Astonishing in its ability to offend both sides of the environmental debate, The Lorax is the latest bloated 3-D CGI studio mutation of a classic Dr. Seuss book from Universal Pictures. Zac Efron voices young Ted, who undertakes a quest to find the once-greedy Once-ler (Ed Helms) and figure out what happened to all the Truffula trees. Originally Ted just wants to impress a girl, but inspired by the Once-ler’s tale he rebels against his plastic town’s corporate control, a rebellion that takes the shape of anti-industrialization preaching justified with the shallowest of environmentalist arguments. What’s worse, any of the charm and wit of Seuss’ original story are but vestigial scraps, buried under mountains of kiddie-cartoon pablum and atrocious musical numbers. Rent Wall-E instead.
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2012.