MOVIE NEWS: The Lorax
Okay, hands up: who here read a ton of Dr. Seuss books when you were younger? Everyone? I thought so! In recent years, we’ve been able to relive some of those books on the big screen, and now Hollywood has decided to make a blockbuster flick out of another of Seuss’s classics: The Lorax. I got a chance to see the new movie at a preview screening last weekend, and I’m here to share some thoughts.
The movie centres around 12-year-old Ted, a boy living in a plastic, processed town called Thneedville. When Ted’s crush tells him all she really wants out of life is to see a real live tree (Thneedville’s trees are all fake), he embarks on a big adventure to leave Thneedville and find The Once-ler, the one person who knows what happened to all the trees.
But who is the mysterious orange being known as The Lorax? And can Ted turn the tide and return trees to Thneedville? You’ll have to catch this flick in theatres to find out!
In the meantime, here are a few observations I had about the movie:
1) It looks great. As you may have noticed on the posters or trailers for this movie, it’s brought to you by the people who made Despicable Me, and it shows. The animated landscape is bright and lush (well, some of the landscape, anyway…), and the 3-D helps to add depth and a sense of realism.
2) It has a good message. This movie, while it has lots of musical numbers and some goofy chase scenes, is all about the environment. It asks us to look at ourselves and the way we live in the world and how we treat it. Always a good reminder!
3) It’s strangely structured. In most movies, flashbacks take up a small portion of the runtime, if they’re present at all. In The Lorax, however, flashbacks make up the bulk of the movie as The Once-ler explains what happened to all the trees. This means we don’t spend a whole lot of time — in comparison — with Ted or any of the characters in the present. Just felt a little odd.
Overall, I thought The Lorax was pretty good. Some of it will appeal most to the younger end of the OWL readership (the Lorax is fuzzy and funny, and there are some super-cute animals), while the pro-conversation message will appeal to the older end.
Do you think you’ll see this movie, OWL readers? Let me know in the comments below!
Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com
