I've yet to be anything but disappointed by feature film adaptations of Dr. Seuss books. Partly that's because the live action adaptations have all featured garish, lurid attempts at approximating Suess's visual style, but mainly it's a matter of length. Suess's books were exactly the right length for the stories they were telling. The animated adaptations were all exactly the length needed to tell the story told in the book, no more and no less. It's been my experience that all of the added material dilutes the power of the story, rather than adds to it.
The CBS adaptation of "The Lorax" was perfect. It took exactly the right amount of time to tell more or less exactly Suess's story. Bob Holt was perfect as both the Onceler and the Lorax. The new movie is both unnecessary and sure to be another disappointment.
That being said, the trailer left me more optimistic than usual:
Like "Horton Hears a Who", they've at least got the visual look of the movie exactly right. And the inevitable expansions all seem to support the theme of the story rather than run counter to it. The love interest merely provides an additional vehicle for the boy to find out what's he's been deprived of. The rosy artificiality of the neighborhood with the plastic trees and fake sky is almost more sinister than the the barren wasteland of the original. Danny DeVito is terrific casting as the Lorax; I believe his voice could come out of that creature, and his narration for Matilda gives me confidence that he can pull of the wise and solemn side of the Lorax as well as the humorous side. Showing the Onceler as a young man is arguably the most controversial change to the story, but I don't really have a problem with it.
The make it or break it moment's going to come at the end; will they have the courage to leave the story in a melancholy ambiguous place, or will they feel obligated to give the story a happy ending where all of the consequences of the Onceler's actions are put firmly in the rear view mirror?
The CBS adaptation of "The Lorax" was perfect. It took exactly the right amount of time to tell more or less exactly Suess's story. Bob Holt was perfect as both the Onceler and the Lorax. The new movie is both unnecessary and sure to be another disappointment.
That being said, the trailer left me more optimistic than usual:
Like "Horton Hears a Who", they've at least got the visual look of the movie exactly right. And the inevitable expansions all seem to support the theme of the story rather than run counter to it. The love interest merely provides an additional vehicle for the boy to find out what's he's been deprived of. The rosy artificiality of the neighborhood with the plastic trees and fake sky is almost more sinister than the the barren wasteland of the original. Danny DeVito is terrific casting as the Lorax; I believe his voice could come out of that creature, and his narration for Matilda gives me confidence that he can pull of the wise and solemn side of the Lorax as well as the humorous side. Showing the Onceler as a young man is arguably the most controversial change to the story, but I don't really have a problem with it.
The make it or break it moment's going to come at the end; will they have the courage to leave the story in a melancholy ambiguous place, or will they feel obligated to give the story a happy ending where all of the consequences of the Onceler's actions are put firmly in the rear view mirror?
