Mom Movie Review of The Lorax

I was at Blissdom, a blog conference in Nashville, last week with about 700 of the best bloggers around. Somehow they let me in anyway. People would see my nametag with my blog on it and say, “I bet you *are* a supermom!” because people are nice.

I assured them I’d left my four kids home alone with some Cheerios sprinkled on the carpet. Why does no one believe me?

Despite myself, I met some amazing people last week, a few of whom may have changed the path of my life.

One in particular stole my heart. He is…the Lorax.I knew the moment I looked into the uncanny valley of his strangely humanoid eyes, I was hooked like a Humming-Fish under a Truffula tree.

Later there was a special Blissdom shout-out from Zac Efron and an extended promo for the movie. Then I knew why my daughters were so keen to see an animated movie. Taylor Swift voicing the main female character may also have had something to do with it. In The Lorax, Zac Efron is the voice of Ted, and Taylor Swift is the voice of Audrey. Ted and Audrey are the real-life names of Dr. Seuss and his wife. My daughter noticed this from the introduction in our copy of the Lorax book.

The kids and I went to the earliest possible matinee today to see The Lorax. We were disappointed when we realized it wasn’t in “Tree-D”, but it was still enjoyable in plain old 2-D.

I had the time wrong, so we arrived ten minutes late. We only had to sit through three trailers before our feature film began. Good thing we weren’t early.

Madagascar 3 looks good, ParaNorman had a preview really too scary for the preschool audience sharing the theater with us, and Despicable Me 2 had a cute little promo featuring the minions singing about banana potatoes. Don’t ask.

If you’ve recently read the book, The Lorax, you will notice how the movie cleverly incorporates the language and images from the book while still crafting an original story. The storyline of the book occurs in the past while Ted and Audrey live in the future the Lorax warned the Once-ler about.

Ted and Audrey live in shiny, happy Thneedville, where everything is perfect (except for the air) and purchased (including the air).

The lead voices provided by Efron, Swift, Danny Devito and Ed Helms (Andy from the television show The Office) do a great job. Of course, Betty White is absolutely wonderful as Ted’s granny. Betty White is in practically everything these days, as she should be.

I was surprised by how much I liked the musical numbers. Ed Helms can really sing! The lyrics were clever and somehow managed to escape the cheesiness of the 60’s and 70’s television versions of Seuss books that I grew up with.

The girls and I loved the style of the animation. The Truffula (pronounced TRUF-yuh-luh; now you can sleep at night) forest is inhabited by the adorable Brown Bar-ba-loots, Humming-Fish and Swomee-Swans. A young Once-ler chopping a tree summons the spirit of the forest, the Lorax. He speaks for the trees, with an attitude and a fabulous fluffy mustache.

The visuals are lovely. The Truffula trees look like cotton candy and you can practically feel the touch “of their tufts…much softer than silk”, and smell their “sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk”.  Whatever that last part means. It’s evocative, but makes me think about tiny buckets and stools.

The Lorax is a strong pro-environmental film and has a few pointed barbs for big corporations and mindless consumers, but I don’t think this should be unexpected. So many of Dr. Seuss’ books are social commentaries that go down easy because of clever rhymes and whimsical characters

I think The Lorax movie is appropriate for all ages. My middle school girls really enjoyed it, and we had a lot to talk about afterward. My younger daughter, age 11, said it makes her think about the difference between a “need and a thneed”. Do we really need to buy something, or do we just “thneed” it to feel cool.

I especially like the line about a tree falling the way it bends. Be careful which direction you bend.

I think this is always good advice. Especially around a mule. They kick.

Plans to see a movie this weekend? Let me know what you think if you see The Lorax.

Bonus image: Wrath of the Titans, or RE-RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

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