Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

[GeorgeC]

Two things I will NEVER go to a theater to see again --

A) yet another adaptation of a Dr. Seuss' book; sorry, but only Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett did justice to his work!

B) a new Star Wars film written, directed, or produced by George Lucas or reformatted into 3D!


(Titanic 3D I might see it being the 100th anniversary and all even though I've become a bit disgusted at some recent revelations about the disaster's legal aftermath and supposedly "heroic ship.")

(I recently finished a book that spelled out the last bit of mystery about the ship's sinking and the cover-ups over the fatal flaws in its architectural design. They -- being White Star and Harland & Wolff -- knew a lot more about what happened than they let on to the general public. A senior engineer at H & W was fired over talking too much about the ship's design at the British Inquiry into the disaster. H & W probably needn't have worried; that inquiry was one of the bigger whitewashes I've read about in history. The Lord who presided over the inquiry was a friend of the H & W shipyard owner.

(The whole episode of the cover-up was only revealed in a book written a few years back. There were tons of details written in the book that never made into the History Channel special that paralleled the book. Thank goodness for honest men like Richard Long and Tom McCluskie.)

[EricJ]

sorry, but only Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett did justice to his work!

What, NOT EVEN the old DePatie-Freleng "Cat in the Hat" with Allan Sherman?
(And yeah, the old Lorax too, at least that it didn't step over the lines and trot in old Horton/Despicable riffs like this one.)

[Randall]

Agreed. DePatie-Freleng did some pretty good Suess specials, actually. After all, they were generally written by Ted himself.

[Macaluso]

I liked this movie a lot, and I loved the new Horton as well. I only have 3 problems with this movie, and one of them wasn't in the movie itself:

1) The car commercial. What were they thinking?
2) The animals, especially the fish, just being animal versions of the Despicable Me minions.
3) Taylor Swift voices a character... but doesn't sing a single line in any of the songs. What?

It probably helps that I barely remember the story or the old cartoon, so I didn't feel like it didn't do justice to the original.

Also the music was fantastic. John Powell owns owns owns and I wish he'd get more recognition for his work.

James, I don't agree with your review, but you are allowed your opinion of the movie. However, I do have to bring up one part of your review:

"And one more complaint about the environmental message. It wasn’t even internally consistent! The Once-ler cuts down a tree so the Lorax pulls a stunt that almost kills him in return? Eye for an eye doesn’t seem very pro-nature to me!"

He mentions in the film that the almost-killing-him part was an accident. He just wanted him to float down the river and away from that place. It's not really eye for an eye at all.

[Ben]

Good to see you around, Mac!

[Macaluso]

Hooray!

Also I loved the set pieces so much in the movie, I decided to draw a little Lorax fanart:



(click for big)

[laughingoctopus]

Wow. That's really amazing, you have quite a unique art style that I really like.

[Randall]

Very nice!

[James]

...James, I don't agree with your review, but you are allowed your opinion of the movie. However, I do have to bring up one part of your review:

"And one more complaint about the environmental message. It wasn’t even internally consistent! The Once-ler cuts down a tree so the Lorax pulls a stunt that almost kills him in return? Eye for an eye doesn’t seem very pro-nature to me!"

He mentions in the film that the almost-killing-him part was an accident. He just wanted him to float down the river and away from that place. It's not really eye for an eye at all.

Yep, but (ignoring that it is all a cartoon of course!) it was still recklessly dangerous and should've been somewhat expected.

We get a 3 minute funeral for a tree but they're shocked that putting a sleeping person in a river might be dangerous and cause there to be yet another funeral? Just seems like their was no reality based sense of perspective with that whole segment.

It was a very well made movie other than the writing and you're completely spot on about the music.

Glad to see you around and love the pic!