The stars were out this weekend for the premiere of the new animated children’s film Horton Hears a Who, based on the 1954 Dr. Seuss book of the same name. Abortion protesters crashed the premiere at Westwood Village Theater on Saturday, with the justification that the film and book’s motto “a person is a person, no matter how small” can also be used as a statement against abortion. Dr. Seuss was personally against the abortion activists appropriating his phrase for their cause, and he threatened to sue over it before he died in 1991. In 2001, his widow did sue an abortion group for using her husband’s writing without his permission.

Judging from these photos, the protestors were contained and kept away from the little guests at the film, and the premiere went on as scheduled.

Carrey stars as the voice of the elephant Horton, who discovers a planet in a small speck of dust and works to protect its tiny inhabitants. It also stars Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, and Will Arnett.

Here’s the trailer:

Horton Hears a Who is out in US theaters on March 14, and is refreshingly out in the rest of Europe around the same time. It is getting good reviews, and since it’s a kids’ film it’s sure to be a hit.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures, which also include Jenny McCarthy and her son, Evan, who will be 6 in May, Brooke Shields, her husband Chris Henchy and their daughters Rowan, who will be 4 in May, and Grier, 23 months. Also shown are Carol Burnett and what look like her surly grandchildren, Jamie Pressly and her fiance, DJ Eric Calvo, Joely Fisher and her daughter True, 25 months, Ray Liotta and his daughter Karsen, 9, and friend, Jesse McCartney and his brother Timothy McCartney, The American Idol Finalists, Steve Carell, Will Artnett, and Jim Carrey’s 20 year-old daughter, Jane, showing off her Canada tattoo.