Thneedville is a plasticized world where everything is about consumerism and creating an environment with fake grass, trees and bushes. Through some flashbacks, a boy learns that this world wasn't always this way...it used to be beautiful and green. But mankind's greed destroyed the natural beauty.
When I was a kid, I loved the cartoon version of "The Lorax". It told a great story AND a great lesson about preserving the environment....and it did it in a fun way that made you listen to the message. Now, decades later, you could see the original...or you could watch this incredibly loud and padded 2012 CGI offering. Loud....big time! Heavy padded? Yep. The original was only 25 minutes...this thing from Universal is nearly 90 minutes and they can't help but overly pad out the story to keep it going this long. The padding consisted of adding a lot of songs...mostly terrible songs...as well as adding side stories that weren't in the cartoon nor Dr. Seuss' book. They also padded it by having countless scenes of the boy riding his motorcyle-like device....all things that really test the patience of folks who actually KNOW and care about the original story. Overall, I hated this film. Despite great CGI and some decent voice acting, the story just was diluted and dull. A huge misfire that is MUCH worse than its current mediocre score. Oh well...at least it wasn't the live action "Cat in the Hat"!
By the way, if you DO watch, note the little bears. They are, essentially, the minions (from the same film studio) just dressed in different garb.
When I was a kid, I loved the cartoon version of "The Lorax". It told a great story AND a great lesson about preserving the environment....and it did it in a fun way that made you listen to the message. Now, decades later, you could see the original...or you could watch this incredibly loud and padded 2012 CGI offering. Loud....big time! Heavy padded? Yep. The original was only 25 minutes...this thing from Universal is nearly 90 minutes and they can't help but overly pad out the story to keep it going this long. The padding consisted of adding a lot of songs...mostly terrible songs...as well as adding side stories that weren't in the cartoon nor Dr. Seuss' book. They also padded it by having countless scenes of the boy riding his motorcyle-like device....all things that really test the patience of folks who actually KNOW and care about the original story. Overall, I hated this film. Despite great CGI and some decent voice acting, the story just was diluted and dull. A huge misfire that is MUCH worse than its current mediocre score. Oh well...at least it wasn't the live action "Cat in the Hat"!
By the way, if you DO watch, note the little bears. They are, essentially, the minions (from the same film studio) just dressed in different garb.