'The Lorax' Preview

This post was written originally on March 02, 2012, but here it is now for your viewing pleasure.

“I’m not one to go commercial very easily. I like my little creatures kept in their little circle.”

Words spoken by the widow of the great Dr. Seuss a.k.a. Theodor Geisel in last Friday’s USA Today may not be what Hollywood execs want to hear if they begin to ask if they can make celebrities out of Yurtle the Turtle or Daisy-Head Mayzie. If she feels that the cherished tales written by her husband were sabotaged throughout the years past their animated incarnations starting from the year 2000, there’s a possibility that can be the truth. While youngsters will enjoy Ron Howard’s take on ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’, those men and women who saw the film, whether it was the first time hearing about the character, is on the verge of beginning to read Dr. Seuss’ books, or seen the Chuck Jones cartoon, memories of the film being a bit raunchy for its audience might be what they can remember. Never mind the bits about him wanting to steal the holidays away from the people of Who-ville. Wanting the entire town to kiss his butt cheeks with mistletoe placed above it burns within the mind even for today. Never mind about the unfunny ‘The Cat in the Hat’ and skip over to ‘Horton Hears a Who’. The latter actually manages to avoid being set in live-action and is remodeled to fit within that where CGI roams free giving plenty of opportunities to make the characters a bit more silly to get the audience in chuckles. The film, however, has its flaws especially when the lone Who, Jojo (voiced by Jesse McCartney), helps the town, a speck of dust on a flower, from being destroyed. He could have been done without him looking tired as if the character represented the fans of the classic stories for being through the mud of seeing everything held so dear in the audience’s childhoods being torn apart for the sake of major studios wanting money from the sugar filled pancakes from iHop to SUVs being driven within the forest that The Lorax fails to prevent due to the vehicle’s pollution. In 2012, Universal Pictures takes another stab with wanting to stay close to Dr. Seuss’ classic tale about the forest guardian yet the advertising, with the examples stated above, have the fans shaking their heads again in shame.         

The story of ‘The Lorax’, from someone who has never read the book, is about Ted (voiced by Zac Efron) trying to impressing the beautiful but too old for him red-headed environmentalist neighbor Audrey (voiced by Taylor Swift) by going out to see the Once-ler (voiced by Ed Helms) after being told by said neighbor that the world, once upon a time, was filled with real trees rather than the artificial ones operated through the town. The task becomes complicated once the film’s antagonist, and possibly another crooked mayor, Mr. O’Hare (voiced by Rob Riggle) wants to ensure that the plan to repopulating the world of the trees is foiled. Between a villain that would fit right at home with the rivaling bad guys from Illumination’s first film in partnership with Universal, ‘Despicable Me’, the flashbacks about how the Once-ler became who was seen in the trailer, and the “love” story between Ted and Audrey, some fans have asked themselves, “What about The Lorax”? Some fans will see the film as “a bloated mess of a movie stuffed to the gills with all the same boring tropes and cliches we've seen in every other animated movie ever made, bogged down with whichever celebrity voice actors they think will get the biggest box office returns…”[1] Some families might read the book at the local library and save their money. 

The film, so far, has a 63% rating on rottentomatoes.com which doesn’t sound bad but isn’t good news either. It’s doing better than another film opening this weekend, ‘Project X’, but deciding on who’ll win the Box Office this weekend is entirely up to the people. After this film, let’s not speak about another Dr. Seuss adaptation in about another ten years. Go on and continue ruining the legends of vampires, werewolves and zombies. Oh you didn’t know there’s a love story that’s soon to become a full fledged film with a zombie? That’s for another time.

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[1] Warner, J.B. “The Lorax (Pre-Release Talkback)”. http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?288024-The-Lorax-%28Pre-Release-Talkback%29. 2012, February 27.