Ok, the movie is more shit than not, but maybe the message might end up being clear, right? It's easy enough; The environment needs us to care. As the good Doctor himself said in 1991, addressing the children of America, “We can...and we must...do better than this.” He then crossed out 'the children of'.
Granted, he was most likely referring to many things about the current state of affairs, but considering The Lorax was his favorite book, I doubt that environmental aspects were far from his mind.
Great, 'go green', let’s center the movie around that!.
With...having over 60 corporate tie-ins with the Lorax's image to be shoved on?
Sugar-covered sugar bread known as pancake specials (for the kids!) and diapers (good thing Americans don't throw away over 3.2 million tons of those every year...).
Whole Foods, and countless Seventh Generation products also bore the Lorax image, among others.
Unless, maybe it wasn't so much about making people aware of 'greener' products, but about whoring out Dr. Seuss' character. And, we can be sure that it wasn't about teaching the kids, rather it was about making that money when a SUV commercial has the 'Truffula Tree Seal of Approval' on it!!
If you were unaware of this, or forgot, then after reading that your inner chest should now feel something like John Hurt's in the dinner scene from Alien.
It's plain to see that the Lorax, who once spoke for the trees, now speaks for corporations filled only with sleaze.
By the way, that Mazda waasn't even a hybrid. It's a 'fuel-efficient' model that gets 35 gallons to the mile. Ok, now I'm SURE that the studio is taking a piss, or winding us up, as the British say.
One Mazda rep was quoted as saying, “[The Mazda CX-5 is] the kind of car we think the Lorax would want to drive.” This was at a school event, with the Lorax handing out hugs and encouraging the kids to have their parents test drive the new SUV.
First off, if you have EVER read the Lorax and saw a car commercial with his approving face and didn't have some type of, at least, quiet outrage, then you fuckin missed the point of Seuss. You may want to go back and reread some stuff, BECAUSE IT WASN'T ALL ABOUT FUN DRAWINGS AND FUNNY WORDS, YOU THOUGHTLESS PIECES OF SHIT!! IF YOU CAN SHRUG OFF THE FACT THEY HAD KINDERGARTEN AGE CHILDREN BEING COAXED INTO WANTING THEIR PARENTS TO BUY THIS CAR, AND BY THE LORAX!!!!......
*exhales slowly* I'm sorry, is Smokey the Bear now an arsonist? Did McGruff the Crime Dog become a murdering crackhead? Is SpongeBob now a pimp? No? THEN LEAVE SEUSS ALONE!!!
It's not even that someone made these movies, a lot of horrible films are made and that's life. It's the fact that people made these movies successful, by repeatedly buying tickets for themselves and family members, without enough of them saying afterward, “That wasn't Dr. Seuss.”
This rage, of course, is only directed at anyone reading this and these facts about the movie and still think, “I don't know, I think it was an OK representation of the book/animated special.” I hope those people die, horribly. In front of the children that they brought to the theater to see this pile of bullshit before ever reading one of the actual books to them.
Even in one of the four pro-corporate song numbers it shows the Thneed billboard bearing the Lorax Approved symbol. But...wait, this is in the middle of showing that corporate greed is no good deed and that no one really needs a Thneed. They have a satire of what the advertisers did for the actual movie, within the movie itself? Is that what that is?
Did some artist realize what the movie was all too late and decided to put in a subtle criticism that no one in charge would pick up on?
Or, was it a subtle gesture on the studios part, rubbing this film in the faces of everyone who knows how much they shit on a great book and even better animated adaption?
“We realize you Seussians, that know what’s-what,
Hate this film and are going quite nuts.
Here's to the fact you're right, the fact that it's true.
But with idiots buying tickets, there's nothing you can do.”
Like every Seuss book, The Lorax had a real message, inventive images/ worlds and Dr. Seuss' words, though made up, he would somehow incorporate organically.
This movie, along with the others, suffers from pandering to every possible demographic and altering important aspects of the original stories to appeal to the wider audience. In doing this they show the discerning viewer, or any fan of Seuss that can also think for themselves, that the filmmakers respected only the marketability of the name Dr. Seuss, and nothing else.