I was delighted to attend a screening of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax recently with my six-year-old daughter and her best friend at the Tribeca Film Center. You could do a lot worse than this cushy theater when being treated to a free film.
Like GeekMom Nicole, I dislike 3D. I've been known to drag my daughter on hour-long subway rides to reach the theater that's showing the latest kid pic in 2D. (Hello, Toy Story 3 in Battery Park City!) My daughter often takes off her 3D glasses and watches a blurry movie. I rarely find that the 3D adds anything except dollars to the ticket price. There are occasional exceptions to the rule, like Hugo. Now I'd add Dr. Seuss' The Lorax to that short list as well.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go5ovU1-BQU[/youtube]
As camera dances along the surface of the water among the Humming Fish and Swomee Swans, I found myself thinking, "Oh, yeah. This is what animation is meant to be." The Bar-Ba-Loots chomping on marshmallows are adorable. The beautiful, beautiful Truffula trees in 3D are worth the price of admission alone. Their beauty is in perfect keeping with the story - it's painful to watch the Once-ler chop them down.
Previous screen adaptations have not done Dr. Seuss justice, but I think this one does, even as it expands the story of The Lorax. The movie begins in Thneedville, a walled city where everything is artificial and no one dares go (or even look beyond) the city's walls. Ted, a boy enamored with his neighbor Audrey, wants to win her affection. All Audrey wants is to see a real live Truffula tree. Betty White, who GeekMom Corrina recently had the opportunity to meet, gives a marvelous performance as Ted's conspiratorial Grandma, who points him out past the city limits in the direction of the Once-ler.
Ted finds the Once-ler, and here we start to pick up the path of the book. The Once-ler, voiced by Ed Helms, recounts the story of how he came to meet the mysterious creature who speaks for the trees. Danny DeVito as the Lorax is such brilliant casting. He's as good as you expect him to be, though a little bit of Frank from *It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia *slips through at the Lorax's most crotchety moments (which is hilarious if you're a Sunny fan).
What the trailer doesn't tip you off to is the fact that The Lorax is something of a rock musical. The Once-ler is given the biggest musical numbers, and Ed Helms carries them admirably. I noticed the kids in the theater really rockin' out to the music.
If you've read the book, you'll know that there's a clear environmental message in the story. If you chop down all of the Truffula trees to make your Thneeds, guess what? No more Truffula trees. Or Bar-Ba-Loots. Or Swomee Swams. Or Humming Fish... Unless. The movie takes this even further, expanding the environmental message to include our financial crisis as well. At one point, as the Once-ler's business is expanding during a musical montage, the phrase "Too Big to Fail?" actually appears in the movie. How you react to this depends on your political leanings. Lou Dobbs would say that it's Hollywood indoctrinating our children. Someone like me, who you might describe as occupying the opposite end of the political spectrum from Lou Dobbs, would say it's an admirable message, not to mention the admirable marketing surrounding this movie encouraging kids to be greener. However, *The Lorax *presents a world that so clearly mirrors our own, that though the kids were busy laughing and having a good time, I just got crummies in my tummy. Even with the happy ending, it was hard not to be bummed out seeing all those shots of the barren landscape where the beautiful Truffula trees once stood.
Maybe I just saw it in a theater that was way too close to Wall Street. I'd see it again. If you love the book, it's definitely worth your time, and it's worth the extra money for 3D.
Check out these posts for more information on how The Lorax was turned from a book into the movie and how Betty White became involved in the project. And there's still a chance to win your copy of the The Lorax book here on GeekMom!
