Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

"Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who" was a great homage to Suess' work of the same name made a number of years ago. Well, I must say, "Dr. Suess' The Lorax" carries on that same homage which I think would've made him proud.

A 12-year-old boy, Ted (Zac Efron) searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams-- Audrey (Taylor Swift). To find it he must discover the story of The Lorax (Danny DeVito), the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.
This is told to him by his Grammy Norma (Betty White), who remembers stories of lore. She tells him how all the trees disappeared and what and who caused it. Yes, this is what Audrey wants- to see a real, living tree, something we all take for granted. Grammy tells Ted to go outside of town, which is called Thneedville, and contact The Once-ler (Ed Helms) who then tells him more of his involvement of what happened to the trees and how The Lorax tried to warn him. With all the trees gone, people like Mr. O'Hare (Rob Riggle) took advantage of this and started selling bottled air to the citizens of the town by manipulating them so as to get more money. So he has everything invested to make sure the people don't find out about the trees, hence the politics.

Others to round out the cast are Jenny Slate as Ted's Mom, Nasim Pedrad as Once-ler's Mom, Joel Sweto as 1st Marketing Guy, Michael Beattie as 2nd Marketing guy, Stephen Tobolowsky as Uncle Ubb, Elmarie Wendel as Aunt Grizelda, and Danny Cooksey as Brett/Chet.

This was crisply directed by Chris Renaud ("Despicable Me" '10) and his "Despicable Me 2" is being filmed. And it was co-directed by Kyle Balda. It was written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul based on Dr. Suess' book. These guys might have taken a few too many liberties with Suess' work, but not enough to take away from that Suess stamp.

If you're a Suess fan, you will love this. But even if you're not, I still think you'll like this, if for no other reason than to see a film that promotes the environment and points out how the corporate world just exploits us and our planet all for money and greed. This is a great family film in that parents can let their kids see an entertaining film and be taught a viable lesson of how not to treat the planet. Dr. Suess was such a visionary with an entertaining slant. This is presented in 3D also.

Out of 4 stars: 3.5                        Rated: PG                        86min.