Review: Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (2012)

by

05, March 2012Reviews

Cast: Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Danny DeVito
Director: Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda
Country: USA
Genre: Animation | Family | Fantasy
Official Trailer: Here

I didn’t much like Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, but let me be clear: it has nothing to do with the film’s message. In the lead-up to the film’s release, right-wing groups and Fox News pundits have taken to indicting the latest Dr. Seuss adaptation for “indoctrinating” the nation’s youth with messages of staunch environmentalism – after all, this is a story about saving trees. My response to the small-but-vocal outcry: buzz off. Would that more children’s films tackled important subject matter and implored young people to take responsibility for their actions and work for the betterment of the environment. In terms of messaging, the film is worthy of much praise.

The Lorax joins those unsuccessful ranks, taking a sweet children’s tale and stretching it to the breaking point with cornball jokes, inert plot filler, and some of the lamest cinematic musical numbers I’ve heard in a long while.

In terms of filmmaking and storytelling, however, it’s a much different story. As is the case with any Dr. Seuss adaptation, translating the short, simple, rhyme-laden Lorax book into a 90-minute feature film requires ample stretching of the source material with a lot of filler jammed in between. It’s quite a challenge to make work, and no cinematic Seuss adaptation has ever pulled it off. The Lorax joins those unsuccessful ranks, taking a sweet children’s tale and stretching it to the breaking point with cornball jokes, inert plot filler, and some of the lamest cinematic musical numbers I’ve heard in a long while.

The story hews closely to the classic Seuss book, with some added context that doesn’t really enrich the film so much as dilute its message with zany comedy. Young Ted (Zac Efron) lives in Thneedville, a blindly consumerist society where everything is synthetic, right down to the grass on the ground and the trees in the sky. There are no remnants of the natural world that once was – even clean air is in short supply and must be purchased in plastic bottles. For Ted, environmentalism isn’t a natural tendency, but rather something he stumbles upon in pursuit of his adolescent crush, Audrey (Taylor Swift). For her birthday, she fancies, of all things, a real tree. Going on a tip from his grandma (ever-ubiquitous Betty White), Ted journeys to find the one resident of Thneedville who can possibly lead him to legitimate foliage – a recluse named The Once-ler (Ed Helms).

From here, the film takes place almost entirely in flashback, as The Once-ler recalls how Thneedville transformed from a natural paradise to a synthetic wasteland, when the young Once-ler betrayed The Lorax (Danny DeVito), the mystical creature who “speaks for the trees.” In a bit of dire 11th-hour drama, it’s revealed that there is a single seedling left that could potentially set Thneedville on the right course, but that will require Ted to elude the powerful Mr. O’Hare (Rob Riggle), who has turned the town’s manufactured state into his own personal economic windfall.

The animation, under the direction of Kyle Balda and Despicable Me’s Chris Renaud, is booming in its vibrancy, though it lacks the level of finesse and detailed craft of the Pixar films.

The animation, under the direction of Kyle Balda and Despicable Me’s Chris Renaud, is booming in its vibrancy, though it lacks the level of finesse and detailed craft of the Pixar films.  After a while the film’s aesthetic becomes almost as cloying as its crude storytelling strategies. I wouldn’t call The Lorax a musical so much as it tosses in a random, uninspired song-and-dance numbers whenever the central plot reaches a dead end. For his part, Helms is actually an accomplished musician, so it’s unfortunate that he is saddled with warbling the film’s lackluster ditties. DeVito is the perfect choice to play the titular creature, but he is used sparingly, with the far less engaging human characters taking center stage. And the film’s environmental message is earnest and important, but it cowers in the shadow of a brilliant environmental fable like Pixar’s WALL-E, and it’s a little disingenuous that the film’s hero, Ted, only sets off to save the planet because he wants to impress a girl.

Dr. Seuss’s books are magical. They have brought joy to countless children for ages. Since it seems inevitable that more and more Seuss yarns will be optioned for the big-screen treatment, one hopes that a future installment will adequately capture the anarchic spirit and underlying messaging of the Seuss catalog. The Lorax nails the message but stretches the source material so thin it nearly evaporates in a boondoggle of animated musical bombardment.

47/100 - Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax conveys an important message but obscures that message with a barrage of goofy pratfalls and cloying musical numbers.

Jason McKiernan
Follow Me on Twitter / View My Other Posts


Awards Pundit & Senior Film Critic. I married into the cult of cinema at a very young age - I wasn't of legal marriage age, but I didn't care. It has taken advantage of me and abused me many times. Yet I stay in this marriage because I'm obsessed and consumed. Don't try to save me -- I'm too far gone.