"Unless someone cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
I made the mistake of attributing this quote to the Lorax in my story in the Learning section of the Feb. 27th Inquirer. The words are actually from an older, poorer, wiser and contrite Once-ler, a central character in this cautionary tale from the universally beloved Dr. Seuss.
If you haven't read the book and if you have children in the house who haven't either, I suggest you get a copy and read it (easy at 71 pages) before you all go see the movie, which is scheduled to be shown in March.
"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" owes its animated 3D version to Universal and Illumination Entertainment, the same team that brought us the immensely wicked and enjoyable "Despicable Me". It features the voices of Danny DeVito as the Lorax, Zac Efron as the boy Ted, Taylor Swift as the girl Audrey, Betty White as the grandma, and Ed Helms as the Once-ler.
The book says nothing about why the boy has wandered into the Street of the Lifted Lorax, but the movie gives him a reason for being there.
"It' a girl, right?" guesses the Once-ler whom the boy seeks out for information on where he can get a real tree.
You see, where Ted and Audrey live (Thneed-ville in the new movie) there are no trees, this being long after the Once-ler and his factory have denuded and degraded the place. Now the town is entirely artificial but for the folks who live there. Thus Audrey's fondest wish is to see a real truffula tree.
The boy has no name in the book, and the girl is not even in the original story, but both are given names in the movie. I like it that they are named after Dr. Seuss, whose real name is Theodore Seuss Geisel (Ted for short), and his wife Audrey.
I've read that Geisel's widow gave a lot of input during the filming, so I have high hopes that this won't be one of those movies that are disastrously far removed from the original material.
Dr. Seuss first published "The Lorax" in 1971, long before Al Gore became the poster boy for global warming due to all kinds of human abuse of the planet. The story is amusing for its use of invented words and clever rhymes, a Seuss trademark (great for teaching phonetic reading to beginning readers) and distinctive illustrations (the trees, in candy colors, look delicious enough to eat).
Beyond this whimsical presentation, however, is a message that seems to have been made to-order for the present time.
Massive floodings? Frequent landslides? We all know what brings about these disasters.
"I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues," says the Lorax to the enterprising Once-ler who has started to cut down the truffula trees at an alarming speed to mass produce "thneeds" or "the things that man needs". We all know that many "thneeds" are really not "needs" but "wants," don't we? Unlike the Lorax, however, we don't put up a fight.
The Once-ler, consumed by greed, doesn't heed the pleas of the Lorax and plunders what is once a paradise for the brown Barbaloots, the Swamee Swans and the Humming Fish. Trees are felled not just to make thneeds but also to make way for a factory and houses for the families who work the assembly line.
Soon after the last truffula tree is axed down, the place turns into a ghost town, breaking the Lorax's heart so bad it lifted itself up and out a hole in the sky.
Is there salvation for the world after this? Fret not because from Dr. Seuss' pen always comes a stroke of hope. The Once-ler, that dirty scoundrel, has saved a tiny truffula tree seed, it turns out. And this is where the "unless" quote comes in handy.
Dr. Seuss came out with a short-film version of "The Lorax" for television in 1972. Logging companies vehemently fought the airing of the short animation, so I've read, and that was that. Almost two decade later, when people had become more concerned about the environment, "The Lorax" was re-issued on VHS format, just in time for my children to enjoy it in their childhood years.
A remastered deluxe edition of this short-film in DVD format was released on Valentine's Day. Also, a pop-up edition of the book.
As for the new full-length 3D movie, it will be screened in the United States on March 2 on the occasion of the 108th birthday of Dr. Seuss.
It is slated for showing locally on March 14, which is too bad because by then the kids will be deep in final exams, if not already off on vacation. There won't be time for teachers to use "The Lorax" story to teach about conservation, about materialism and about the ill effects of progress.
I remember infecting a gifted class of fifth and sixth graders with my enthusiasm for Dr. Seuss. They had as much fun with "The Lorax" as I did teaching it, and what was nice was, well, it wasn't empty fun. (We also took up "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in this Language Arts class around Christmas.)
Unfortunately, I cannot find my lesson plans for these Seuss stories, or I would have posted them here. But I know they will turn up one day when I'm not looking for them and when they do, I will definitely share them with our readers.
The possibilities for teaching a classic like "The Lorax" are almost limitless. You can plan all kinds of age-appropriate activities for the kids in their art, science, language and values classes. And the teaching doesn't have to be left to classroom teachers only.
Parents will get as much satisfaction from imparting to their kids the ideas and values in both the book and the movie. "The Lorax" is definitely a family story and will make for a great dinner-time family discussion.
The local distributors of "The Lorax," United International Pictures and Solar Entertainment, have teamed up with Greenpeace on a massive eco-awareness contest for students. For more, check out the Feb. 27, 2012 Learning section story on "The Lorax" (just click on the blue title).
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