Tulsa Book Club

When enjoying Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, I’ll always hold the book up to the highest standard among the rest of the media available, though I do love the classic film as well. The new film, however, does the original and the book a complete disgrace.

Is it enjoyable? Eh. I laughed a couple of times, but overall it wasn’t nearly as funny as it should have been. The colors and animation were certainly enjoyable (as was the tiny clip of the minions from Despicable Me at the beginning), and some of the songs were, but otherwise the story itself was bland, the characters were pretty one-dimensional (whether you saw it in 3-D or not), and it certainly wasn’t worth the mutilation of the story.

There was no sense of urgency. A boy sets out to find a real tree from his all-plastic town for a girl and we never get why he suddenly thinks it’s important to save trees, too—or why his grandmother and mother and girlfriend do, either. The city is not collapsing without trees; there are no real problems—which is MY real problem with the film in the first place. If you don’t have trees, you will die.

The man selling clean air to the people of the city is funny enough, but we never know where he gets the air in the first place. Where are the trees where he gets it? And how can everyone afford this precious resource? Where are the people dying from lack of clean air? And how about a few side effects from the world of plastic, which has to be harmful? One glowing boy who turned neon green from swimming in the water is depicted, but otherwise kids are left thinking there’s nothing wrong living in a treeless, plastic city.

And while I liked that there were more female roles in the film—especially how the mother stands up against the most powerful man in town!—I hated that it made fun of Seuss’s text when it was even used at all, which was twice, I think. I hated that it used a fat bear as a punch line as often as it could. Though I liked how they showed the Once-ler as an idealistic young man who was corrupted by greed and then redeemed himself later—we are not often given villains who change and are shown with more layers—I didn’t like how the Lorax himself and the forest critters were potrayed. They were so fickle, so easily influenced by marshmallows and the comfort of a human home.

Then there’s the ending redemption of the Once-ler. While I like it a little, I dislike it even more—and that’s because the bleak ending, tinged with a hint of hope, is what we need to see right now because that’s what we are truly living in terms of oil consumption, global warming, and our own survival. Giving it this candy coated ending made it feel-good, but it also didn’t leave kids thinking there was a problem at all, not really.

All in all, my daughter liked the movie—but it was pretty much useless, especially when you consider that it’s being used to sell even more gross commercialism—plastic figures, toys advertised before the movie itself, themed merchandise, etc.—rather than, say, NOT wasting more money and resources and recycling. The Lorax would hike his hiney up and float on out of here in disgust if he truly existed.