Dr Seuss’ The Lorax (2012)
Certified: U
Duration: 86 minutes
Directed by: Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda
Voices of: Zac Efron, Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Taylor Swift, Betty White, Jenny Slate, Rob Riggle
KRS release
Dr Seuss’s stories, which are very popular in the US, are whacky, over the top and wonderful. The 1972 book The Lorax is no exception.
Imagination is key here and the directing duo is surely inspired by the pictures of the original book- Johan Galea
This film is the second animated adaptation of the author’s works after the delightful Horton Hears a Who (2010).
But beneath the laughs lies a slightly more sombre underlying theme.
Ted (Zac Efron) is a young boy who lives in the walled town of Thneedville where all plants are artificial.
He is constantly day-dreaming about Audrey (Taylor Swift) who wishes that there will come a time when she can see a real live tree. So Ted decides to find her one.
Everyone else seems to be happy with this artificial environment, except for Ted’s grandmother, Grammy Norma (Betty White). She tells him that he needs to first find the hermit Once-ler (Ed Helms) to get the answers he wants and thus be able to impress Audrey. So he leaves the city and adventures into the wilds where he ultimately manages to meet the hermit. Once-ler wants to be left alone but when he discovers that Ted wants to find real trees he changes tack.
Once-ler tells him how trees disappeared and how as a young man he had wanted to make money. He had found the perfect “ingredient” in the Truffula Tree tufts and thus cut all trees in order to get the ingredient.
That is when The Lorax (Danny DeVito), who is the guardian of the forest, appeared.
Ted decides to sort things out but this brings him up against Mr O’Hare (Rob Riggle), the mayor of Thneedville, who controls the town, its people and has monopoly over the air. The film’s primary strength lies in its visuals and direction. This is handled by Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda of Illumination Entertainment, the same studio that brought us the delightful Despicable Me (2010).
Imagination is key here and the directing duo is surely inspired by the pictures of the original book, even if they have taken the story down completely different roads.
The film has all the ingredients needed to make it perfect entertainment for children: excellent use is made of the bright colours, the chases and the slapstick joke. The musical numbers, especially How Bad Can I Be, provide the film with another dimension.
The voicing cast is good, with Zac Efron and Taylor Swift presenting quite a likeable pair. However, it is Danny DeVito as The Lorax and Betty White as Ted’s Grammy who really leave an impression.
The film also presents a message of how life and the world would end up with the destruction of the environment. As I said the theme is serious but its treatment is not heavy-handed and the jokes and presentation keep it child friendly.