Review: Dr. Seuss adaptation 'The Lorax' aims high and makes it partway there
Illumination Entertainment makes some interesting missteps in their new film
- Critic's Rating B-
- Readers' Rating A+
The Once-ler (Ed Helms) tries to protect himself from the anger of The Lorax (Danny DeVito) in the new animated adaptation of 'The Lorax'
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It is an unenviable task to adapt the work of Dr. Seuss from page to screen, and for the most part, I think his work has resisted full-length feature adaptation with a vengeance.
I mean, when you look at a film like "Cat In The Hat," it's hard to imagine that the source material is any good at all. It's a coarse, gross, vulgar fart joke of a movie, and it should have, by any conventional wisdom, killed the idea of making Dr. Seuss movies. But "Horton Hears A Who" seemed to be a major course correction, and their expansion of the world that Seuss created felt like a fairly organic way to approach his work.
With "The Lorax," Illumination Entertainment has done a solid job of trying to preserve the most important parts of the book and its themes, and there is a lot of it that honors Seuss. I think kids will enjoy this film, and my own kids, who have been raised as Seuss-faithful as possible, liked the way the story expanded to fill out a feature running time. I had more issues with the new material, and I think adults will be less likely to just accept the film as a whole.
It is a nice nod to the author that the young lovers whose story drives the film are named Ted (Zac Efron) and Audrey (Taylor Swift), and the simple desire to impress a girl leads Ted to a larger understand of the world around him, something I think could work. The film's villain, while hilariously designed, is a little too overtly slimy to fit into what Seuss wrote, though. The book is about how moral compromise and environmental ruin sneak up on people and businesses, and how each action has ramifications that must be considered. When you create a character like O'Hare (Rob Riggle) who takes such glee out of being awful and villainous, you undermine the central story of the Once-ler (Ed Helms) and his slow slide into being a bad guy.
Visually, the film takes its cues from Seuss, and there is a sense of almost complete overload in the colors and the textures and the crazy shapes. Like "Horton," you'll know this is the world of Seuss when you look at it. Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda's work as directors is driven almost entirely by the script by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, so the weaknesses in the film are built in, and there wasn't much Renaud and Balda could have done to change that. The work by the cast is good, underplayed for the most part. John Powell's score casts an appropriate mood over the proceedings. In every technical way, the film is well-made, and like I said, young audiences are most likely going to enjoy the experience across the board. I just know that for myself, some of the dramatic choices and some of the real world promotional partner decisions color my ability to fully endorse an adaptation what is, in my opinion, one of the most significant of the books that Seuss left behind. It's "The Lorax," and so I do hold it to a very high standard.
"The Lorax" opens tomorrow.
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Los Angeles has changed since 1990, and Drew McWeeny, all-around Chauncey Gardner of movie fandom, has seen it all as an industry insider and screenwriter who wrote for 12 years as "Moriarty" for Ain't It Cool News.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupDavid D.
March 1, 2012 at 9:17PM EST Reply to CommentPsst... Drew... correct the spellings from "Suess" before hordes of grammarians overrun the comments. You're welcome.
VLaszlo
March 1, 2012 at 10:24PM EST Reply to CommentWell reasoned as usual, Drew.
While I'm glad to hear the themes aren't entirely lost, I find everything about the adaptation choices in this film repulsive.
In my sort-of-humble opinion, the best way to do material like this justice is to use the actual vernacular in which it was written. Seuss is rich because of how the stories are told as much as what they are. It's the difference between Shakespeare in modern english VS. iambic pentameter. I have very little interest in the former unless there is something truly profound or dazzling being brought to the table that requires it.
In short, with Seuss: RHYME THE WHOLE TIME.
If that means you can't stretch something into a feature, so be it. Maybe you could take two or three books and make an anthology film (because I truly do like the textural quality of the animation happening here). His worlds don't need 'expanding' and we don't need new characters to 'walk us through' -- just trust, reverence, and a killer VO. For me, Seuss should be adapted almost to-the-word or not at all -- something both the perfect cartoon 'Grinch' and the unwatchable live-action films attest to.
drew I can't disagree with your reasoning. I just see the sliding scale between this and "Cat In The Hat" or the live-action "Grinch" to be worth nothing.
March 1, 2012 at 10:32PM ESTGeek Leader I like your idea of making an anthology over trying to invent stuff to surround Seuss with. It almost always diminishes the result. To me, the original cartoons were far superior to anything they've adapted to full length.
March 2, 2012 at 2:32PM ESTThat said, I do like seeing the world created as a CG cartoon. There are certain cartoonists whose work is so striking that it is immediately recognizable. I can understand that some people will always hate computer graphics, but it beets the strawberries out of The Grinch ot The Cat in the Hat.
Josh
March 1, 2012 at 10:32PM EST Reply to CommentDrew, I seem to recall you writing a glowing review of The Grinch over at AICN. Funny how you decide to skip over that here.
chris
March 1, 2012 at 10:50PM EST Reply to CommentThe short, animated version of The Lorax was a punch to my grade-school gut, and it stuck with me. My biggest fear about this feature-length version is that the extra padding will make the message toothless. I think it's a message that kids still need to hear, and I'm worried that it will be buried under all the extraneous add-ons, sweet and entertaining though they may be.
Monty Jack
March 1, 2012 at 11:16PM EST Reply to CommentThis looks HORRIBLE. Seeing the trailer for this before The Secret World Of Arrietty was like being forced to choke down a dog turd before moving onto the main course of filet mignon.