It's seems unusual that the Schlesinger studio would do a straight adaptation of a then recent story. One would expect that to be in Disney territory. Even more unusual that Bob Clampett tackle the adaptation of a Dr. Seuss story. Yet he pulled it off and it's one of his greatest cartoons.It's not even a parody of the story either, but a straight adaptation of the then recent story that was published in 1940. Although, Clampett was still able to inject the brash Warner sensibility. While, not over the top zany like many of Clampett's other works, the character animation is what makes the short very strong. The colorful Seuss inspired backgrounds are a thing of beauty as well. I wonder if Johnny Johnsten was still in the unit at that time. This short would have also worked well had Chuck Jones directed and would have sounded like a more logical director in theory. I can imagine the stylized backgrounds at work and more stark expressions on the characters, but Clampett's result was marvelous.This was probably the first connection Dr. Seuss had with the Schlesinger studio. He would collaborate with them on the Snafu shorts for the duration of the war.

"Horton Hatches the Egg" is a short film from 1942, so this one has its 75th anniversary this year. It is a co-production between Schlesinger Studios and Warner Bros. and unusually long for a cartoon from that time. Usually they ran for 7 minutes, but this one here stands at almost 10. So yeah, this is another one from the Golden Age of Animation and this of course means that visually, it is an absolute delight taking into account when this was made. There are not any of the Warner Bros. standard cartoon characters in here (Bugs, Daffy), but the focus here is on an elephant, who gets an A+ for dedication in the story here and a nice little reward at the very end that was pretty sweet, almost touching. Sadly, most of the action before that is not really too memorable, so the plot could have been better and even gets a bit repetitive. The three antagonists, if you can call them like that (Mother Bird also has something going for her), look as if they are taken right out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon though, also a bit on the incompetent side, but luckily the elephant is not as resilient as Bugs. Oh yeah, final note, this one here is actually based on a work by Dr. Seuss and he had many more adaptations to come in the following decades. It may not be as good as Elmer The Elephant, but it is still worth watching, mostly thanks to the revelation at the very end.

I said what I meant and I meant what I said. I am tired of the katherine hepburn impersonations in these cartoons really I am. Peter Lorre impersonations are also made in many cartoons from the thirties and forties. Others include the marx brothers and Laurel and Hardy. Come on impersonate some other celebrities or do not do it at all. Why kill yourself if you've seen everything. Also you cannot really see everything. You could spend a life time and what you've seen would still be almost negliglble. That joke has been done many times before in the thirties also. What a lazy bird. What's with the rhyming Dr Zeuss? Some are really unnecessary. Oh well at least not everything was being rhymed with everything else or it would just be weird. Not the best Dr Zeuss inspired cartoon. The ending is just ridiculous. This is my opinion but some may find it cute and charming there is nothing wrong with that. That is not the case with me.

. . . the meaning of HORTON HATCHES THE EGG. This Dr. Seuss Looney Tune from World War Two does NOT make much sense in its original context of the 1900s. Who ever heard of an ELEPHANT BIRD?! Recently, however, America's crack corps of Warnologists (those folks who laboriously interpret Classic Warner Bros.' Animated Shorts for prophesies of 21st Century America's impending Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti--which have proved far more accurate than those of that over-rated prognosticator, Nostradamus) have made a startling discovery. Present Day editorial cartoonists invariably caricature Barack Obama with Horton-like elephant ears. Also, "Lazy Mayzie" sounds a lot more like Hillary Clinton than some dead chick called Kate Hepburn. During his national address Oct. 14, 2016, Mr. Obama cried us a river complaining about Leader Trump and boosting (while making excuses for) that raunchy rooster's moll, Mayzie (aka, Hillary). Rest assured, Today's Citizens of Horton's Future: We've been shown how this story ends. Horton hatches HIS egg, which turns out NOT to resemble a Lazy Mayzie Clinton, but a Cute Widdle Teenie Tiny elephant: that is, a Chip off the Ol' Block, Leader Trump!