2012 Review #13: Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

Rated PG

1 Hour 26 Minutes

Voices Of

Danny Devito
Ed Helms
Zac Effron

Taylor Swift
Betty White
Rob Riggle

Story

A 12-year-old boy searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.

Rotten Tomatoes Score

57%

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is cute and funny enough but the moral simplicity of the book gets lost with the zany Hollywood production values."

My Grade

C+

I don't actually recall the book this movie is based off of, but hey I'm sure it was great. Dr. Seuss wrote nothing but timeless classics with wonderful messages for people of all ages. To me, the movie shoved that message down my throat a little to forcefully. Listen, I'm all about protecting our environment and I think it's important that children are aware of how vital trees and saving the environment are to our survival. But "The Lorax" drove that message home in a huge way and honestly the movie became a little distracting. I couldn't help but keep thinking this movie was a giant propaganda film to better our dirty Earth and to save the trees. "Save the trees, save the world".

Now I'm a grown adult (sometimes), so I'm clearly not the target audience here. I think any child going to the Lorax will find the flashy colors, the fast paced action, and the cute characters all very fun to watch. And who can blame them? This is the type of movie that young children eat up. This is not they type of kid film that stretches across all age brackets. I don't know if a lot of adults will find the movie as "cool" or "silly" as most kids. Pixar has become the master at touching the hearts of all ages, and Dreamworks Animation is getting better. I just don't feel a movie like "The Lorax" does that.

The message here in the film is clearly about saving our envrionment. Stop cutting down what trees we have left to buid our shopping malls and our IKEA's. We kind of need those trees in order to breathe the little clean air we have remaining. I don't need a little orange Danny Devito to tell that to me. The movie is hella preachy. Anyway, it tells the story of a little boy who lives in a town where trees no longer exist. They only have fake trees. Well in order to impress a high school girl, he promises to go find a real tree and bring it back. His grandma tells him to pay a visit to the Once-ler. Long story short...he meets the once-ler and he tells the story about how he screwed everything up and lost all the trees. Message aside, the story is cute enough on its own. But it wasn't anything I was too invested in. The characters were fun and quirky, but I don't know, as an adult I just wasn't feelin' it yo.

It seems terrible to knock a kid movie. Truth of the matter is though, this movie is great for kids! I don't know many children who won't get a kick out of it. They will probably think it's hilarious. I like to think I'm hip with the kid movies, but I don't know, I wasn't getting much from this one. It just seemed rushed and I honestly didn't care about any of it. I know this review isn't one of my best. I'm in a bad mood...so that's not helping at all. Take it for what you will I guess.