5:00AM
Thursday April 10, 2008
By Amy Longsdorf
Jim Carrey, in his first cartoon role, voices Horton. Photo / Supplied by Fox
We kick off our extended school holiday movie coverage with what's likely to be the animated hit of the season. Jim Carrey talks to Amy Longsdorf about bringing another Dr Seuss character to life in Horton Hears a Who!
If any actor seems tailor-made for cartoons, it's Jim Carrey. Not since the heyday of Robin Williams has a performer been able to stretch his voice like so much sonic silly putty to fit a wide range of characters.
Unlike Williams, Carrey has always resisted the lure of animation. But for Horton Hears a Who!, the actor finally makes an exception and lends his tonsil power to his first cartoon.
"I was honoured they asked me," says Carrey, who also played the title character in the live-action adaptation of Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
"I'm also honoured that when the producers approached Audrey Geisel [the widow of Dr Seuss a.k.a Theodor Geisel], the first thing out of her mouth was, `Can you get Jim Carrey?' I'm just happy she wants me to be a part of the Dr Seuss legacy."
The Seuss legacy is a formidable one. Geisel's books are considered classics. Decades after they were first published, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and How the Grinch Stole Christmas are still best-selling titles.
