Horton Hatches The Egg - Merrie Melodies Adaptation

Merrie Melodies Adaptation

Horton Hatches the Egg was adapted into a ten-minute animated short film by Leon Schlesinger Productions in 1942, released as part of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies series. The short was directed by Bob Clampett. Kent Rogers voiced Horton and the Peter Lorre fish, Sara Berner voiced Mayzie and the elephant bird, Robert C. Bruce 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 (there is no story credit for this cartoon's original credits). Several elements not in the original book were added to the cartoon, including:

1. An introductory paragraph, starting with "Now once in a jungle ..." and ending with "... up in her tree."
2. 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, who only have one gun, which is clearly not aimed at his heart.
3. A fish caricature of Peter Lorre who shoots himself in the head after seeing Horton on the boat (this scene is often edited from televised prints).
4. A breathy Katharine Hepburn impersonation by Mayzie.
5. A popular nonsense tune of that era, "The Hut-Sut Song" by Horace Heidt – Words and music by Leo V. Killion, Ted McMichael and Jack Owens, sung by Horton and his son, with the words made even more nonsensical and "and so on so on so forth" replacing some of them.