400th Review! The Lorax

The Lorax

Release Date: 29th March 2012 - Australia

Production Companies

Universal Pictures (presents)

Illumination Entertainment

Dentsu (in association with)

Distribution

Universal Pictures Australia

Genre: Animation/Family

Rating: G

Runtime: 86 minutes


Budget: $70,000,000

Box Office Gross:
$349,183,316 (Worldwide)

Plot Summary
To impress a girl he likes and win her affection, a 12-year-old boy named Ted looks for a tree she wishes to see. But before he can find it, Ted has to hear a story from the Once-ler about how he met the Lorax, who speaks for the trees and defends them and the woodland creatures who live there.

Voice Cast

Ed Helms - The Once-ler

Danny DeVito - The Lorax

Zac Efron - Ted Wiggins

Taylor Swift - Audrey

Rob Riggle - Aloysius O'Hare

Betty White - Grammy Norma

Jenny Slate - Ted's Mom

Nasim Pedrad - Once-ler's Mom

Stephen Tobolwsky - Uncle Ubb

Elmarie Wendel - Aunt Grizelda

Danny Cooksey - Bret and Chet

Chris Renaud - Forest Animals

Crew

Director - Chris Renaud
Co-Director - Kyle Balda
Based on the Book "The Lorax" - Dr. Seuss
Screenplay/Executive Producer/Songs - Cinco Paul
Screenplay/Executive
Producer - Ken Daurio
Executive Producer - Audrey Geisel
Producers - Janet Healy and Christopher Meledandri
Production/Character

Designer - Yarrow Cheney

Art Director/Character
Designer - Eric Guillon
Character Designers - Jeremie Moreau, Carter Goodrich and Robin Joseph

Character Designer/Colorist - Colin Stimpson

Story Supervisor - Dave Rosenbaum

Story Consultant - Mike Reiss
Animation Director - Lionel Gallat

Animation Supervisor - Laurent De La Chapelle

Supervising Animators - Pierre Avon, Nicolas Bauduin, Jean Hemez, Fabrice Joubert, Pierre Leduc and Julien Soret
Computer Graphics Supervisor - Bruno Chauffard

Co-Computer Graphics Supervisor - Simon Thomas
Lighting Supervisor - Nicolas Brack
Rough Layout Supervisor - Regis Schuller
Editors - Claire Dodgson,
Steven Liu and Ken Schretzmann
Sound Designer/Supervising Sound

Editor/Re-Recording Mixer - Randy Thom

Supervising Sound Editor - Dennis Leonard

ADR/Dialogue Supervisor - Daniel Laurie

Re-Recording Mixer - Gary A. Rizzo

Foley Artists - Sean England,

Dennie Thorpe, Jana Vance and

Ronni Brown (Uncredited)

Foley Mixer - Frank Rinella

Songs/Music - John Powell

Executive Song Producer - Christopher Stewart

Score Recordist and Mixer - Shawn Murphy

Review

I have already been disappointed by the adaptation from the beloved children's author, Dr. Seuss, with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which failed to deliver a worthy experience for me except for Jim Carrey's hilarious and grouchy performance. After being so disappointed by this movie, I've decided not to watch another Dr. Seuss movie. Critics compared THE LORAX as having similar messages to Disney/Pixar's WALL-E. It was an animated musical adaptation from the same makers known to have created Despicable Me. THE LORAX is Illumination's second animation feature to date, and it has that social message to teach children how to save the environment. Unfortunately, it destroys the complete ambiguity in the original book that carries its meaning.

I'm not thrilled with some of the voice acting of Zac Efron and Taylor Swift. I preferred Danny DeVito, who has very expressive and charismatic acting talents that defined the title character's personality. Unfortunately, he is no Jim Carrey, which leads to some of the movie's shortcomings. The feature adaptation's watch-ability is severely limited by dated pop-cultural references, lightheartedness, a rushed plot and few added characters. These are nothing more than attempts at expansion that tried to convince audiences that it would be as great as the source material.

I enjoyed THE LORAX more than The Grinch or The Cat in the Hat. The animation is colourful and is true to the original vision of Dr. Seuss's art style. Overall, this big-screen interpretation of the book may well be average. It's somewhat disappointing for readers of the original story. However, this movie could be enjoyable for the little ones who have yet to read more of Dr. Seuss.

Star rating: (5/10) Average

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