Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

If I were in a position to bring one of Dr. Seuss’ classic stories to the big screen, the utterly depressing story of The Lorax definitely wouldn’t be my first choice. But someone thought it would be a good idea. The animated take brings the story a step further than the book, giving back stories to some of the characters and introducing others to round out the one dimensional arch readers are used to. Zac Effron provides the voice of Ted, a boy from the completely artificial town of Thneedville. After learning that the girl he has a crush on (voiced by Taylor Swift) is interested in now extinct trees, he visits the mysterious Once-ler (Ed Helms) in order to learn where he can find one. But first the Once-ler tells his story and the failed attempt of the Lorax (Danny Devito) to save the trees.

This adaption does well to add some fun elements to the plot, which originally is more of a death march than a comedy. With more than half of the film focusing on the story of The Lorax, the non-speaking characters (fish, bears, birds) provide a good amount of comic relief. In addition, the Lorax and the Once-ler have both been redesigned as comic characters. Though I wonder how happy Dr. Seuss would be with the fact that his attack on corporate greed was dimmed down to appease the masses. But on the other hand, the story deals with generalized stereotypes of both conservative and liberal minded individuals. Real life situations aren’t as simple as what the film presents. Corporate entities aren’t always out to destroy the environment for the sake of a few dollars. In addition, environmentally concerned individuals don’t just sit around playing cards in the sunshine. We all fall somewhere in between.

As far as production goes, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is very high quality. While other Seuss stories have a complete lack of human characters, this one doesn’t. So there has to be a balance between realism and the species ambiguous creatures. But Illumination Entertainment does well. Really all technical aspects of the film are done well. It just comes down to the script. On a scene to scene basis the film is a lot of fun for its intended young demographic. It moves along very quickly and keeps the viewer’s attention. Let’s just leave out some of the political buzz words next time. Kids don’t care.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.