Elephant-astic

Just as Pixar's CG animated tales come with massive expectations, wannabe binary blockbusters from other studios are rarely expected to match their level of character personality, environmental richness, technical skill and age-spanning entertainment.

In the year's first wonderful surprise, this digital Dr Seuss adaptation is a joyful exception to the rule. For me, this even kicks Shrek and Donkey's arse.

Don't be dissuaded by bad memories of the live-action Grinch and Cat in the Hat earlier in the decade, this is Dr Seuss done right.

It stays faithful to the plot and the wide-reaching message of its 1954 source – “a person's a person, no matter how small” – freshening it up with contemporary references, laugh-out-loud dialogue, brilliantly timed slapstick and some genius touches of visual creativity. There's a bit of Japanese animé in there!

Horton the endearing elephant, as voiced by Jim Carrey, hears a small noise in the Nool jungle one day, which seems to be coming from a speck on a clover (pink dandelion clock).

The 'speck' is actually Whoville, a microscopic community pitched somewhere between Seuss' original vision and a happier rainbow version of Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. Like that film, every prop and location is simply alive.

The plot, which unfolds via nimbly cross-cutting between the film's two universes – successful in heightening both comedy and drama – sees Horton trying to communicate with Whoville's Mayor (voiced by Steve Carell) and protect the speck from harm. As Horton observes in one of his many amusing moments of blind panic,“this entire jungle is a house of death!”

In the past, Carrey's manic performances have hijacked movies, yet his high energy mix of fear and determination is pitch perfect here, enhanced by beautifully expressive animation for his eyes, ears and movement.

With few novelty star voices on offer a la Shrek, it is very much the animated touches which bring personality to the numerous inhabitants of Whoville and Nool.