Lorax vs Lorax

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.