2 ½ stars (out of four)
In Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,
a computer-animated environmental parable based on the good doctor’s book, one
young resident of Thneed-Ville begins to question the manufactured harmony of
his hometown. The film is the second animated feature from Universal’s Illumination
Entertainment following the 2010 hit, Despicable Me. Directed by Chris Renaud (who also co-directed Despicable
Me) and Kyle Balda, The Lorax is a relentlessly energetic kids’ movie that claims a certain reverence for its source material but perhaps is more focused on
other matters.
The young Ted (voiced by Zac Efron) never thought twice
about the way things were until an older girl he has a crush on, Audrey (Taylor
Swift), opens his eyes to a bygone era when things grew from the ground. More
than anything in the world, Audrey, whose tall, slim figure resembles that of a
tree, would like to see a real tree, which, in the drawings of Dr. Seuss, are
long sticks topped with wispy, colorful cotton balls.
Ted, ever the romantic, sets out to find one and his search
begins by paying a visit to the Once-Ler, a mythic recluse who lives in the
gray, polluted countryside beyond the walls of Thneed-Ville. The Once-Ler (Ed
Helms) tells Ted the story of how he destroyed what was once a beautiful forest
in the name of industry and met an orange fuzzball named the Lorax (a well-cast
Danny DeVito), who speaks on the trees’ behalf. Though his own past errors
cannot be changed, the Once-Ler reminds young Ted that it may not be too late
for him.
In a way, Thneedville is a sort of version of the synthetic
bliss found on the spaceship that was home to many bloated, complacent humans
in Pixar’s Wall-E. But if The
Lorax is a thematic cousin to Wall-E’s environmentalism, it is also the absolute
antithesis of that film’s patient, thoughtful approach. Illumination
Entertainment has perfected the style of their first feature in this one, which
is less concerned with storytelling than it is with making sure none of its
young audience members get bored.
Their method is admittedly effective. I saw the movie in a
packed house of mostly children and their parents, and the kids laughed at all
the right times. A lot of grinning animals pop up onscreen (and sometimes at
you in 3D), usually accompanied by a funny noise or musical cue and the unexpected
excitement always got a big response. The movie pulls this trick a lot, though.
There is a sudden or surprising change in tone – a low baritone at the end of a
high-pitched chorus of singing fish, a goofy look among a line of straight
faces – a very calculated approach to comedy that rarely got anything more than
a begrudging smile out of this Grinch.
But overstimulation is not the same as wonder and sensory
bombardment is not the same as imagination. If The Lorax preaches a positive message about preserving nature,
it also misses another, crucial message: Change does not come quickly and
people are not easily swayed from their ways, an idea that does not mesh well
with this movie’s hyper-active, low attention span antics.
Maybe subtlety is not the best way to discuss saving the
environment, though, especially if that moral is being targeted at children.
And what better way to deliver a heavy-handed, didactic message than with a
colorful, zippy piece of kids’ entertainment. Of course, there is another,
better way to deliver that message: the book. But I must concede that this
movie does what it sets out to do very well. Still, I can’t shake the feeling
that somewhere in Thneed-Ville is a movie theater showing Despicable Me 3 to a wide-eyed and satisfied crowd of kids.
- Steve Avigliano, 3/7/12
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