Some First Looks From The Lorax Movie

Those of you who follow the animation world presumably already know about the CG adaptation of Dr. Suess’ classic environmental parable The Lorax being produced by new kid on the block Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me). They had previously released a pic of the titular speaker for the trees, voiced by Danny DeVito (come on, how could they not cast Wilford Brimley? Look at that pic!) Now Illumination, via EW.com, is giving us our first look at the film’s anti-hero, The Once-ler.

For those unfamiliar with Dr. Suess’ book (or who just don’t really remember), the story is told to us by the Once-ler — or rather to a nameless little boy who represents us. The Once-ler lives alone in the gloomy remnants of the factory he founded to produce Thneeds, which were basically Snuggies. Thneeds were made from Truffula Trees. In the flashback main body of the story, we see the Once-ler’s discovery of the Truffula paradise and his subsequent destruction of it, which brings The Lorax to try/fail to save the doomed trees. In both the framing device and in the flashback, all we ever see of the Once-ler are his arms and briefly his eyes…

Illumination is honoring this presentation in the dystopian bookends…

But in the flashbacks the Once-ler (voiced by Ed Helms) will be seen as a human.

This pic presumably represents the moment the Once-ler chops down his first Truffula tree. This change makes perfect sense. The Once-ler is the tragic hero of The Lorax, whose downfall comes at the hands of his own indifference and greed, and whose arc gives us our moral — which the Once-ler imparts to the nameless boy (us) in the book’s final scene. Having your protagonist be a pair of faceless arms works just fine in a 45-page picture book, but that would’ve made for a weird movie, unless they changed things up to make The Lorax more of a Super Mario hero, waging a battle in a magical land against a shadowy Dr. Claw-esque villain; which would only be a satisfying tale if The Lorax won at the end. And that kinda undermines the entire point of the book’s cautionary message. I think Illumination has taken the smarter approach, allowing The Lorax to keep his Obi-Wan position.