Dr. Seuss’ irascible orange speaker for the trees has come to life in Paramount’s animated version of The Lorax, a film that drew the ire of the extreme right for the heavy-left-leaning rhetoric employed through song and dialogue. As full disclosure, I tend to side with the sardonically expressed opinions about the threats to the environment, but I can see why the right would be upset.
At the same time, the fervor is a bit reactionary in that the film goes beyond supporting the efforts of the EPA. In truth, The Lorax is more akin to Wall Street than it is to The Simpsons (a far more left-centered movie with an environmentalist angle) or If a Tree Falls…, a documentary that explores environmental terrorism. Essentially, The Lorax, attacks consumerism, laziness, and the desire for convenience, three things that are often tied together.
As we enter Thneedville, the citizens regale us with a sung summary of their daily lives: the world of plastic in which they live, the plastic trees – “Each one is made in factories / And uses 96 batteries!” — that change colors via light bulbs, the nuclear-tinted water that causes children to glow a light green. The genius of this intro is its sublimation: the anger and outrage that might be heard in nuclear protests or from the chorus of Greenpeace members is delivered in Dr. Seuss-like rhyme and sing-song caprice. It is both disturbing and amusing at the same time, but not so amusing that it sells out to its under-12 audience. The lyrics are smart and the silliness is as minimal as it can be without becoming schlock.
The main problem in Thneedville is the air, which “is not so clean. /So we buy it fresh. / IT COMES OUT THIS MACHINE!,” one fashioned, marketed, and sold by Aloysius O’Hare, who, as you’ve guessed, sells air. With this intro begins the gist of the commentary within: we are enamored with convenience and happier to buy something proposed to make our lives easier, when we could easily just source what we need from “Outside of Town,” a place located beyond the giant steel wall that encapsulates Thneedville. Here, the writers also jab at xenophobia and paranoia.
But I digress.
In addition to the morality tale within, The Lorax relays Ted’s (Zac Efron) infatuation with Audrey (Taylor Swift). Theirs is not a forbidden love, but one in which Ted is insecure and needs to find a way in to her heart. And, in Thneedville, the way to her heart is through her love of trees, mythical plants that once existed but no longer do. The dirt has been covered with concrete; the trees usurped by inflatables.
Betty White voices the wise grandmother who tells Ted of the Onceler (Ed Helms), a man responsible for the extermination of the trees. (The arbor holocaust was impelled by his successful manufacturing of the Thneed, a multi-use, wonkily shaped thing that prophesies the fate of the Shamwow.)
Ted’s rise to momentary fame and riches (the Thneed bubble was destined to burst like each one preceding it) is summarized in a montage of sorts set to the song “How Bad Can I Be?” After all, he’s “doing what comes naturally” in a system that fetishizes “survival of the fittest” into a fight for the accumulation of paper currency and the power therein.
Political and social commentary aside, The Lorax succeeds in producing an intelligent animated film that doesn’t dumb itself down for children. With the exception of a rather unnecessary grandma-snowboarding scene, there is a paucity of silliness. It’s replaced with earnestness and a clever screenplay.
While we might not all agree on politics, social reform, environmental issues, or the true meaning of capitalism, The Lorax presents itself as a film unafraid of speaking frankly to its audiences.
