AC10: Random Movie Review - The Lorax

So for many years, a lot of Dr. Seuss's books have been adapted into films. Some are animated, some a live-action. But the one thing many of us agree on is that most of them are either a complete betrayal of the source material or keep the source material in tact, but give us stuff in it that we don't need. In light of a new Grinch film coming out later next year, I decided to check out a couple of Seuss films that I haven't as of yet reviewed. Today we look at the Lorax. Made by the same people behind the Despicable Me films as well as being the second film they did following the first of those films, this could very well be good or bad. But as the song goes, how bad can it be. Well let's find out:

Set in the fictional city of Thneedville, a city that has little to nothing environmentally friendly, we meet Ted (voiced by High School Musical's Zac Efron) who has a crush on a local enviromentalist named Audrey (voiced by pop star Taylor Swift) who just wants to see a real tree instead of an artifical one. Determined to go out with her, Ted sets about finding this so called tree by leaving the city. Of course, outside the city it is a wasteland and in his travels, Ted meets the unseen Once-ler (voiced by a member of the Wolfpack, Ed Helms) who tells over a series of visits, his story on the condition that Ted keeps the trees a secret, even from the mayor who wants him to stay in Thneedville. The story of course involves the titular Lorax (voiced by the legendary Danny DeVito) and his mission to protect the trees.

The film isn't too bad really, but for what should've been a very simple book to adapt, ends up being confusing at points and not completely betray the book, but it works towards that stage. But despite that, its visually impressive which for a company that at that time were only just starting to make feature films, is quite a feat to get to. The characters a pretty predictable which isn't great, but the songs are pretty good even if some of them don't quite fit into the film. So yeah its a hit or miss with me, but its one that can keep the kids entertained for a while. 7/10