Friday 16 March 2012

The Lorax

Genre: comedy musical film.
Adapted from: Dr. Seusss' children's book of the same name.
Director: Chris Renaud , Kyle Balda.
Screenplay: Ken Daurio , Cinco Paul.
Cast: Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Rob Riggle, Betty White, Jenny Slate, Stephen  Tobolowsky, Nasim Pedrad, Danny Cooksey.

Plot: 
Ted Wiggins, an idealistic 12-year-old boy, lives in "Thneed-Ville", a walled city that, aside from the citizens, is completely artificial. He sets out to find the one thing that will win him the affection of Audrey, the girl of his dreams, who wishes to see a real tree. Ted's energetic grandmother suggests he speak with the Once-ler on the matter, and he discovers that their city has been closed off from the outside world, which is a contaminated and empty wasteland. The Once-ler agrees to tell Ted about the trees if he listens to his story over multiple visits. Ted agrees, even after the mayor of Thneed-Ville, Mr. O'Hare, who is also the greedy proprietor of a bottled oxygen company, confronts the boy and pressures him to stay in town.
Over the visits, the Once-ler recounts the story of how he met the Lorax, a grumpy yet charming creature who serves as guardian of the land he arrived in and actively resists his logging until the Once-ler agrees to desist. When the young businessman introduces a revolutionary invention from the native Truffula Tree's tufts, the thneed, it eventually becomes a major success and the Once-ler's family is brought in to participate in the business. Keeping his promise at first, Once-ler continues thneed production by harvesting the tufts themselves in a sustainable manner. Unfortunately, his greedy and lazy relatives convinced him to resume logging as a more efficient gathering method, and the destruction of the forest spirals into a mass overproduction. Flush with wealth, the Once-ler rationalized his short sighted greed into an arrogant self-righteousness that even co-opts the helpless protests of the Lorax for his own ends. As a result, he completely depleted the forest while making the region uninhabitable with his business' pollution. With that, the Once-ler was left ruined and abandoned by his family and became a recluse with the creation and isolation of Ted's town that came under Mr. O'Hare's control. Eventually, the Lorax sends the wildlife (and the Once-ler's mule) away before departing himself, leaving a stonecut word, "Unless."
At the end of the story, what began as Ted's desire to impress Audrey becomes an inspiration by the Once-ler's gift of the last Truffula Seed to plant it to remind his town of the importance of nature. Unfortunately, O'Hare is determined to not have trees undercut his business and takes heavy handed steps such as destroying Audrey's nature paintings and forcibly searching Ted's room for the seed. Ted is undeterred and enlists his family and Audrey to help plant the seed. O'Hare and his employees pursue the dissidents until they manage to elude him and reach the town center. Unfortunately, their attempt to plant the seed is interrupted by O'Hare who rallies the population to stop them. To convince them otherwise, Ted takes an earthmover and rams down a section of the city wall to reveal the environmental destruction outside. Horrified at the sight and inspired by Ted's conviction, the crowd defies O'Hare and the seed is planted. The trees start growing by the Once-ler's house and the Lorax and his friends come back. The Once-ler is happy that the Lorax came back and they both walk towards the Once-ler's house.

p/s : This film was freaking awesome. You guys should watch it... Double thumbs up !!! =)

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax.


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