First off i know this one is longer but i do have more to say about this movie as it does touch on a bigger subject than the movie itself. Also i do not ruin anything in the story that doesn't already happen in the book or is seen in the preview so don't worry.

PLease leave your comments and opinions in the comments :)

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Dr. Suess’ The Lorax

Published in 1971, Dr. Duess’ The Lorax is considered to be one of the doctor’s more insightful and grim children’s books that still circulates the market. The book concerns a boy who asks a pair of disjointed hands where all the trees have gone and the hands tells about how he and all his hand buddies ignored the pleads of a Viva Piñata beta design and chopped down the trees to make a revolutionary product until nothing was left. What makes the book so notable is that it never punches the child with its environmental message but instead submits them to a slow rising boil of despair until all the colourful charm of Suess’ books are gone, which is a much better and less patronising way of teaching a lesson to kids. So Universal pictures picked up the classic 15 minute children’s story and saw the potential for it to be padded out for an extra 70 minutes and while this is sometimes a negative, I cannot deny the film’s charm saves it from being another tired hippie speech.

Keeping the movie from falling into the pit of completely shameless corporate cash grabs, I’m looking at you Cars 2, the film is lucky enough to have a crew that care about the source material. First time director Kyle Balda, who worked on many of Pixar’s better films, and Chris Renaud, director of Despicable Me, which I thought was charming enough, but lacked the certain insight and wit that say Megamind had. The film pretty much follows the book almost exactly and focuses on 12-year-old Ted (Zac Efron) who searches for the Once-ler (Ed Helms) that will tell the boy his story of the Lorax (Danny DeVito) and where to find a tree so that he can get with Taylor Swift (Audrey). That’s one way to make men care about the environment, just say that every time they plant a tree's seed, they get to plant their own. While everyone in the cast does a good enough job with their voice acting, including first timer Taylor Swift, some voices like DeVito, Helms and Betty White sound disconnected from their characters because they’re so recognisable, but White gets a free pass because she’s made of grandma awesome.

While the extended length of the movie does sometimes make it feel padded, the choices that the film makers made to either change or expand the story/world are actually just as clever as any good science fiction novel. The town that's only depicted in one page of the book is now walled off and detailed to be inhabited by convinced OCDs and financially ruled over by Edna Mode’s obnoxious brother that managed to build a company with his inflation fetish, I hear that market is really booming. But in all seriousness, a town where nothing is made of anything real is constructed quite thoughtfully and make for some inventive visuals and jokes, I particularly found the food quite clever. While many of the characters do their part, but are by no means deep, the real character that the audience will find is the Once-ler as he is the only three dimensional character with a noticeable arc.

Speaking of three dimensions, the animation is great and gives a big effort to expand the world and ideas of the original source. Also this is probably the most beautiful and cutest animated movie that Universal has released yet. Even the destroyed landscape has a quality of awe to it that can only achieved before by watching the Pompeii explosion. Though sometimes Dr. Suess’ illustrations don’t translate well to film, like when a smaller and hairier DeVito grabs his ass and flies away... I don’t even got to make a joke out of that. The actions of the forest critters make up the majority of humour in this movie and are really funny and cute, but they’re basically the minions from Despicable Me in elaborate IMF disguises, seriously they’re exactly the same down to their voice, but they’re still funny. It seems that Universal is already going to milk those mutant Twinkies till they’re left working nights on the corner next to Scrat. This doesn’t stop the donkey from being the most likeable and memorable character with his lovable sarcastic stares that warm my cynical critic heart. The 3Dis notably great, with enough visuals to give a constant sense of depth while never cluttering up the screen, but some scenes seem to only be there to show off the 3D like those window shutters that are too small for the actual wndow.

The movie does pad out the story a great deal and though its never bad but still really noticeable and could live without. The character of Ted would’ve been a lot stronger without the shoehorned love story with Audrey, because his actions to find a tree become more pure and meaningful. Producers seem to think that love stories in movies are like steroids, sure it can add muscle mass, but what’s the point when the audiences testicles pop? I was also really surprised in the including of songs in this movie which are charming and fun, but forgettable and unnecessary. The movie opens and I was caught completely off guard by the singing and felt awkward, like I’m a normal functioning kid that's unbeknownst walking into my first day at the High School Musical. As you might of already noticed that there are a lot of ‘yes, but’ statements in this review, but don’t take that the wrong way as there are a lot more ‘yeses’ than ‘buts’ in this that make for an above average and entertaining movie.

What I will mention before I leave is the subject of subtlety in this film as the movie’s subtlety lies between a wall covered in environmental fliers and Ted Turner chasing you with an ironic chainsaw. The Lorax even comes out at the beginning of the film to flat out tell you that there’s an important message in this film just in case you missed it. Even the Lorax’s pleading to the Once-ler sounds like a pretencious tiny hippie. Well you may say “It’s a kid’s movie and they won’t get that!” and I’ll respond by saying that you’re a bigger idiot than the kid. I’ll admit that I’m not big on kids, but I’ll still give them credit where it’s due and say that they are a lot smarter than adults make them out to be and the message in this movie and the book will not fly over their heads. Therefore the film makers should’ve put more effort into the story and characters rather than the message because as that kid grows up, they’ll be able to appreciate it even more rather than just get the same old movie again. For an example just look no further than Calvin and Hobbes as when I was a kid they were just imaginative boyish adventures and as I got older I realised they were also about the complex emotions of parenting and growing child when said child gets into the medicine cabinet.