Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is now in theatres nationwide. I am not posting specifics (prices, bathrooms, etc) because theatres vary so much.
You can find where The Lorax is playing near you, or purchase tickets online at Fandango.
Our experience:
I’ve been excited about seeing The Lorax for months and if I didn’t have kids and responsibilities I probably would have been camped out at the nearest theatre so I could be the first one in to see it on opening day. Instead, I restrained myself and waited until today to take the kids to a matinee.
[Spoiler alert: this paragraph contains the basic plot of the movie]
Obviously I was expecting a lot, and The Lorax did not disappoint. As you can see from the commercials, the movie is incredibly bright and colorful. The characters in the movie live in Thneedville, a community filled with plastic trees, plants, and flowers, and manufactured “fresh” air. Ted, the main character, goes in search of a real tree to impress Audrey, his teenage love interest. His search leads to the dark and barren fields where the truffula trees used to grow and the home of the Onceler. As in the book, the Onceler tells the story of the demise of the truffula trees and then encourages Ted to care for the final truffula tree seed. Both Thneedville and in the Onceler’s story have a greedy entrepreneur willing to sacrifice nature for money and power.
The movie is very true to the book and the songs throughout the movie are great. I particularly enjoyed “How Bad Can I Be,” an ominous number about the rise of the Onceler and his thneeds, and “Let It Grow” at the end of the movie. The Barbaloots, Humming Fish, and Swomee Swan are adorable and make me want to run out and buy plush versions of them (ironic, and likely exactly the result Universal Studios was hoping to achieve).
This was a family favorite for us; everyone enjoyed the movie. I like the message of the book and the movie, but the book did a better job of conveying it. The movie stressed the importance of trees, but didn’t do as much as the book to illustrate the danger of destroying the environment. The cute animals in the movie appear more pathetic and unhealthy as the trees disappear, but there’s only a tiny mention of crummies in tummies, smogulous smoke, or gluppity-glupp and schloppity-schlopp. The fields of truffula trees are beautiful and the Onceler’s new home (after the trees are gone) is a depressing wasteland, but Thneedville is bright, gorgeous, and pretty appealing. Instead of a necessity, trees are just a novelty to the Thneedville residents. Still, I enjoyed the movie a lot and will likely buy a copy of the dvd as soon as it’s released; I may even see it in the theatre again.
There has been a bit of controversy about The Lorax because of the sponsors endorsed by the movie, including Mazda and Hewlett-Packard. Gas powered cars and printers don’t exactly fit in with the theme of being green and putting the environment before profits. There’s a really great post about it on MotherJones.com.
Have you seen The Lorax? What did you think of the movie?
