THE LORAX

DR SEUSS THE LORAX

I, like most of the world, grew uop reading and watching Dr Seuss stories. The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Yertle the Turtle and a host of many others are fanciful stories with sometimes subtle messages.

As a child, I didn't care that How the Grinch Stole Christmas had a message about consumerism, equality and other stuff - I just thought it was a cool book and and even more entertaining cartoon - one I enjoy to this day! But the message was there and once you get older you pick up on it, analyze it, tehn read it t o your kids because... in the end... it's a fun story.

That's what Theodor Geisel, aka Dr Seuss, brought to the world - a fun imaginative look at things around us no matter what his agenda might have been. He gave answers and issued concepts. You should try something before you say you don;t like it, even if it's green eggs and ham. You sould try to get out and meet new people, even if they are little tiny Whos.

"The Lorax" was one of Seuss' latter works, published in 1971. It's aim was protecting the environment and anti-consumerism; two topics he felt strongly about. It caused a bit of a stir when the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest took exception to it. It was banned in many Northestern U.S. school districts and teh logging industry actually not only began an anti-Lorax campaign with an accompaning book of theuir own! (Hint: It supported logging.)

"Dr Seuss' The Lorax" in the film version is about a boy named Ted (Zac Efron) from Thneedville who has a crush on a girl named Audrey (Taylor Swift). She tells him that the way to her heart would be by bringing her a real tree. You see, in Thneedville, everything is mad of plastic. The air is so polluted it must be bought from O'Hare Air a huge company owned by Mr O'Hare (Rob Riggle).

Well Ted wants to please Audrey so, after finding out about a guy who lives beyond the sealed walls of Thneedville named The Once-ler, Ted set out on his quest to find a tree. What he immediately finds, upon leaving the city walls, is a dark desolate world filled with smog, pollution and tree stumps.

In the distance he found an old boarded up house, the Once-ler's house. Speaking through the boarded windows Once-ler told how he left home to make his fortune when he happened upon the area.

After noticing the truffalo trees he decided to settle down and start his business making thneeds - a fabulous invention that looked like a regular scarf but could be used in so many ways.

Originally no one was interestedin his thneeds, but suddenly they became quite popular and Ted could barely keep up with demand. He started cutting down teh trees to make thneeds

But a little orange guy, barely a blob with a brighther orange moustache approached Ted and introduced himself as The Lorax (Danny DeVito) the voice of the trees and animals that Ted was displacing with his thneedle manufacturing.

Ted ignored the Lorax and continued with disastrous results.

The book The Lorax was a quick read, it was intended for children who were just learning to read or still being read to. Much like The Cat in The Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Green Eggs and Ham and other Seuss books that are adapted to film, material had to be added to stretch it to feature length. It falls in at under 90-minutes. That may upset Seuss purists. But they should note that his loving widow Audrey (whom the character is named after) oversaw the project and is executive producer.

To the credit of directors Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda - both who worked on "Despicable Me", they added some extra character development and a continued ending that borrowed heavily from "Walle". The children will love the little goldfish that seemingly never need to be in water as they walk on land!

"Dr Seuss' The Lorax" stays true to the spirit of Seuss if not the story. The 3D is totally unneeded and is probably the only drawback. But the story and animations are as fantastical as Dr. Seuss himself. -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON

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