The Lorax 3D

In Jared Diamond's book, Collapse, he recounts the defining moment of civilization on Easter Island, which depended on wooden canoes to communicate with the outside world. He wonders what they were thinking when they cut down the last tree. The Dr. Suess book, The Lorax, gives an allegorical spin on this story. The book was written in 1971, but it has never been more relevant than it is today. There would seem to be nothing one could object to in this little story about the effects on the environment of industrial civilization run amok. But, of course, this story is now seen as part of the left-wing conspiracy to to brainwash America's children. But, none of this matters much since The Lorax is a pretty crappy movie.

First, I had to re-read The Lorax to try and remember what was actually in the book, and what was created whole cloth for the movie. Most of the book is actually in the movie, but it is lost in the middle between large swaths of new characters and subplots. Few of the actual lines from the book survive. The book begins with a kid coming to a mysterious man called the Once-ler to find out what happened to the trees and why the world is so dirty and smoggy. He gets the whole story of how the Once-ler invented the Thneed, a useless product knitted from the beautiful Truffula trees. When the first tree is cut down, the Lorax appears to speak for the trees and the wildlife that depends on them. But the Thneed business takes off and soon huge factories are producing them. More and more trees are cut down to meet the demand until the last tree falls and the business goes bankrupt. At the end of the story, the Once-ler throws the last Truffula seed to the kid, and asks him to plant it, That is the end of the book. 

This would not be enough for a Major Motion Picture, so like The Grinch and other children's books that have been made into movies, a new and larger story has been grafted on onto the original. A great deal of action and backstory has been inserted before the first line of the book. The kid (voice of Zac Efrons), who listens to the Once-ler's (Ed Helms) story of woe, now lives in Thneedville, where no one is allowed to leave the city, everything is made from plastic, and the smog is so bad that a nasty industrialist (Rob Riggle) has made millions selling "clean air." Also, added is a love interest, Audrey (Taylor Swift), for the boy, and his whole family including his feisty grandmother (Betty White). Audrey dreams of seeing real trees, and the boy vows to find one to win her heart. He is told to find the Once-ler, but to do so, he has to break out of the city ahead of the villains. He arrives at the Once-ler's house, and we get an expanded version of the action in the book. But the movie doesn't end when the Once-ler throws the seed to the boy. Oh no. We get a long chase sequence as the bad guys try to capture the boy and the seed before it can be planted. But (spoiler alert), there is a happy ending and redemption. The trees return, the boy gets a kiss from Audrey, and the Lorax (Danny DeVito) returns to forgive the Once-ler. 

Making major changes to a book when it is made into a movie is nothing new. And it was all done with the approval of Theodore Geisel's widow, Audrey who was a producer on the movie, and even lent her name to the romantic interest. But there are two problems with this movie version of The Lorax. First, they took out the good bits, i.e., the Dr. Suess lines with rhymes, and second, the new stuff they added in, especially the songs, is pretty bad. Apparently, they saw Despicable Me while they were writing the script, and decided they needed a villain, even though there already is a villain, i.e., the Once-ler. Many reviewers agree with me that The Lorax stinks, but the audiences, mostly young kids, who saw The Lorax seemed to like it. It pulled in an amazing $70 million at the box office over the weekend. Oh well. As a matter of fact, there is a wonderful animated film that tells a story of love amid the environmental destruction of the Earth and of redemption through the finding and saving a living plant. This film is called WALL-E. Please just rent that beautiful movie, and give The Lorax a pass.