Culture

If you were raised on the whimsical poetic meters and trippy cartoon drawing style of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) you may find the nauseating pace of the new 3D film version a tad too much sensory overload. There is just so much going on, and while you won’t want to miss out on the hectic experience, the noisy, fluorescent, and furious action often detracts from what is at the heart of this story – a cautionary allegory of ecological responsibility, which is just as relevant now as it was in the early seventies.

Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax transports us to the futuristic commercialised world of Thneedville, where the residents have lost their memories of nature and any referent for what is real – air is sold in bottles and trees are CGI projections up for purchase. The story begins with our protagonist, a plucky little kid named Ted (Zac Efron) who has a crush on pretty tree-hugging Audrey (Taylor Swift). Audrey wants to know what a real tree feels like and Ted decides that he’s just the boy to make that happen. After being directed to the home of the reclusive Once-ler (Ed Helm), the man responsible for chopping down the last of the Truffula trees, the musical narrative jumps between Ted’s courtship of Audrey and the Once-ler’s remorseful tale of greed and of his broken relationship with The Lorax (Danny DeVito), the grumpy guardian of the forest, the sympathetic speaker for the trees.

Don’t let the surge of sensory stimulus devalue what is central to Seuss’ story – it’s the trees (not the Thneeds) that everyone needs.

- Jane Ross