The whimsy of Dr Seuss

Yesterday I took my kids to see Dr Seuss' The Lorax. I love Dr Seuss. Since I was a child Green eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish were 2 of my favorite books. I had never heard of The Lorax until the movie previews started on T.V. After some research (you know, I love to fill my head with stuff!) I found this book was first published in 1971, so it's rather odd that I have never heard nor seen it before. On March 2nd, the day the movie came out, libraries and schools all over celebrated Dr Seuss' birthday. The man behind the name and countless books/illustrations died in 1991, but he contributed much in the way of reading, notably children's books that kids and adults love.

So my mini review of The Lorax movie is as follows.

Let me start by saying that after seeing this film I would like to try to find the book to add to my kids collection. There are actually many of his books that I would like to still purchase for them. You have to look at the books carrying the Dr Seuss name/logo though because other writers attempted to carry on in a similar fashion as part of the collection after Dr Seuss' death. However not only are the illustrations not the same, the whimsical way in which Dr Seuss wrote is also not there; and in case you are not aware books by Theodor Geisel or Theodor LeSieg are also Dr Seuss himself. If want to know more about the author visit Seussville (link).

So what can I say about The Lorax movie? Go see it, or at least watch it when it comes to DVD (movies in theaters are so darn expensive!). I believe a child of any age will enjoy this movie ; there were all ages in the theater. What did I like about the movie? The movie had bright colors and the way it was animated was great. I will interject here and say that I saw it in 3D, however I don't feel that it added to the film, but that is just my opinion on all 3D films. If you have a choice go ahead and check it out in 2D unless you want to pay more for you movie experience. I also thought the movie was cute, for lack of a better word. It had humor mixed in with the serious nature of the story. I can't say much for acting because it was animated, but the voices of the actors all fit the movie very well.

Chances are if you are going to see this movie you are already pretty familiar with Dr Seuss stories and you might know that he often puts in some hidden story, or lesson, in each book. This gist of this story is about over-production and what it does to the earth. It has a save the trees, or save the planet, or what we call it today, a "green" message to it, done in a way that most kids should understand. There's really no shying away from this message, at least not for adults watching it with their kids.

The story, I found, has had some controversy about it and I would guess that could be true of some of his other stories. Why controversy? Well without going into a huge long drawn out post, it comes down to this; Dr Seuss' message was that too many factories, too much big business, too much greed kills the earth, harms our environment, makes us sick and forces us to live in a way nature did not intend. So what do I think about this? Well I sort-of agree. We are taking away the environment of the wildlife, of trees, etc and putting up malls, factories, housing complex's etc. Yes in many ways I do agree that greed is one reason why, however, I also know that in the state of the economy, building anything creates jobs in a county with a very high unemployment rating. Should we sacrifice the health of our planet? In a perfect world, no...and I would hope even not in a perfect world, but the fact remains in cases like oil refineries, it's unfortunate but we who live on this planet are dependent on such things and until/unless there is a feasible plan/alternative in place than we don't have much choice. Do I think we should sacrifice the wildlife or the health of us or future generations? No. So this is the dilemma and what sparks the controversy. Environmentalists want to end building the things they say are killing our planet...politicians are (okay some of them are) trying to help the American people survive on this planet the only way they know and that means #1, create jobs and put people back to work. Does that mean they need to build more and take away nature? NO. That means they should be bringing jobs BACK to America rather than sending them overseas.

I could go on and on and on about this subject but my post is already ridiculously long once again. So my rating on this film would be 4 out of 5 stars (hey there's always room for improvement, right? Well maybe not if you're Harrison Ford or Henry Cavill). The kids will enjoy it, and I think you will too. What's most loved about Dr Seuss' books are his whimsical ways of telling the story and you most certainly will find that in the movie as well.

EDIT : Wow..after reading some more reviews I am feeling like people are reading WAY more into this film than need be. The directed audience..kids under the age of 10...are NOT going to get the same message out of it as many adults, politicians and bloggers get out of it. Look..the movie is about protecting our environment...there is nothing wrong with that, it's where we live, we should want to protect it. I am just not getting the "demonizing corporations" as one article said, that apparently others are seeing. This is an adaptation of a book and likely it follows what Seuss wrote as he apparently was not shy on his political stance and often wrote in things about the world in which he lived.