Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax

Based on the acclaimed 1971 children’s book, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax follows a scrappy teenager (Zac Efron’s Ted) as he leaves the confines of his small town, where natural vegetation has apparently been outlawed, to procure a tree for the girl of his dreams (Taylor Swift’s Audrey) – with the choppy narrative also, via flashbacks, exploring just what happened to the trees within the aforementioned town. Filmmaker Chris Renaud has infused Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax with a bright and vibrant animation style that immediately grabs the viewer’s interest, with the movie’s decidedly kid-oriented bent, as a result, initially not as problematic as one might’ve feared. (It does, however, go without saying that the 3-D upgrade is as useless and needless as ever.) The affable atmosphere persists right up until the first flashback rolls around, after which point it becomes increasingly clear that scripters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul have padded out the narrative to an almost unreasonable degree. It consequently does become harder and harder to work up any real interest in or enthusiasm for the characters’ ongoing exploits, with this feeling exacerbated by the rather one-dimensional nature of the various characters (ie both Efron’s Ted and Swift’s Audrey are almost unreasonably bland). And although some of the movie’s musical numbers are admittedly decent (eg the splashy “How Bad Can I Be?” interlude is an obvious highlight), Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is, for the most part, a terminally underwhelming animated endeavor that ultimately does a disservice to its literary predecessor (eg Ted’s interest in saving the environment lies solely in his hopes for impressing a girl).

*1/2 out of ****