Dr. Seuss' The Lorax will delight your kids. The colors are bright, the hero is a brave young boy and there are cute animals galore. Doesn't hurt that tween faves Zac Efron voices the young hero, Ted, and Taylor Swift voices his dream girl, Audrey. The characters are named after the real life Dr. Seuss and his wife.
Also great are the voices of the Lorax (Danny DeVito), the Once-ler (Ed Helms) and granny (the awesome Betty White). The music is bright, although a bit familiar, and there's a decent adaptation to film. It's hard taking a short book and stretching it out to an 86-minute film. At times it felt a bit drawn out, but overall kept a good pace.
In essence The Lorax is a story of a boy, Ted, living in the very plastic city known as Thneedville. He falls for an older girl, who tells him a story about real trees and pledges to marry the guy who can bring her one. Well, you know he's gonna do his best to win her over. His granny tells him of the Once-ler, who knows the secret of the trees, and he's inspired to find him. This is where the Lorax comes in. In the meantime, the city is essentially run by a guy who sells clean air to people because nature is pretty much all but destroyed. And he's not so happy to hear of Ted seeking out the Once-ler.
There's a bit of action (with a tad cartoon violence) and lots of comedy and song. The 3D effects aren't over done. They aren't necessary, either, especially if you're on a budget. My grade: B.
The Lorax recently made the news when Fox News commentator Lou Dobbs discussed it being one of two new kids films indoctrinating kids to certain liberal beliefs. In the case of The Lorax, we might worry about radical environmental beliefs. Well, I doubt that. The story is an environmental one, that is that we need to avoid depleting natural resources. In the film, the trees are all but lost unless someone stands up to protect them. But the message is not one that says kids should be militant about protecting the environment. Ted's intention to bring back the trees come off as more for love than to become an environmental hero. Besides, what's wrong with taking care of our Earth?
On the flip side, for a movie that has an anti-greed message (the film's bad guy is greedy in protecting the empire he created), I'm already reading a lot of complaints about all the movie tie-ins and product licensing. That's capitalism, and our economy thrives off that.
The film is rated PG for brief mild language.
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