Having been an avid reader for most of my life, I have slowly come to understand, acccept, and sometimes even welcome the changes that Hollywood makes to my favorite books. It wasn't until the Harry Potter movies that I was really able to embrace the idea of a movie as a new and different incarnation of a book I loved. Until then, I found myself leaving movie theaters, often steam issuing from my ears for the changes that producers and directors would dare to make to my beloved books. At any rate, nowadays I seldom find myself angry at a movie for going "off-book". Until now.
I grew up reading the Lorax. To be honest, it's the only Seuss besides the Grinch that I really adore. So when the teaser posters and trailers started appearing for the movie, I was more than a little excited. And then reality set in. This current movie incarnation isn't the Lorax. It doesn't even resemble the Lorax save for a few similar characters. And when I say a few, I mean it...the book has three basic characters, the movie seems to have about 57.
Now I understand that things need to be added to a children's picture book in order to turn it into a feature length film...but the Lorax already had a lot to go on...a lot. There is some pretty heavy plot in that bad boy, industrialization, environmental depletion, and hermit-induced depression. But hey, you know what this book really needs, a pre-teen love story, gender-based stereotypes, and turning the wise hero into a bathroom joke-spewing, curmudgeon. Box Office Gold!
So while I already have my tickets to see the Hunger Games, I'll be sitting the Lorax out.
Read the book, I can guarantee it's much better, and the brown barbaloots will thank you for it.
Posted by Erin B.
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