BEFORE: I'll transition from literature back to children's books, and then round up the stragglers in the animation category. After that, I'll finish the fantasy/adventure films, set up a Kevin Spacey three-play, and then set myself up for February's romances. Linking from "The Man in the Iron Mask", Gerard Depardieu was also in "My Father the Hero" with Stephen Tobolowsky (last seen in "The Philadelphia Experiment"), who provides his voice tonight.
THE PLOT: A 12-year-old boy searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Cat in the Hat" (Movie #1,323), "Horton Hears a Who" (Movie #361)
AFTER: I think I'm outside of this film's target audience, and by that I don't mean children, I mean optimistic people who believe they can change the world. I should mention that politically I believe I skew more liberal, but mentally I think there are idiots on both sides of the aisle. Can "cynic" be a new political party? (As I mentioned after "Anchorman 2", I need my news funny and sarcastic, and these days there are plenty of politicians to make fun of.) Perhaps it's a sign of middle age, but where I once thought I could make my mark in my chosen industry, these days I just want to show up (relatively) on time, get my work done (or at least look like I'm getting my work done), collect my check and go home.
As a kid growing up in the 1970's, I was bombarded by messages from Woodsy Owl (look it up) and I read a magazine called Ranger Rick, all preaching conservationism - I was recycling before it was cool, and donated to the WWF back before they were confused with a wrestling organization. These days I put out bird seed and feed 1 loud squirrel and a stray cat, and that's about it. What happened to me? I don't think I've become conservative, so I either just don't care, or I'm hampered by reality. The polar bears need a home? Well, sorry, but my living room is off limits.
The problem is that "The Lorax" represents one of Dr. Seuss' most heavy-handed messages. It's not even an allegory for anything, it just shows us that if you use up natural resources, that's it, they're gone. There's a secondary argument about the evil and seductive power of marketing, perhaps. Did everyone forget that this film itself needed to be marketed, and was pitched to tweens with IHOP tie-ins in order to get its message in front of their eyeballs?
There was also a commercial tie-in with Mazda, showing characters from this film driving a car through an animated world, and since the company had created some new supposedly fuel-efficient tech they wanted to hype, the ad agency said that the car had the "Truffula Seal of Approval". So I should buy this car because a made-up tree has somehow given this car an award that doesn't even exist. And you wonder why I'm so cynical?
But let's take the story at face value - the story within the story reveals that the Once-Ler was a man who came into the forest looking to make his fortune, and to do this he had to do the unthinkable - chop down a few trees. In doing so, he awakened the Lorax, who "speaks for the trees". And apparently speaking is all the Lorax could do, because he wasn't able to prevent the man from making a product and convincing everyone that they needed one. From there he cut a few corners, and cut down a few too many trees, and that's how the forest got replaced by a city where everyone drives a silly car and pays for bottled air.
It's an exaggeration, sure, but so is every allegorical tale. What we're supposed to take away from this is that greed, marketing and capitalism are all bad, and ecology, conservation and planting trees are all good. As with any black + white argument, I'm going to call bullshit, and I won't rest until I find a hole in the argument. It's what I'm good at.
Let's start with planting trees. And I agree, generally a good thing. But here in NYC we had this benevolent dictator, let's call him Mayor Bloomberg, who also thought planting trees was a good thing, so he vowed to have a million trees planted in the city during his reign. (Giving himself an illegal third term probably helped accomplish this...) But somewhere in the process somebody picked the wrong kind of tree, or forgot that there are male trees and female trees (it's true...) and as a result, the city got flooded with superlative amounts of pollen, sparking allergies all over the city. I swear, there's a Dr. Seuss story worthy of "Yertle the Turtle" in there somewhere.
Now let's talk about greed and capitalism. Dr. Seuss picked the wrong metaphor for conservationism, because trees are simply one of the most renewal resources. Plus, they're mulching Christmas trees as we speak. The people who grow Christmas trees, or trees for paper, know exactly how long it takes to grow an acre of trees, and if they didn't replace the trees they cut down, well, they wouldn't be in business for very long, would they? Greed is good, not for the Gordon Gekko reasons, but because anyone in agriculture or farming wants to stay in business, and if they don't sustain their own product, they'll be out of the equation pretty soon. If you raise pigs, and you sell all your pigs, guess what? If you're a fisherman and you overfish, same deal.
As for conservation, I'm for it, provided we're doing it for the right reasons. I've seen the recycling program in our city instituted, and then scaled back because it "wasn't profitable". Meaning that the city planners couldn't find a vendor to buy its garbage at a rate they were comfortable with. This from a group of people who think it's a good idea to put trash on a barge and then float it out to sea with no fixed destination. In this film, the main character wants to plant a tree - why, because it's good for the city? Nah, because he wants to impress a girl. That's a great message to send out to the kids. "Hey, kids, conserving resources will get you laid!" As if.
Look, we humans have overpopulated, and we've made a right mess of things. Nobody listened to the zero population growth people, and look where it's got us. We've paved over most of the places we like, and where animals are concerned we've put the cute ones in zoos and we're eating the tasty ones. I accept all that, largely because I can't change any of it. But barring a large viral attack or a meteor, I don't think we're going anywhere soon, and thinking we can change our ways just seems very naive to me - in general, our track record is not good. But I don't like being told what to do, and I think I like it even less when a film's message gets overshadowed by a slapstick car chase.
Also starring the voices of Danny DeVito (last seen in umm, "The War of the Roses"?), Ed Helms (last seen in "The Hangover Part II"), Zac Efron (last seen in "New Year's Eve"), Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle (last heard in "Hotel Transylvania"), Betty White, Nasim Pedrad, Jenny Slate.
RATING: 3 out of 10 singing fish
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