Horton the Elephant is a fictional character from the 1940 book Horton Hatches the Egg and 1954 book Horton Hears a Who!, both by Dr. Seuss. Horton is a kind, sweet-natured elephant who cares about other animals and people. Though he goes through many hardships, whether trying to keep an egg warm through storms, rough travels, and humiliating shows or tries to save a small planet from harm, he always triumphs; the egg hatches into an elephant-bird, while the planet is saved from harm and respected by the others. He is very popular because of his big heart and respectful compassion, which makes him more humorous.
In 1942, Warner Bros. made the animated short film, Horton Hatches the Egg, in which Horton is voiced by Kent Rogers.
In 1970, MGM Animation/Visual Arts made a 30-minute TV Special of Horton Hears a Who. Horton is voiced by Hans Conried, who also leads his voice as the narrator.
Horton is also a character on the 1996-1998 Nickelodeon TV series The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, where he was performed by Muppeteer John Kennedy. Horton is also a principal character in Seussical the Musical, which uses most of the two Horton books as its primary plot.
Horton is voiced by Jim Carrey in the computer-animated adaptation of Horton Hears A Who!, where he is shown as being eccentric, imaginative and sort of absent-minded while he also retains his kindness from the books.
Horton appeared in a new Dr. Seuss book, Horton and the Kwuggerbug, which came out on September 9th, 2014, the second Dr. Seuss book published after his death in 1991 (the first being Daisy-Head Mayzie in 1995).
History with the Parade[]
A Horton balloon was created and debuted in 2008, to promote Blue Sky Studios' animated film adaptation of Horton Hears A Who!, which was released in theaters earlier that year. The balloon takes about 56 handlers below to keep Horton from limping off into the clouds, and cradled into his trunk, of course, his Clover, which houses his friends, the Whos. The balloon is also said to be "so humongous, the distance between the tip of the scale to the top of the trunk is the same distance as from a baseball pitcher's mound to home plate".
In it's debut year, the balloon was named Macy's Holiday Ambassador of 2008, having the honor of preceding Santa Claus as the final balloon of the parade's character balloon lineup, while keeping a good eye on his clover. The balloon appeared for two more years in the 2009 parade and the 2010 parade, continuing to promote the movie on physical media, and was retired shortly after.
Trivia[]
- Horton is the only balloon that debuted in 2008 that did not make a public appearance anywhere else. (Buzz Lightyear appeared at the 2015 D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA, Smurf appeared at the grand opening of the Bay Plaza Mall in 2014, and Keith Haring's Figure with Heart appeared at the 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016 AIDS Walks in Central Park).