Horton Hatches the Egg is a ten-minute animated short film based on the book by Dr. Seuss, by Leon Schlesinger Productions in 1942, released as part of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies series. The short, which in contrast to the original children's book, was more comedy-oriented and was directed by Bob Clampett. Horton was voiced by Kent Rogers along with the Peter Lorre fish, Sara Berner voiced Mayzie and the elephant bird, Frank Graham narrated, and Mel Blanc performed most of the other voices.
In producing the cartoon, Clampett's unit did not use a storyboard, as was the customary practice; instead, they sketched and wrote additional ideas for the cartoon in Clampett's copy of Seuss' book. Several elements that do not appear in the original book were added to the cartoon, including;
- An introductory paragraph, starting with "Now once in a jungle..." and ending with "...up in her tree."
- A scene where Mayzie uses sex appeal, including (unsuccessfully) shifting her physique to make it appear as if she has large breasts, to lure Horton.
- Several areas of skipped or re-invented dialogue, such as when Mayzie claims to have bags under her eyes, or when Horton speaks, "Plain as day" to the hunters, except that they only have one gun, which is clearly not aimed at his heart.
- A fish caricature of Peter Lorre who shoots himself in the head after seeing Horton on the boat (This scene has been edited or removed from most television prints of the cartoon since the 1980s).
- A breathy Katharine Hepburn impersonation by Mayzie, and...
- A popular nonsense tune of that era, "The Hut-Sut Song" first recorded by Horace Heidt– Words and music by Leo V. Killion, Ted McMichael and Jack Owens, sung by Horton and his son, with the words "and so on so on so forth" replacing some of the lyrics.
Production[]
- Supervision: Robert Clampett
- Story: Michael Maltese and Rich Hogan
- Animation: Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner, Virgil Ross, Sid Sutherland and Rev Chaney
- Musical Director: Carl W. Stalling
- Layouts: Nic E. Gibson
- Backgrounds: Michael Sasanoff
Voices[]
- Sara Berner as Mayzie, Morton the Elephant Bird, Audience Member
- Mel Blanc as Horton's sneezing, Off-screen character voice, Small Hunter, Audience Member
- Bob Clampett as 3rd Hunter, Audience Member
- Frank Graham as Narrator, Hunter, Audience Member
- Kent Rogers as Horton the Elephant, Peter Lorre Fish, Rosebud, Giraffe, Audience Member
- Bill Days, Max Smith, Thurl Ravenscroft, John Rarig and Paul Taylor as singing hunters
DVD release[]
The short has been released on DVD twice. First, on The Best of Dr. Seuss, released in 2000 and also featuring The Butter Battle Book and Daisy-Head Mayzie. It was later included on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 in 2008.
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