The film is based on the beloved book, first published in 1954, by Ted Geisel, who wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss. "Horton Hears a Who" is about an imaginative elephant who hears a cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Suspecting there may be life on that speck and despite a surrounding community which thinks he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to help.