Dr. Seuss The Flashback
Haven't done a Dr. Seuss themed post in awhile (The Grinch, I guess) and might as well get back into adaptations of his books. I guess, it's time to begin.
"The Lorax" is a 2012 movie done by... (gets a message whispered) oh, really, are you sure? (whisper) alright, that's actually better news. "The Lorax" is a 1972 special based off the book of the same , that book came in 1971. That is some turnaround.
This special ,like many other Dr. Seuss animated specials, was produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. They made "The Cat in the Hat" in 1971, and would go on to make "Dr. Seuss on the Loose" in 1973. The special first aired on CBS on Valentine's Day 1972, meaning we missed the direct 50th anniversary. (Oh well)
The 1971 book was Dr. Seuss writing about a topic getting steam at the time, the environment. The very first Earth Day had happened in 1970, and media were getting people to try and save the environment. The gray grasses are still growing though/ Copyright Dr. Seuss
The narrator to start the special is Mr. Green Acres himself, Eddie Albert sing about Grickle Grass and something about the lorax. (roll credits) a boy with black hair, he has no name, so he's just a boy is a walking and meets a guy called the Once-ler, the only parts we see are his gloves, never his face. (It's hideous, and I mean the gloves they are hideous shade of green) The Once-ler starts to tell a story about the Lorax.
These aren't gloves uhhh/ Copyright Dr. Seuss
He says that area was once filled with trees and nature and how he once showed up and saw the pretty colorful Truffula trees. Mr. Bob Holt, voices the Once-ler you may know him as the voice of Dr. John Doolittle in the 1970's animated series by the same company as this one. (what?) He also voices the Lorax which makes it fun to see him have two different voices and argue with himself.
The Once-ler mentions how he built his factory on the land, and then started cutting down Truffula trees The Lorax shows up and says he speaks for the trees and tells him to stop cutting the down trees. Once-ler tells him he's making thneeds, which apparently can be anything you need. (Probably should have grown more trees to make more of them things, but getting a head here)
I'm the Lorax and I thneed to talk to you/ Copyright Dr. Seuss
Once-ler calls for help from his family to make more thneeds since the market is growing. The Lorax isn't getting any notice, but they don't care. Trees being killed left and right. (poor trees) Through the story, there's also the affects of the pollution from the cars and factory causing harm to the animals. This should be called "Nobody Listens to the Lorax".
The area becomes a town for people to live in and the trees are mostly gone now. (not sure that'll be good for the business) For all destruction, the music is up beat and fun. (we bought 10 thneeds we didn't need just because of the music)
Detroit 1950, Copyright Dr. Seuss
Eventually, 1,000,000 thneeds have been made and the Lorax shows up to try to get people to...oh never mind. Oh the Lorax returns to talk the Once-ler and pleads for the trees and the Bar-ba-loots, creatures, and they are leaving because their resources are going away.
I think not seeing the Once-ler's face and most of his body was pretty genius, it gives him a detachment that fits with the story. We haven't been given any indication of what he's fully thinking or his emotions. After the Lorax pleads to him and leaves, which is also interesting to see him not be aggressive towards the Lorax and allows him to speak, and let's him leave on his own. We get a moment of the Once-ler having an internal discussion with himself about what's going on. Mostly justifying it.
Anyway things are getting worse (this is a timeless statement) the Lorax mentions that more animals are leaving because of the environmental conditions of the area getting worse. The Once-ler says his point is that what should he do? Should he close it down, causing people to lose their jobs? The other thing earlier he says that if he didn't do it, someone else would have. These are interesting things to spot in the story.
Look at this! / Copyright Dr. Seuss
Walking fish. The Once-ler says he understands after more pleas, but the he hears his stocks are up. (And we have like 4 more minutes so...) This makes the Once-ler change his tune back to his normal standing, he tells the Lorax that he's gonna bake his business bigger, and then, the bad news : the last tree. (oops) Therefore the thing he said would be bad that economics would go south if he shut down, happens anyway because of the tree being gone. (oops)
This tree was 3 days from retirement/ Copyright Dr. Seuss
Now it cuts back, to the Once-ler telling his story to the boy that he was left all by himself and a spot that said "unless". The boy wonders what means. Then the Once-ler gives him a tree seed and tells him to plant it, take care of it, grow more trees, the boy takes it , and that's the special.
Cool! I can't wait to make Thneeds in 40 years!/ Copyright Dr. Seuss
This special (and the book) does it's message very well, it doesn't feel like the message is muddled but it's also very finessed. The Once-ler isn't made over the top and evil, he's normal, to an extent, he's a guy that wants to make money and do something for progress and society, it's not his intentions were to be like "I'm going to kill all the trees" because evil. Also the idea, he wasn't paying attention to the idea that if he wasn't careful, the thing he needed the most of his business could die out anyway.
It's not directly telling you what to think, it makes you think though. You can see what could have been done that could have helped both sides and that there is a balance, and not following that balance is a mistake.
The animation is good, the coloring is good and you can see how it's being used to as things get worse for the area. The songs are alright, not really catchy , at least to me, but work well. It tells an interesting story all together.
I guess, I should address the 2012 film a little. I think, many of the problems of the Dr. Seuss feature film adaptations is that they have to be long and have to add stuff. This is a simple story, it works for the short story and this specials is like 22 minutes long and there's still filler moments. The 2012 movie didn't want to do that, it instead tries to add in other plots to make it work for a story. It also adds a villain. I think it hurts the message. This is not going to be a harp about the feature movie.
I like the special, it works to the story and gives a message about the environment that doesn't feel forced or ham-fisted and that's important. I think it presents the message that the Once-ler would have benefitted from being more conscious about the environment, while still making money, he could have planted more trees. I think showing that he has learned that lesson and telling the boy to not make the same mistakes was good. It could have been done in a bad way, making it a good guy , bad guy situation , but this doesn't do that, it's more open and that's a way to have the people watching also understand.
That's it for now, tune in next time when we plant a tree.
