Horton Hears...an Abortion Controversy?

That's right. Though Dr. Seuss was staunchly pro-choice himself, anti-abortion activists nevertheless have staked claimed to "Horton Hears a Who!" Because, you know, a person is a person no matter how small.

Of course, some children think a children's movie is just a children's movie no matter who you try to spin it.

From Slate’s Kim Masters:

It's Fun To Have Fun: Your Hollywoodland correspondent attended the glamorous premiere of Horton Hears a Who! last Saturday and was present when protesters started yelling shortly after Horton uttered his famous motto: "A person's a person, no matter how small."

We could not understand what was being shouted and thought perhaps that Seth Rogen or one of the other many vocal talents in the film was expressing love for Dr. Seuss' elephant and his signature line. But as you may have read elsewhere, anti-abortion activists had infiltrated the theater. Afterward, they handed out fliers designed to look like tickets.

None of this sat well with Audrey Geisel, widow of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), who attended the screening. So did Karl ZoBell, the lawyer who represents her and who has represented the interests of Dr. Seuss for some 40 years. In an interview with NPR, he said he couldn't make out the yelling and thought maybe "some nut" was in the theater. Later, he asked the protesters what group they represented, and none would answer. Their silence didn't seem like an accident to him, which makes sense, because ZoBell has not been bashful about sending cease-and-desist letters to those who appropriate Dr. Seuss' material for their own purposes. And many do. (According to ZoBell, politicians love to sling the term Grinch at their rivals.)

It seems that Horton will inspire more anti-abortion activity in cities around the country. A Colorado group gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would define life as beginning at conception will show up at theaters in Denver when the movie opens. Its members will wear T-shirts emblazoned with Horton's immortal words and try to get more signatures for their petition. They don't plan to disrupt the movie (which seems reasonable, since Colorado probably won't accept signatures from 6-year-olds).

Executives at Fox say the studio is ignoring these plans. As for Audrey Geisel, it's not that we lack sympathy. But perhaps this wrath on behalf of the unborn is ironic punishment for having allowed Hollywood to inflict the previous movie versions of her husband's work on the born.