‘The Lorax’ is a movie that says greed is bad, plus Iranian Oscar winner ‘A Separation.’
While Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax was designed to entertain kids, the plot would make the Occupy Wall Street crowd jump for joy, along with environmentalists.
The inhabitants of Thneedville live in a totally artificial, plastic world with no plants or trees. This is a town where people pay for the air they breathe, a business controlled by a pint-sized villain named Mr. O’Hare (Rob Riggle).
Thneedville feels like an animated version of the world inhabited by Jim Carrey in The Truman Show. It isn’t quite real but nobody seems to care except Audrey (Taylor Swift), who knows that Thneedville was once filled with Trullula trees and her only desire is to see such a tree.
This quest inspires a 12-year-old named Ted (Zac Efron) to leave the city and find a hermit named Once-ler (Ed Helms) who knows all about the trees and what happened to them. Before long Ted, who has a crush on Audrey, is sneaking out of town (and the prying eyes of Mr. O’Hare) to talk with Once-ler and learn the secret of the lost trees and about the Lorax (Danny DeVito), the guardian of the forest.
As we learn about how Once-ler let greed ruin his life, the environment and his town, we also get to see a bunch of adorable forest critters including bears and singing fish.
When Ted obtains a Trullula tree seed, he is determined to plant it and that leads to a merry chase as O’Hare’s henchmen try to stop him.
The backstory about why trees are important and why greed is bad is fronted by a story that children can embrace, with plenty of screwball comedy and numerous chase scenes.
Created by the filmmakers behind Despicable Me, director Chris Renaud and animation layout supervisor Kyle Balda (who gets co-directing credit on The Lorax), Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is an enjoyable children’s film.
Iranian Oscar winner
With St. Patrick’s Day coming up this weekend, I’ve put together a list of my favorite movies with an Irish theme or locale. This list includes dramas, comedies, a drama with music, a movie with Sean Connery singing and, of course, the most popular Irish-themed movie in American film history.
It was Jennifer Lawrence’s fierceness and devotion to family as the memorable Ozark teen Ree in Winter’s Bone that likely showed she had the grit to play the fierce survivalist Katniss Everdeen in the hoped for next big movie franchise, kicking off with The Hunger Games, based on the insanely popular novel by Suzanne Collins.
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1. Martha said... on Mar 7, 2012 at 07:12PM
“And now everyone seems to be growing pet TickleMe Plant as it is a real animated pet like plant that closes its leaves and lowers its branches when Tickled. Search pet TickleMe plant and by all means grow one if you have kids or not.”
2. Anonymous said... on Mar 7, 2012 at 07:16PM
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