Nothing makes me more sad than a bad movie that genuinely tried. There are many bad films that were bad simply because the creators didn't care, or perhaps they didn't have the budget that they needed, or maybe they just plain weren't talented enough. But when a film is made by people who care, who clearly know what they are doing, and who want to make a good movie... yet something doesn't quite click? That is when I feel genuinely sad to give it a negative review.
The city of Thneedville is a huge, sprawling, consumerist paradise. Everything is artificial, from the bushes to the trees to the flowers. There's not a speck of life in the place, save for its apathetic citizens. One such citizen, Ted Wiggins, has a major crush on Audrey, a teenage girl, several years older than him. Ted's looking for some way to earn Audrey's affections, and one day, he gets his chance: Audrey shows him a painting she made of a group of Truffula Trees, trees that once grew all around the area where Thneedville now stands. If somebody gave Audrey a real, living tree, she'd "probably marry him on the spot", so she says- so Ted sets out for the area beyond the city, where he hopes to find some answers.
What he finds ain't pretty. The world beyond is horrifically polluted, and devoid of all life, with one small exception: a mysterious hermit known as "The Once-ler". The Once-ler tells Ted of the days when the world was filled with beautiful wildlife, until it all came crashing down, thanks to him. When Once-ler came, he planned to use the material from Truffula trees to create Thneeds, an ill-defined object that, nevertheless, is "a thing that everyone needs!" The guardian of the forest, The Lorax, tried to stop Once-er before it was too late, but he failed to prevent the ultimate total destruction of the forest. The Once-ler was left ruined, and the Lorax sadly sent the animals living there away and disappeared, leaving behind a single stone reading: UNLESS. The Once-ler finishes his story and hands Ted the very last Truffula seed, declaring, "unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
My views on The Lorax are, interestingly, very similar to my views on Illumination Entertainment's previous (and first) feature, Despicable Me: the animation is fantastic, it has a lot of good ideas, and the creators clearly wanted to make a good movie, but in the grand scheme of things, they didn't do enough.
For one thing, The Lorax is too short. It clocks in at 86 minutes, which is a reasonable length that works well for many other films, but this one clearly needed to be longer. Everything is too rushed, and the characters are not developed enough. What is Audrey like? Who knows- we never see her doing or saying anything on her own; all we see is her reactions to events. The Once-ler's descent into greed and villainy happens over the span of one 2:30-long song, not nearly enough to delve into the real details of what's happening to him. The Lorax leaves after what seems like only twenty minutes. And what's worse, there are other completely unnecessary scenes that drag on for far too long- an abysmal chase scene at the climax lasts for several minutes despite serving no purpose other than for the sake of having a climax. Couldn't they have cut that out in exchange for more character development?
The chief messages of The Lorax (corporate carelessness, greed, and ignorance are destroying the environment; one should not give in to vapid materialism; the real deal is always better than an artificial copy) was already tainted by the film's now-notorious marketing, which included shilling of Mazda SUVs, disposable paper products, and kid-oriented toys that bear an uncanny spiritual resemblance to the "Thneeds" in the story itself: unnecessary junk that nobody really needs. Indeed, the corporate heads in charge of the film's marketing seemed to have missed the moral completely. The film itself should be viewed separately from all of that, since the filmmakers definitely played no part in it; and yet, the film itself also flounders on this message.
The Once-ler is not properly portrayed as the result of corporate greed. He never loses the sympathy of the audience, because he is never given full responsibility for his actions. Much of the real nasty dirty work is done by his family, who conveniently appear, act like jerks in a completely unfunny way, screw up the environment big-time, and then leave, never to be seen again, after their purpose has been served. As if that weren't enough, the film adds another, totally unnecessary villain, who is portrayed as cartoonishly evil and is a totally flat character. The conceit behind him- he's the manufacturer of O'Hare Air, clean air that people actually have to purchase in order to use- is a clever one, but the character himself is not only boring and uninteresting, but completely ruins the movie's own message: if corporate entities are just misled and naive, then how do you explain this guy, who's knowingly and willfully causing pollution for the sake of his product?
It's not all a wash, though. Illumination Entertainment has proven that, if nothing else, they can animate like nobody's business- The Lorax looks beautiful. The bold, vibrant colors of Dr. Seuss' immortal illustrations are recreated flawlessly here, in a way that would make old Mr. Geisel very proud. There are several moments were a certain minor element- such as a character's hair, or a patch of dirt- look almost real, and it's impossible to take your eyes off of it. The music is great, too. The phenomenal John Powell works his usual magic with a great score, and the songs (yes, it's a musical- wouldn't know that from the trailers, huh?) are both extremely catchy and have a surprising satirical edge- would you expect a Dr. Seuss movie to have lyrics like "We manufacture our dream" and "The lawyers are denying"?
For what it is, The Lorax isn't all that terrible. The kids will like it, and I suppose some older audiences may also find it entertaining. But considering all that it could have been- and indeed, as it consistently shows in its brief flashes of brilliance, all that it wanted to be- it's a massive disappointment.
Awful
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