The Lorax (film)
The Lorax, also known as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, is a 2012 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is the second screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss' 1971 children's book of the same name following the 1972 animated television special. Directed by Chris Renaud, co-directed by Kyle Balda (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy and written by the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (Paul and Daurio also served as executive producers alongside Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel), it stars the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, Jenny Slate and Betty White.
"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" redirects here. For the book, see The Lorax. For the TV special, see The Lorax (TV special). For other uses, see Lorax (disambiguation).The Lorax
- Steven Liu
- Claire Dodgson
- Ken Schretzmann
- February 19, 2012 (Universal Studios Hollywood)
- March 2, 2012 (United States)
86 minutes[2]
United States
English
$70 million[3]
The film builds on the book by expanding the story of the Lorax and Ted, the previously unnamed boy who visits the Once-ler. The idea for the film was initiated by Geisel, who had an established partnership with Meledandri from a collaboration on Horton Hears a Who! (2008). Geisel approached Meledandri with the idea when he launched Illumination. The film was officially announced in 2009 with the creative team attached, and by 2010, DeVito was cast as the titular character. John Powell composed the score, and also wrote the film's songs alongside Paul. The animation was produced in France by the studio Illumination Mac Guff (the animation department of Mac Guff that was later acquired by Illumination in 2011).
The Lorax globally premiered at Universal Studios in Hollywood on February 19, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 2, in IMAX, 3D (known in the film exclusively as "Tree-D") and 2D. Critics praised the animation, music and voice acting but criticized the characters and story, while the marketing received backlash for its perceived contradictions to the book's original message. Despite these criticisms, The Lorax was a commercial success, grossing $351 million worldwide against a budget of $70 million.[3]
Plot[edit]
Twelve-year-old Ted Wiggins lives in Thneedville, a walled city where all vegetation is artificial. Ted is infatuated with a teenage girl named Audrey and decides to impress her with a "real tree". His grandmother, Norma, tells him about the Once-ler, who knows what happened to the trees. Ted leaves Thneedville and discovers that the land outside of his home town is a barren, contaminated wasteland. He finds the Once-ler, who agrees to tell Ted the story of the trees over multiple visits. The next time he tries to leave town, Ted encounters Thneedville's greedy mayor, Aloysius O'Hare, whose company sells bottled air. Explaining that trees and the oxygen they produce pose a threat to his business, O'Hare intimidates Ted to stay in town, but Ted continues to visit the Once-ler.
The Once-ler recounts how, as a young inventor, he arrived in a lush forest of Truffula trees. Upon chopping down a tree, he was confronted by the Lorax, the self-proclaimed "guardian of the forest". After attempting to force the Once-ler out, the Lorax made him promise not to cut down any more trees. The Once-ler used the Truffula fibers to create the "Thneed", a knitted garment with numerous uses, which became a major success. He harvested the Truffula tufts in a sustainable manner until his unscrupulous relatives arrived and persuaded him to resume cutting down trees, leading to large profits, but also deforestation and pollution. After the final Truffula tree fell, the Once-ler was ruined and abandoned by his family. With the region uninhabitable, the Lorax sent the native animals away and vanished into the sky, leaving behind a pile of rocks etched with the word "Unless".
The Once-ler gives Ted the last Truffula seed and urges him to plant it. Ted returns home to plant the seed, but is spotted by O'Hare's city-wide surveillance system. Enlisting the help of Audrey and his family, Ted flees to the center of town with the seed. O'Hare chases him and rallies the citizens against Ted, saying trees are dangerous and filthy. Ted uses a bulldozer to knock down a section of the city wall, revealing the environmental desolation outside. Inspired by Ted's conviction, the crowd turns on O'Hare, whose henchmen banish him, and the seed is finally planted.
As time passes, the land begins to recover, and the Lorax returns.
Production[edit]
The film is the fourth feature film based on a book by Dr. Seuss, the second fully computer-animated adaptation (the first one being Horton Hears a Who!), and the first to be released in 3D. The Lorax was also Illumination's first film presented in IMAX 3D (known as "IMAX Tree-D" in publicity for the film).[10] The idea for the film was initiated by Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss's wife, who had an established partnership with Chris Meledandri, the producer of the film, from a collaboration on Horton Hears a Who!. Geisel approached Meledandri when he launched Illumination Entertainment, saying "This is the one I want to do next".[11] The film was officially announced in July 2009, with Meledandri attached as the producer and Geisel as the executive producer. Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda were announced as the director and co-director of the film, while Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, the duo who wrote the script for Horton Hears a Who!, were set to write the screenplay.[12] In 2010, Danny DeVito was cast as the voice of the Lorax character.[13]
The film was fully produced at the French studio Illumination Mac Guff, which was the animation department of Mac Guff, acquired by Illumination Entertainment in the summer of 2011.[14] DeVito reprised his role in five different languages, including the original English audio, and also for the Russian, German, Italian, Catalan/Valencian, Castillan Spanish and Latin Spanish dub editions, learning his lines phonetically.[15] Universal added an environmental message to the film's website after a fourth-grade class in Brookline, Massachusetts, launched a successful petition through Change.org.[16]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Lorax holds an approval rating of 54% based on 157 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is cute and funny enough but the moral simplicity of the book gets lost with the zany Hollywood production values."[28] On Metacritic, the film achieved a score of 46 out of 100 based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[30]
New York magazine film critic David Edelstein on NPR's All Things Considered strongly objected to the film, arguing that the Hollywood animation and writing formulas washed out the spirit of the book.[31] He wrote that this kind of animated feature was wrong for the source material. Demonstrating how the book's text was used in the film in this excerpt from the review, Edelstein discusses Audrey describing the truffula trees to Ted: