The Watchmen- Antigone

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Movie Review of The Lorax


Dr. Seuss’s movie, The Lorax, is about a twelve year old boy named Ted Wiggins who lives in a walled-in town called Thneedville. Everything in Thneedville, except for the people, is either made out of plastic, metal, or synthetics. Ted sets out to find a real tree for his friend Audrey, who he has a major crush on. His grandmother tells him if he wants to know what happened to the trees he should talk to the Once-ler. Ted discovers that outside the city, is a barren, contaminated wasteland. The Once-ler agrees to tell Ted about trees if he comes back over a period of three visits. The mayor of Thneedville, Aloysius O'Hare, who has made millions off of bottling fresh air, threatens Ted and tells him to stay in town. With the help of his grandma, he slips out of town without Mr. O’Hare knowing.
Over the three visits, the Once-ler tells Ted of how he left his home in search of the perfect material to make his Thneed invention with. He comes across a forest filled with Truffula Trees. At first he cuts down one of the trees, this signals the Lorax, guardian of the land, to come out. The Once-ler makes a deal with the Lorax, vowing to never cut down another tree ever again. Soon the Thneed invention becomes a huge success and the Once-ler agrees to start cutting down trees in order to speed up production. The Lorax warns him not to, but the Once-ler becomes blind sited by greed and fame, and he ignores the Lorax’s warning. Soon almost every Truffula Tree was chopped down, and he had polluted the sky, water, and landscape. Finally the last tree was cut down and the Once-ler had realized what he had done but it was too late. Eventually the Lorax sends the animals that were in the forest away because they could no longer survive there. The Once-ler watches as the Lorax disappears into the sky leaving the word “Unless” cut into a stone.
In the end of the movie, the Once-ler realizes why the Lorax left that word, because unless someone like Ted cared an awful lot about the trees, nothing was going to change. The Once-ler ends up giving Ted the last Truffula seed and tells him to plant it in the middle of town where everyone can see it. However, Mr. O’Hare will do anything in his power to not let that happen because if trees are planted they give fresh air for free, which would ruin his business. Ted, his mother and grandmother, and Audrey all set out to help get the seed planted. When they get to the center of town, O’ Hare tries to stop them by starting a protest. Ted decides to show them what is on the other side of the wall by taking a bulldozer and ramming it until it falls. Horrified at what they see, the townspeople agree that the seed needed to be planted. After the seed is planted and time passes, the land starts to recover, the trees are re-growing, and the animals are returning. The movie ends with the Lorax coming down from the sky and landing on the stone that said “Unless”. The Once-ler wraps him up in a hug for he has redeemed himself.

I think the word "Unless" represents the most important component in the movie because unless someone cares a tremendous amount about the environment, nothing is going to change. The environmental state will only get worse from here if this generation does not act fast.

In my opinion, this movie gave an educational lesson to all ages. However it was especially geared towards getting through to kids ages five, six, and seven to teach them about what will happen if you do not take care of the environment. I would rate this work as excellent because it gave a simple to understand message to kids about taking care of the world they live in. It was easy to grasp what the message was they were trying to send when watching The Lorax. 

I think this movie could have been improved if the producers had taken more time to build up the characters and given them more time to fully develop. The characters depth gets sacrificed sometimes due to how much money it cost to to produce that movie.

Link for the song "Let It Grow"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27JZzSgcY20

*speak for the trees by going to visit energystar.gov to learn more.*

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