Review of The Lorax Movie

I was recently asked if I would be interested in review this new movie. Sadly I was unable to attend but  asked a lovely young friend Kate if she would take on the task. This is her review and I think it sounds like a great movie. So thank you so much Kate for filling in for me she did a wonderful job.

'The Lorax' is a new film out this year from the brilliant mind of Dr.Seuss and the wonderful animation styling of Illumination Entertainment who also bought us the joys of 'Despicable Me'.

The film is an adaptation from the original book that was written and illustrated by Dr.Seuss in the 1970's; however, with the combination of an amazing animation company such as Illumination Entertainment, a voice cast including Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Danny Devito and produced by Universal Pictures, you know that the adaptation has done the book and the creativity of Dr.Seuss justice.

The storyline to the film is relatively simple, which is understandable considering the target audience of this film is children, however, whilst watching the film it wasn't only the children that I heard laughing in the audience. This film is a film that anyone can enjoy; the use of imaginative characters, scenes and dialogue all contribute to create a film with depth, character, creativity and a moral that is nicely disguised underneath a facade of colour and humour.

The audience is grabbed straight away as the film opens with a town singing session that helps to explain the way the characters in 'Thnedd-Ville' have lived ever since the trees where chopped down and the air was filled with smoggy fumes. It doesn't take long though for the story to get started as the audience is shown the world that once was, a world where there was trees that are full of colour and softer than silk and the eventual downfall of this once beautiful and peaceful forest through the hands of 'The Once-ler' (Voiced by Ed Helms), the inventor of the Thneed that inspired the idea for Thneed-Ville. The Once-ler stumbles upon this beautiful forestry after travelling around trying to find the perfect material for his future invention that would make him rich and famous, and once he spots the trees, he knows he’s about to make it big time. However his plans are interrupted when he chops down just one of the trees, and in the dramatic fashion that only animations can create, a Lorax appears (The Keeper of the Trees) to warn The Once-ler of the dangers of cutting down this forest, unfortunately in true money grabbing spirit this warning has no effect on The Once-ler once he realises how popular his product will be, this leads to the demise of the forest and of the way of life for the creatures that inhabited the forest. 

Now, you can tell if a storyline has an impact on an audience simply by sitting through a screening with an excessive amount of children all aged 5 - 10 sitting around you, with their complimentary packs of popcorn and their balloon creations that they had obtained from the people in the foyer earlier popping throughout the entirety of the film, so these were some pretty content little children, however, when it comes to the crux of the story where the audience is shown the devastation The Once-ler has created, a single child in the audience somewhere behind me starts to sniff and snivel and eventually starts to cry as that last tree is cut down and falls dramatically to the ground. To me, that was a sign that this film could be understood by these children and they could understand what was happening and the effects of what The Once-ler was doing, even if they can't comprehend the entirety of the film or the moral, they still have a vague understanding which I found quite impressive. 

This film surprised me, I wasn't expecting to enjoy the film too much but it had me laughing away at the humour they had included in it and it had me feeling sorrow for the poor creatures who had their home destroyed by The Once-ler, through animation they have created a film that allows you to escape to an alternate and weird world and witness a unique way of getting across the moral for keeping the environment a cleaner place. Personally, I enjoyed this film far too much for someone my age and it reminded me why I wanted to get into animation; it was moving and motivational as well as visually beautiful and wonderfully animated.