"I am the Lorax,
I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no
tongues."
The work of Dr. Seuss has captured the imaginations of
countless children and will continue to do so for generations to come. The same
cannot be said for the cinematic adaptations. Universal's live-action versions
of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and
The Cat in the Hat are glaring
blemishes to the legacy of the good doctor. The early cartoon versions had it
right, keep things short and sweet. Seuss only needed ten or fifteen pages and
a few sentences (in rhyme) to engage the reader. The filmmakers inject all the
usual tropes like romantic subplots to pad the story out to feature length.
This leads us to Dr. Seuss' The Lorax,
the second of Seuss's creations to be adapted into a computer animated film.
Fox's Blue Sky Studios previously released Horton
Hears a Who! in 2008, but Universal and Illumination Entertainment are ones
behind Lorax. Illumination debuted
with Despicable Me, one of the best
animated films of 2010. They stumbled with the live-action Hop, but don't get all the way back on track here.
The Lorax begins in
Thneed-Ville, a walled community where the citizens live in the lap of luxury
and prize their elaborate automobiles and parking lots. Everything is
artificial in Thneed-Ville, the trees are battery operated and the flora is
inflatable. The Mayor of Thneed-ville, Aloysius O'Hare (Rob Riggle) has become
an extremely wealthy man by selling the townsfolk purified air delivered to
their homes in bottles ala Arrowhead. Young Ted (Zac Efron) has a crush on the
lovely Audrey (Taylor Swift), who yearns for the day when she might see a real,
honest-to-goodness tree. Following the advice of his Grammy Norma (Betty
White), Ted sneaks outside the walls of Thneed-ville and finds a barren and
blackened wasteland. The only person living in the desolation is a strange
hermit named the Once-Ler (Ed Helms), who relates his story to Ted.
Looking to make his fortune, the Once-Ler traveled to the lush
valley that was teeming with swomee-swans, bar-ba-loots, and humming fish. What
really catches the Once-Ler's eye are the truffula trees, topped with brightly
colored tuffs of fur, which he needs to knit Thneeds, a multi-purpose sweater
that everyone will need. Felling the first tree summons the Lorax (voiced
perfectly by Danny DeVito), a diminutive orange creature with a bushy mustache.
Serving as the protector of the forest, the Lorax pleads with the Once-Ler to
leave the valley be. The Lorax's appeal for sanity falls on deaf ears as the
Once-Ler builds an ominous factory to mass manufacture Thneeds and chops down
every tree. Without trees, he can no longer produce Thneeds and his whole
operation shuts down. Worse yet, the land has been rendered uninhabitable by
the smog and pollution from the factory. The Once-Ler entrusts the last
truffula seed to Ted in the hopes he can return the valley to its former glory.
However, O'Hare will do anything to stop Ted from planting something that will
give his customers air for free.
Conservative pundits have singled out The Lorax as part of a nebulous left-wing conspiracy to brainwash
children into hating corporations and hugging trees. I'm speaking of pundits,
specifically from Fox News, which is ironic considering Fox produced In Time, a movie with an overt
pro-socialist message. Anyone capable of an iota of rational thought will see The Lorax as a film railing against
unchecked excess. It's not subtle about it either. Not when the Once-Ler has a
huge poster of himself emblazoned with the phrase, "Too big to fail."
An opening musical number introduces life in Thneed-ville as the citizens laud
their consumerist culture and blissful ignorance. Another number, "How Bad
Can I Be?", sees the Once-Ler justifying his rampant greed and willful
disdain of the environment as simple free market Darwinism. The songs
themselves were composed by John Powell and co-writer Cinco Paul. They aren't
memorable, but they are catchy and innocuous in a Disney Radio sort of way.
All this talk about liberal agendas overlooks the fact that The Lorax was produced by a major
corporation in the most corporate of ways. The script rings hollow and feels
like it was run through a wringer of focus groups right down to the casting of
Teen Choice Award winners Zac Efron and Taylor Swift, plus Betty White as the
sassy, snowboarding octogenarian. Also, I highly doubt Dr. Seuss ever
envisioned the Lorax as a shill for General Electric, Mazda SUVs, and IHOP
pancake combos.
"Unless someone
like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better…it's
not."
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax doesn't
come close to competing with Pixar. It's more diverting than thought provoking.
The movie may not convince kids to plant a tree, but it will entertain them
long enough with loud noises and bright shiny things.
Rating: ** (*****)
