The Lorax | |
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Directed by | Chris Renaud |
Screenplay by | Cinco Paul Ken Daurio |
Based on | The Lorax by Dr. Seuss |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Edited by |
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Music by | John Powell [1] |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 86 minutes [3] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $70 million [4] |
Box office | $351.4 million [4] [5] |
The Lorax (also known as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax) is a 2012 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, and distributed by Universal. The film is the second screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss' 1971 children's book The Lorax following the 1972 animated television special. Directed by Chris Renaud, co-directed by Kyle Balda, produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy and written by the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (who also served as executive producers alongside Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel), it stars the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, Jenny Slate and Betty White.
The film builds on the book by expanding the story of the Lorax and Ted, the previously unnamed boy who visits the Once-ler. The idea for the film was initiated by Geisel, who had an established partnership with Meledandri from a collaboration on Horton Hears a Who! (2008). Geisel approached Meledandri with the idea when he launched Illumination. The film was officially announced in 2009 with the creative team attached, and by 2010, DeVito was cast as the titular character. John Powell composed the score, and also wrote the film's songs alongside Paul. The animation was produced in France by the studio Illumination Mac Guff (the animation department of Mac Guff that was acquired by Illumination in 2011).
The Lorax globally premiered at Universal Studios in Hollywood on February 19, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 2, in IMAX, 3D (known in the film exclusively as "Tree-D") and 2D. Critics praised the animation, music and voice acting but criticized the characters and story, while the marketing received backlash for its perceived contradictions to the book's original message. Despite these criticisms, The Lorax was a commercial success, grossing $351 million worldwide against a budget of $70 million. [4]
Twelve-year-old Ted Wiggins lives in Thneedville, a walled city where all vegetation is artificial. Ted is infatuated with a teenage girl named Audrey and decides to impress her with a "real tree". His grandmother, Norma, tells him about a reclusive man known as the "Once-ler", who is said to know what happened to the trees. Ted leaves Thneedville and discovers that the land outside of his home town is a barren, contaminated wasteland. He finds the Once-ler, who agrees to tell Ted the story of the trees over multiple visits. The next time he tries to leave town, Ted encounters Thneedville's greedy mayor, Aloysius O'Hare, whose company sells the bottled air that is the town’s only source of fresh oxygen. Explaining that trees and the oxygen they produce pose a threat to his business, O'Hare tries to intimidate Ted into staying in town, but Ted continues to visit the Once-ler.
The Once-ler recounts how, as a young inventor, he arrived in a lush forest of Truffula trees. After chopping down a Truffula to create a knitted garment known as a Thneed, he was confronted by the Lorax, the self-proclaimed "guardian of the forest". The Lorax made him promise not to cut down any more trees. The Once-ler harvested the Truffula tufts in a sustainable manner until his unscrupulous relatives arrived to help him with his business and convinced him to resume cutting down trees, which led to large profits, but also deforestation and pollution. After the last tree was cut down, the Once-ler's business folded and the Lorax vanished into the sky, leaving behind a stone platform etched with the word "Unless".
The Once-ler gives Ted the last Truffula seed and urges him to plant it. Ted returns home, but is spotted by O'Hare's city-wide surveillance system. Enlisting the help of Audrey and his family, Ted flees to the center of town with the seed. O'Hare chases him and rallies the citizens against Ted, saying trees are dangerous and filthy. Ted uses a bulldozer to knock down a section of the city wall, revealing the environmental desolation outside. Inspired by Ted's conviction, the crowd turns on O'Hare, whose henchmen banish him, and the seed is finally planted. As time passes, the land begins to recover, and the Lorax returns.
The Lorax is the fourth feature film based on a book by Dr. Seuss, the second fully computer-animated adaptation (the first one being Horton Hears a Who! in 2008), and the first to be released in 3D. The Lorax was also Illumination Entertainment's first film presented in IMAX 3D (known as "IMAX Tree-D" in publicity for the film). [13] The idea for the film was initiated by Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss's widow, who had an established partnership with producer Chris Meledandri from a collaboration on Horton Hears a Who!. Geisel approached Meledandri when he launched Illumination, saying "This is the one I want to do next". [14] The film was officially announced in July 2009, with Meledandri attached as the producer and Geisel as the executive producer. Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda were announced as the director and co-director of the film, while Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, the duo who wrote the script for Horton Hears a Who! and Illumination's previous films, were set to write the screenplay. [15] In 2010, Danny DeVito was cast as the voice of the Lorax character. [16]
The film was fully produced at the French studio Illumination Mac Guff, which was the animation department of Mac Guff, acquired by Illumination Entertainment in the summer of 2011. [17] DeVito reprised his role in five different languages, including the original English audio, and also for the Russian, German, Italian, Catalan/Valencian, Castillan Spanish and Latin Spanish dub editions, learning his lines phonetically. [18] Universal added an environmental message to the film's website after a fourth-grade class in Brookline, Massachusetts, launched a successful petition through Change.org. [19]
The film was released on March 2, 2012, in the United States and Canada, and later on July 27, in the United Kingdom. It was also the first film to feature the current Universal Pictures logo, with a rearranged version of the fanfare, originally composed by Jerry Goldsmith and composed and arranged by Brian Tyler, as part of the studio's 100th anniversary. [20]
Despite the original Lorax being made as a critique of capitalism and pollution, [21] [22] [23] Mazda used the likeness of The Lorax's setting and characters in an advertisement for their CX-5 SUV. [24] This was seen by some as the complete opposite of the work's original message. [25] In response, Stephanie Sperber, president of Universal partnerships and licensing, said Universal chose to partner with the Mazda CX-5 because it is "a really good choice for consumers to make who may not have the luxury or the money to buy electric or buy hybrid. It's a way to take the better environmental choice to everyone." [26]
The film has also been used to sell Seventh Generation disposable diapers. [27] In total, Illumination Entertainment struck more than 70 different product integration deals for the film, [28] including IHOP, Whole Foods and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. [29]
The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray on August 7, 2012. Three mini-movies were released on the Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack: Serenade, Wagon Ho! and Forces of Nature; [30] In Serenade, Lou wants to impress a female Barbaloot, but he has some competition. In Wagon Ho!, two Barbaloots Pipsqueak and Lou take the Once-ler's wagon without asking his permission for a joyride. And in Forces of Nature, the Lorax makes Pipsqueak an "Honorary Lorax" and they team up to try to scare the Once-ler.
Blockdot created a mobile puzzle game based on the film, titled Truffula Shuffula. The game was released on February 1, 2012, for iOS and Android platforms. [31]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Lorax holds an approval rating of 54% based on 156 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is cute and funny enough but the moral simplicity of the book gets lost with the zany Hollywood production values." [32] On Metacritic, the film achieved a score of 46 out of 100 based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [33] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. [34]
New York magazine film critic David Edelstein on NPR's All Things Considered strongly objected to the film, arguing that the Hollywood animation and writing formulas washed out the spirit of the book. [35] He wrote that this kind of animated feature was wrong for the source material. Demonstrating how the book's text was used in the film in this excerpt from the review, Edelstein discusses Audrey describing the truffula trees to Ted:
The touch of their tufts was much softer than silk and they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk – and [in the movie] Ted says, "Wow, what does that even mean?" and Audrey says, "I know, right?" So one of the only lines that is from the book, that does have Dr. Seuss' sublime whimsy, is basically made fun of, or at least, dragged down to Earth.
The film also garnered some positive reviews from critics such as Richard Roeper, who called it a "solid piece of family entertainment". [36] Roger Moore of the Pittsburgh Tribune called the film "a feast of bright, Seuss colors, and wonderful Seuss design", and supported its environmentalist message. [37]
The film grossed $214.5 million in North America, and $136.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $351.4 million. [4] [5]
The film topped the North American box office with $17.5 million on its opening day (Friday, March 2, 2012). [38] During the weekend, it grossed $70.2 million, easily beating the other new nationwide release, Project X ($21 million), and all other films. [39] This was the biggest opening for an Illumination Entertainment film, [40] and for a feature film adaptation of a book by Dr. Seuss, [41] as well as the second-largest for an environmentalist film. [42] It also scored the third-best debut for a film opening in March, [43] and the eighth-best of all time for an animated film. [44] The Lorax stayed at No. 1 the following weekend, dropping 45% to $38.8 million and beating all new nationwide releases, including Disney's John Carter (second place). [45]
On April 11, 2012, it became the first animated film in nearly a year to gross more than $200 million in North America, since Walt Disney Animation Studios' Tangled . [46] [47]
The film has garnered popularity online as the basis for Internet memes, with scenes such as the Lorax's departure gaining popularity on TikTok. [48] In particular, the film's version of the Once-ler developed a notable fandom on Tumblr, with many users creating fan art, fan fiction, cosplay, and even alternative versions of the character to ship with each other. [49] This fandom lead to the character being labeled as the first instance of a "Tumblr sexyman", a term for fictional characters with massive popularity as sex symbols on Tumblr. [50] The Once-ler fandom is particularly associated with Tumblr's LGBT community. [51]
The soundtrack for the film was composed by John Powell, who had previously composed the score for Horton Hears a Who! (2008), and the songs were written by Cinco Paul. [52] There were two soundtrack albums released for the film, the first being Powell's film score and the other being the original songs written by Powell and Paul performed by various artists. Original songs written for the film include "Thneedville", "This is the Place", "Everybody Needs a Thneed", "How Bad Can I Be?", and "Let It Grow".
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American children's author and cartoonist. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.
The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden is a sculpture garden at the Quadrangle in Springfield, Massachusetts, which honors Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, who was born in Springfield in 1904. The monument was designed by Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, the author's stepdaughter, and created by sculptor and artist Ron Henson.
The Lorax is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, the main character, who "speaks for the trees" and confronts the Once-ler, a business magnate who causes environmental destruction.
In Search of Dr. Seuss is a 1994 American television film chronicling the adventures of a news reporter, Kathy Lane, who enters the world of Dr. Seuss by opening a magical book. Also starring are Matt Frewer, Christopher Lloyd, Andrea Martin, David Paymer, Patrick Stewart, Andraé Crouch, Robin Williams and Eileen Brennan.
The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Bo Welch in his directorial debut and written by Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer. Loosely based on Dr. Seuss's 1957 book of the same name, it was the second and final live-action Dr. Seuss adaptation after How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). The film stars Mike Myers in the title role along with Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Amy Hill and Sean Hayes in supporting roles.
Horton Hears a Who! is a 2008 American animated adventure comedy film based on the 1954 book of the same name by Dr. Seuss, produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, from a screenplay written by the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. It stars the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell as Horton the Elephant and Mayor Ned McDodd, respectively, alongside Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, and Amy Poehler. Recurring Blue Sky collaborator John Powell composed the film's musical score. It is the fourth screen adaptation of the book following the 1970 Chuck Jones television special, the 1987 Soviet animated short, and the 1992 Russian animated short.
Audrey Grace Florine Stone was the second wife of American children's book author Theodor Geisel, to whom she was married from 1968 until his death in 1991. She founded Dr. Seuss Enterprises in 1993, and was president and CEO of the company until her death in 2018.
Chris Renaud is an American filmmaker, designer, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He is best known for his work at Illumination, including directing the company's animated films such as the first, second, and fourth films in the Despicable Me franchise (2010–present), the first two of which he co-directed with Pierre Coffin, The Lorax (2012), The Secret Life of Pets (2016) and its sequel The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019). He also voiced the Minions in the first two films in the Despicable Me franchise and Norman in The Secret Life of Pets franchise, the former which he co-created with Coffin. Renaud received nominations for two Academy Awards for the Ice Age short film No Time for Nuts (2006) and Despicable Me 2 (2013).
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a Christmas children's book by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It follows the Grinch, a cranky, solitary creature who attempts to thwart the public's Christmas plans by stealing Christmas gifts and decorations from the homes of the nearby town of Whoville on Christmas Eve. Miraculously, the Grinch realizes that Christmas is not all about money and presents.
Illumination, formerly known as Illumination Entertainment, is an American animation studio founded by Chris Meledandri on Janaury 17, 2007, after leaving 20th Century Fox Animation and is a division of Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal; Meledandri produces the films, while Universal finances and distributes them. The studio is best known for creating the Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing franchises, as well as the adaptations of Dr. Seuss' books The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; and Nintendo video games, starting with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Minions, characters from the Despicable Me series, are the mascots of the studio.
The Lorax is a musical Dr. Seuss animated special produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises which first aired as a television special on CBS in the United States on February 14, 1972, and in Canada on CBC Television on October 22, 1972. The special was written by Theodor Geisel, based on his 1971 book of the same name.
Christopher Meledandri is an American film producer and founder and CEO of Illumination. He previously served as President of 20th Century Fox Animation, and has worked as the producer for the film series of Ice Age, Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing. In 2021, he joined Nintendo's board of directors after working with the video game company on The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Meledandri also collaborates with Illumination's corporate sibling DreamWorks Animation.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, published over 60 children's books over the course of his long career. Though most were published under his well-known pseudonym, Dr. Seuss, he also authored a certain amount of books as Theo. LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone.
The political messages of American children's author and cartoonist Theodor Seuss Geisel, best known as Dr. Seuss, are found in many of his books. Seuss was a liberal and a moralist who expressed his views in his books through the use of ridicule, satire, wordplay, nonsense words, and wild drawings to take aim at bullies, hypocrites, and demagogues.
Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio are American screenwriters, collaborating on the screenplays for animated films including the Despicable Me franchise, Horton Hears a Who, The Lorax and The Secret Life of Pets. The duo also served as the co-creators of the 2021 Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon!, with Paul also serving as the series songwriter and executive producer.
Kyle Balda is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud; Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), with Pierre Coffin; and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. He previously worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic before moving to Pixar where he worked on three of their films.
The Grinch, also known as Dr. Seuss' The Grinch, is a 2018 American animated Christmas comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination, and distributed by Universal. The third screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss' 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, following the 1966 television special and the 2000 live-action feature-length film, it is Illumination's second Dr. Seuss film adaptation, after The Lorax in 2012. The plot follows the Grinch and his pet dog Max who plan to stop Whoville's Christmas celebration by stealing all the town's decorations and gifts.
The Lorax is a stage adaptation of the children's novel of the same name by Dr. Seuss, with the Television Special And The 2012 Film Adaptation adapted by David Greig and featuring songs by Charlie Fink.
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: Original Songs from the Motion Picture and Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: Original Motion Picture Score are the albums released for the 2012 animated musical film The Lorax (2012), based on Dr. Seuss's children's book of the same name, following the 1972 animated television special. The first album consisted of several original songs written for the film, released on February 21, 2012 by Interscope Records. The second album consisted of original score composed by John Powell and released on February 28 by Back Lot Music.
In the 3D-CG version of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, we focus on Ted Wiggins, a 12-year-old boy in search of a living tree for the girl he adores.