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Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

A A A Comments (7) By Nick Pinkerton Wednesday, Feb 29 2012

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Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
Directed by Kyle Balda and Chris Renaud
Universal Pictures
Opens March 2

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A computer-animated 3-D tracing of Dr. Seuss's 1971 fable, The Lorax concerns a young resident of synthetic, plastic-coated suburb Thneed-Ville, Ted (voiced by Zac Efron), who goes searching for a legendary living tree outside the city walls. There he encounters a reclusive Once-ler (Ed Helms), who narrates his own life story: beginning as a fresh-faced young entrepreneur, the Once-ler's ambition stripped the land of pom-pom topped Truffula trees and, in the process, turned the Once-ler into a caricature Capitalist, to the great disappointment of the title's brash, mustachioed woodland spirit (Danny DeVito). The Lorax is a bizarro version of Hugo—like Martin Scorsese's film, it encourages children to cleave to and preserve the world's endangered treasures. But while Hugo teaches the value of fantasy and artifice in intimate, human terms, The Lorax piously preaches the gospel of the organic, holistic world, while relishing in high-fructose candy colors and saccharine woodland plushies found no-where in nature. As in the likes of Yogi Bear, the lesson will please or displease parents according to their prejudices, while the means of delivery are an offense that transcends party lines. Par for the course in blowout CGI adaptations, a great deal of detail and bustle is gained at the expense of charm—for all the miracles these armies of animators can achieve, they have yet to successfully reproduce a humble artist's line.

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03/22/2012 11:45:00 PM

this review of pinkerton's in an embarrassment to the voice. what a lazy pig. just watched this after a slew of cannes contending films and found it sweet, for the sake of a message for kids. did he just compare a live action to an animated film?

03/21/2012 6:18:00 PM

"for all the miracles these armies of animators can achieve, they have yet to successfully reproduce a humble artist's line." what kind of utter trash is this?

03/11/2012 9:45:00 AM

I enjoyed reading the book. I tend to think the extended cartoon versions of Dr Seuss books often are silly and dilute the message and quality, though. I saw the coming attractions for the Lorax and it didn't seem at all like the classic book. I hope this time they did it right, at least the reviews were good.

Ag 03/05/2012 8:26:00 PM

When the Seuss saw this film By some strange time-glitch magic His jaw fell to the floor And his face went quite tragic He folded his arms 'cross his chest without flair And just while he was thinking, twirled his beard hair Five long minutes passed before Theodor spoke His voice filled with such passion it started to croak: "You can't animate without drawing on paper! Who bothers with this, this strange fruitless caper? Animation is feeling! Sketch, colour, and line! (and a lot of Koreans paid low for their time) What is all this bother? It's garish, absurd!" And he strolled into the distance, not saying a word.

Sweetpea 03/04/2012 7:28:00 AM

I went in just expecting to have fun & enjoy it, and I did. Especially for a kids movie. I thought the 3D was great, went with fun people, ate m&m's and just had fun. Glad I didn't read anything about it beforehand. Way better than the Grinch, in my opinion.

240Holmes 03/03/2012 9:53:00 PM

I care. It proves that the critic is actually engaging with the material instead of sitting their in a stupor the way most of my friends watch movies.