The Lorax

"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not"~Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss's works are classic to many people, from books like Green Eggs and Ham to The Cat in the Hat. These books have a charm to them that no other person can replicate, and also makes them an amusing read. The rhyme scheme and unique art make is all that more fun to read. Most of these works are very hard to adapt properly. When I heard the studio who made Despicable Me was going to adapt Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, I could not help but to get excited, due the fact I absolutely loved Despicable Me. So, how does it fair off in my mind?

The plot is a simple one, I will admit. It follows the story of a young boy named Ted, who lives in a town where there is no nature; everything is synthetic and artificial. His romantic interest, Audrey, starts to tell him how she wants to see a real tree, and inspired to try and gain her love, he goes on a quest to get a tree.

To be quite honest, I actually hated this movie. The plot was so ridiculous that it made me cry. Yes, I do understand that they have never seen real trees, and this girl wants to see one, but the consequences of him trying to get the tree were quite ridiculous. Also, the one person who can tell him how to get a tree, the Once-ler, makes him jump through hoops in order to get the tree. I guess they needed to fill up about another forty-five minutes discussing why the trees were gone.

The music in this movie actually comes in two parts. On one hand, I could not stand the musical numbers about how great having fake stuff is, to how bad can cutting down all the trees be. I feel like they copied The Muppets in this style, and they imitated it badly. However, the background music was well done, fitting the mood for each scene, and some of it admittedly had me tapping my foot in rhythm to it. However, the background music does not make a movie, but the musical numbers can kill it in the first five minutes.

The animation was well done in the sceneries aspect. They were well done, vibrant, and fit the upbeat mood of the movie very well.   The character designs were well done, and they also blended well with the back ground. However, I did go see this in 3D (not IMAX), and I feel like although I could tell the levels of depth, the 3D really did not work for me. It seemed to be lacking, but since it is not IMAX, I will give it some lee-way.

Character wise, this movie was a let down. The characters were cookie cutter characters in my mind, and they were easily forgotten. Ted was this kid who would do anything for the girl he loves, which is not that original. Also, his dialogue is not that good either, between (failed) pick up likes and screaming, he doesn't contribute much. Then we have Audrey, the idealistic girl who wants the world to be perfect, and really doesn't contribute to her cause. We have the bad guy, Mr. O'Hare, the guy who sells people fresh air because the real air quality is that bad, but as always, he is only out for money. The Once-ler and the Lorax had to be the most interesting, and even then, they are kind of flat.

The voice acting in this movie was alright. I do not like Zac Efron as Ted, because he turns Ted into this flat, high school boy, who only knows how to do crappy pick up lines, and they are poorly executed at best. Taylor Swift did an alright job at Audrey, but still, she felt like she was awkward, and it just felt wrong to be honest. The rest of the cast did well, and the Lorax's voice did fit him, and they did well with execution. Now, if we could work on the two main characters....

The message that the movie incorporated in it was a common message that is popping up over and over again in movies: Protect the environment. While yes, I do agree that we need to take care of it, I think the movie industry is going overboard with this message. This movie is perfect example, because they exploited it in the wrong way. The Once-ler destroyed the trees for a stupid, useless scarf-thing. I think if they are going to propaganda saving the environment and not ruin it because of human actions, I think they could have done it a bit better. Since this is a kids movie, I guess they just wanted to make sure kids understood it, and could act on not destroying the trees, however, they must be assuming their audience is a bunch of dimwits.

Overall, unless you were a little kid, I would not recommend this movie to anyone but little kids, or unless you were super keen on saving the environment, and even then, it's a terrible movie.