Did you had time to watch Century Fox latest CGI extravaganza? Hint: it’s about jumping elephants, specks and…one of the best covert religious metaphors ever displayed on the big screen. Sure you know what I am talking about: Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who. Though some are already eager to narrow the movie’s scope with an anti-abortion based message  –after the movieline ‘a person is a person no matter how small it is- if you take a closer look, the underlying movie plot is as a perfect methafor about world religions as is a china pottery from Xing’s Dinasty.

At first sight, the film seems oriented to children –and actually it is- but if wathced by a broader audience, the underlying movie telltale comparison with a religious convergence seems inescapable.

Think about it. For Christians, Whosville’s mayor is clearly Christ while Horton is God. For buddhists, Whoville’s mayor could perfectly be Buddha, while Horton could be Nirvana. Even the cloverfield scene, where Horton searches desperately his speck-associated clover is a bona fide graphic imagery of what for buddhists represents searching for Nirvana: akin searching a needle in an ocean!

Do you still need more benchmarks? Tell me, what’s the main problem with religions? That’s something Horton Hears a Who seems to address cleverly: the communication. How to prove to ordinary people you found ‘God’ when only you are the one who can hear his voice? At the same level, how can the Mayor prove to Whosville citizens he found the “truth”? “It’s an elephant in the sky” he proclaims, like when religious prophets deliver us with statements that are difficult to fathom, defying rationality.

Coversely, how can Horton convince his Nools’ jungle fellows the speck contains life, when nobody can hear, see them? Remember the Sour Kangaroo’s doctrine: If it can’t be seen, hear or touched, doesn’t exist! What could she be talking about but religion? If explicit communication could exist in real life as it does in the end in the film, then ‘believing’ should be a tick tack toe game!

But of course we know this doesn’t happen in real life, because in real life only the chosen One has the ability to hear God and nobody else.

At one point, the film also seems to bring attention to a tangent topic: democracy’s fallibility. “What you prefer, a centennial celebration or go underground?” the Council Chairman proclaims to Whosville citizens. That’s just another clever graphic anagram for what sometimes should be done facing a crisis, where the grim choice is the correct one, which is something ordinary people will never abide nor choose by democratic principles.

All in all, the movie I first though was dispatched for children seems to be plagued with smart turns, winks and endless parallelisms with real life for grown ups –hey, could the raw storyline be a product of schizophrenia? Finding out the real truth in it it’s a delighting experience and an entertaining one, one that I surely recommend to all of you.