Thursday, March 8, 2012

Message from the Movies: The Lorax

Last night my friend, her boy, Brad, and I ventured to the theatres to watch the film of The Lorax (not in 3D).  I love Dr Seuss' book and the environmental message it carries, and thus I had been really excited for the movie.  The Lorax, both book and film, have strong environmental themes regarding deforestation and water and air pollution.  It also speaks against greed and the capitalist system.


The Lorax is the guardian of the forest.  When a young man comes in and begins chopping down trees to make his thneeds, the Lorax tries to convince him to stop.  It is to no avail though as the young man's own desires outweigh his conscious as he does whatever he needs to continue "bigger-ing and bigger-ing" his company and wealth.  The forest, animals, and all of nature pay the price until there is nothing left.  In the film, history somewhat repeats itself as the citizens of Thneedville live their lives in completely artificial environments having to purchase even bottled air to breathe.  Until a couple of kids decided they do still care about the trees, that is.


I believe that caring is the ultimate message of this story.  That is what I hope children and adults alike will take away from the book or the film. Care about what you're doing to the planet and yourself.

Unfortunately at the end of the movie when I left the theater, I didn't feel quite as moved or inspired as I had hoped I would.  The movie was still enjoyable, and it carried a great message with it.  I just didn't find anything too special about it.  The Lorax certainly wasn't up to the standards set by WALL-E.  Now there is an environmentally charged film everyone should check out!





Have you seen The Lorax or WALL-E?  What did you think?

1 comment:

  1. Oh, Jonah especially, but all of my kids want to see this movie so bad! Jonah's teacher is really good at bringing life lessons into her teaching and Jonah has told me all about the repurcussions on the environment by people. We'll have to go perhaps to a cheap theatre.
    I do agree, Wall-E was fantastic!

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