Funny / Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

• At the beginning Horton is teaching the class about leaf bugs with priceless results.
  Horton: There it is! One of the jungle's most amazing creatures: the leaf bug: In order to protect itself from predators, it disguises itself as a leaf. (Horton touches the leaf bug. He starts fidgeting with it while mumbling) This one's got quite a grip. C'mon, Lil Buddy, don't be shy. (tries to pull the leaf bug off the branch; he loses his grip and falls flat on his head) I guess I was mistaken, kids. (Leafbugs swarm onto his body) There are obviously no leaf bugs in this area. Even a—AH! THEY'RE ON ME! GET 'EM OFF! (accidentally sucks one bug into his trunk) I think I swallowed one! (repeatedly slams his trunk to the ground, trying to get the bug out) HELP ME! (holds up his trunk to Tommy) Pull it out!
  Tommy: (look of disgust) Uh, okay (he and the other kids start yanking Horton's trunk)
  • Then when the bug finally falls out of Horton's trunk, Katie flicks her tongue at it and eats it. Then as Horton runs after the speck, Katie spits the bug out, scaring the other kids away.
• The Animesque Imagine Spot.
  Flower: Horton's the greatest hero of them all! HAAAH!
  • Horton starts to head off, only to be told "But Mount Nool is that way!"
  • When the Whickershams appear, Horton says, "I will make monkeys of these monkeys, for it is their destiny! HUUHHH?"
  • And he starts acting out his daydream and squashes (incompletely) a flower. He tells it to think "healing thoughts"..
• The entire breakfast sequence, including Sally's motherly but offhanded "That's one of my girls!"
  • One that appeared often in the trailers; Ned tries to get a word out of Jojo by using his interpretation of teen slang. Vow of silence or not, can you really blame Jojo for not wanting to dignify that with a response?
  • One of the daughters gets a test that's marked A+++++.
  • Another part of the breakfast sequence involves two of the daughters squabbling because one was using the other's hairbrush.
    Hilda: Holly's been using my hairbrush!
    Holly: Hilda's been using my hairbrush!
    Mayor: Look! Over there! (they turn, he swaps their hairbrushes) There, all better. (they hug).
• The portraits of the various ancestors... including the "... not-so-great" grandfather.
• The animation itself. Never before have CG characters squashed-and-stretched so much as in this film and the animators utilized it to great effect, eliminating any doubt that CG models can move just like hand-drawn characters.
• The business with the two Vlads- the bad Vlad... and the bunny Vlad that makes the cookies! ^note  For context, Morton tells Horton that Sour Kangaroo has sent Vlad, but Horton says he knows two Vlads.
  • "Yeah, Horton. She's sending you a bunny with cookies."
    • Even if you don't like snark, this conversation after is funny.
      Morton: I think we can assume it's the bad Vlad.
      Horton: Good point.
  • "Keep watching the SKIES (Morton pulls Horton's eyelids up, making his eyeballs bulge), Horton. Keep watching the skies..."
• When Horton first hears the speck and hears it yelp, he wonders if there's someone on it, or even a whole family. He then imagines a whole family of Whos clinging onto the speck and the youngest shouting, "I WANT TO LIVE!".
• The scene in the Town Hall where the Mayor thinks that maybe they should cancel (or postpone as was his first suggestion) the Who-Centennial. The Councilman presses a smiley button, a dome descends around the Mayor and the council, and Muzak begins playing, causing the panicked Whos to relax. As this is happening, the Councilman is chasing the Mayor around the dome. In the next shot, he's strangling the Mayor. And then the next shot shows him pointing first to the Mayor and then to a picture of a donkey. Probably not too hard to guess what the Councilman was calling the mayor.
  • A guy is typing out everything they say on a typewriter. When the Mayor suggests postponing the Who Centennial, he mumbles, so Typewriter Guy cannot hear him properly and just types out gibberish as a placeholder.
• When the Mayor hears Horton's voice coming out of the drainpipe, he thinks it's his friend Bert playing a joke, which leads to him saying, "Oookay, Hor-ton - fake name - where are you?"
  • He then calls Horton "Oh, voice from the drainpipe."
• The first time you see Ned the Mayor. He's stirring his coffee, then he bends to pick up his newspaper and spills it all without noticing. He then goes to take a sip and looks adorably confused as to where his coffee has gone.
  • The deleted scenes show that the scene would have been extended. Ned finds his coffee landed into the wheelbarrow of a garden gnome, and tries to drink the coffee from out of it, getting him stares from his neighbor.
  • An alternate opening seen on the DVD has Ned goofing around in the bathroom and proudly announcing that "The Mayor will now brush his teeth!"
• When the mayor asks Dr. Larue how would they know if Whoville was a tiny speck.
  Dr. Larue: Well, why would you ask something like that?
  Mayor: I don't even remember. Yes, I do. BLAAAARGH - you know, some guy was talking to me... Not an elephant in the sky. A guy on the ground.
• Jojo's utter confusion at the Sudden Musical Ending, then eventually shrugging to the audience and joining in.
  • The Sudden Musical Ending itself.
  • Horton's "that's a little high for me".
  • Ned pointing out whenever a metaphor is used.
• When Ned discovers a snow day in the middle of summer, everyone else is having fun but he's afraid because one of the scientist's signs of impending doom she mentioned was "dramatic changes in the weather", which causes him to yell out, "No! This is not fun! This is a sign of doom! Everyone stop having fun, immediately!"
• Anytime Katie is onscreen. Although it's honestly equal parts funny and equal parts... incredibly creepy.
  • Katie puts her clover on her head, gets on her hind legs, and disappears backwards into the brush. It's both hilarious and, frankly, a little off-putting.
  • It might be mean-spirited but Sour Kangaroo kicking her across the jungle, straight over a tree that resembles a field goal.
    Tommy: It's GOOD!
  • Katie's "beautiful in a really weird way" imaginary (probably) world, where everyone is a pony who eats rainbows and poops butterflies.
• When Horton yells "THIS ENTIRE JUNGLE IS A HOUSE OF DEATH!" upon searching for a place to put the speck and finding animals eating the plants.
• Entire Horton crossing the bridge scene.
  Horton: This looks kinda...precarious. Well, no need to worry. Obviously when they build a bridge like this, they'd taken into account that elephants will be crossing here.
  • Later as he is halfway across the bridge with the bridge halfway gone.
    Horton: I just need to think light. I'm light as a feather. I'm light as a feather! (feather floats gracefully down on to bridge plank...then the plank gives way) Heavy feather...
  • While Horton is crossing the bridge, meanwhile the Mayor is visiting the dentist, already feeling a bit nervous. Every small earthquake that occurs (resulting in such things as dental rinsing water being poured into his eye, and the Novocaine needle jabbing his arm) the dentist is utterly nonchalant about it.
  • In the following scene in the Mayor's house, Jojo plays the Comically Serious to his father's antics, taking being told to put away anything breakable calmly but with a "What the?" look on his face.
    Mayor: Stop looking at my arm.
  • And Horton decides that since air is the lightest thing in the world, if he fills his trunk up with air, he'll be lighter.
  • A word must be said about how they came up with the idea of having the Mayor be at the dentist while Horton was crossing the bridge: according to the DVD commentary, when they were trying to think of the worst possible situation for the Mayor to be in at the moment, somebody suggested having him be using power tools. Everybody thought that would be funny, but they knew that they would never get away with having the Mayor slice his arm off with a chainsaw or anything like that in a kids' movie. Then Jim Carrey said, "It would suck to be at the dentist..."
• The Mayor glares at the Councilman's portrait.
  Mayor: He has the nerve to call me a boob? I would never call someone a boob. HE'S the boob! Look at you. Yuck! Look at your face. And I bet you don't look so good with a STAPLER ON YOUR HEAD! (throws a stapler at the portrait, which bounces off and hits him in the face, leaving a staple implanted on his forehead) YEEOWWWW!!!!!
  • His assistant Miss Yelp then removes the staple from his forehead barely even looking in his direction like it's happened before.
    Mayor: YAH! Thank you, Ms. Yelp.
    Ms. Yelp: You're welcome.
  • Later during the Vlad chase, the Mayor rolls out onto his balcony, hits one of the railing pillars between his legs, then is shoved in further by his desk, a couch and a refrigerator... And just when things can't get any more painful, the stapler staples his forehead again and he screams.
  • Later, Horton gets the chance to threateningly call the Chairman a boob, scaring him a bit before telling him he was just joking. You could tell from the Mayor's smile that he was quite satisfied.
• Vlad demonstrates to Sour Kangaroo on what he'll do with the clover.
  Vlad: Here's what I'll do to Horton's precious clover. I will take it, I will crush it, and I will devour it. (swallows bone then starts choking; eventually pulls the bone out) Then I'll regurgitate it. Then I'm gonna devour it a second time. So, two times devoured!
  Kangaroo: Sounds...nice.
• The Mayor explaining to the Whos who Horton is.
  Mayor: Horton... is a giant elephant in the sky! (Whos look up) Don't bother looking, he's invisible.
• One contact between Horton and the mayor
  Horton: Horton to Mayor! Come in Mayor! Over!
  Mayor: (on his roof, holding a bunch of radios above him) I get terrible reception here!
  Horton: HOW'S THIS THEN?! IF I GET UP REAL CLOSE, CAN YOU READ ME?!
  Mayor: WHOA! (He's sent flying off the edge of his roof; he climbs back up again) Yep! Roger that!
• The Mayor introduces Horton to some of Whoville's citizens as a Long List, and Horton almost remembers everyone:
  Mayor: This is my wife Sally, my five daughters Hallie, Hayley, Helga, Hoolie, and Hannah, Ms Yelp, Dr Larue, Bert from Accounting, Mr Farfugen, and the old man in the bathtub.
  Horton: (recites all the other names) And wasn't there an old guy in a shower?
  Mayor: Mm, bathtub.
• All the Mayor's 96 daughters wanting a bedtime drink. Then, he's seen carrying a precarious tower of glasses of water.
  Mayor: Lotta liquid, a LOT of liquid
• This little bit of levity during the saddest scene in the movie.
  Horton: Knock knock...that's where you'd say 'who's there?' if there were any Whos there.
• When the Mayor ends up hanging from the chandelier.
  Sally: What are you doing?
  Mayor: What's it look like?
  Sally: Well, I'm no detective, Ned, but you are hanging from the chandelier.
  Mayor: I just thought it might look better somewhere it can't fall on us and crush us in our sleep.(the chandelier falls with him on it, now hanging inches above the floor)
  • Later.
    Mayor: Have you ever gotten the feeling you were being watched?
    Sally: Sure...I suppose.
    Mayor: And have you ever gotten the feeling that maybe that thing watching you is, umm...a giant elephant?
    Sally: Um...no. Not really.
• When Horton first makes contact with the mayor of Whoville, he's so excited that he runs up really close to a nearby bird and says, "I'M TALKING TO THE MAYOR!". The bird then backs away awkwardly.
• Not even Medium Awareness can save Horton from Vlad.
  Horton: (stops hyperventilating) ...I just know he's gonna jump out somewhere!
  Vlad: (stares at Horton upside-down) Hello.
  (Horton screams)

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