Dr Seuss' The Lorax - Fifth Media Log

Summary:

                The story is about a city called Thneedville where everything, including the Truffula trees, is artificial and made out of plastic and its citizens is fine with it. The city was surrounded by walls in order to keep the citizens of Thneedville unaware of the environmental problems surrounding the walled city because there are no more trees. The city’s selfish Mayor, Aloysius O’Hare, was taking advantage of this fact and was able to sell air to the people.

                Ted, a boy from the city, wanted to find a real tree in order to gain the affection of a girl named, Audrey. Ted’s grandmother told him that a guy from outside the city called the Once-ler knows where the last Truffula seed is and Ted quickly sought out the Once-ler and urged to know the story behind the depleted trees around Thneedville. 

                Ted found out that the Once-ler was once an aspiring businessman wanted to sell the beautiful leaves of the Truffula trees called Thneed. The Lorax showed up when he cut down some trees to warn him about the consequences of cutting down all the trees. The Once-ler had stopped cutting but continued with his business. The Lorax was fine with this until the Once-ler’s family showed up and influenced him to cut the trees down to quicken the production of the Thneeds. Eventually, all the trees has been cut down, all of the animals that was once living in the place left, the Lorax and his family left and his business was shut down. 

                When the story of the Once-ler finally ended, he and Ted finally looked to a pile of rocks where the Lorax once stood and saw the word “Unless” engraved in one of the rocks. He then finally gave the last Truffula seed to Ted and surround the city with trees. Ted later went back to the city to show the seed to Audrey knowing that the mayor was after him and the seed. After the chase all over the city, it stopped at the local park where the confrontation happened. Ted explained to the people that trees important and the mayor tried to counter it by saying that the city is better without the trees. The people sided with Ted and all of them cheered as Ted, his grandmother and Audrey planted the seed at the center of the town.

                Time has passed and the beautiful trees were scattered around just like what it was before. The Lorax went back to see the Once-ler who was at that time watering a newly planted seed. They embraced and the Lorax praised the Once-ler for doing a great job. 

Evalution:

                You will know that a movie is based from Dr. Seuss’ work when its characters are well drawn, its story is well-developed and its rhyme is well-thought of. I must say that the Illumination Entertainment (creators of the movie) gave more life to the book that the children from the 60’s enjoyed. The setting of the story is also identical to the book. Just like in the movie Despicable Me (also created by the Illumination Entertainment), the animation shows the characters’ emotions which is needed to have that general sense of what is going on in a particular scene. The directors were clever to put pleasant music to make the story more appealing to the watchers especially the children. We have to understand that there will always be differences between the movie and the book but the movie’s interpretation of Dr. Seuss’ book, The Lorax, was simply brilliant.

Reflection:

                 Although, I have read only one book Dr. Seuss had made, I have seen many of his quotations online.  His quotes are plain simple but well-thought. From these quotation, you will build up an idea about what his ideology is. He aims to inspire thousands of children with his wonderful books not just from his time but also for the future generations to come. I believe that some of the outstanding leaders of today were also inspired by his books.

                I am a fan of movies that give you moral lessons in life. Thus, I am easily inspired with movies like this. This movie captured my attention when the Lorax gave his opening speech in rhyme which is a tribute to the late Dr. Seuss. This gave me an idea that the directors’ aim is not just to entertain watchers like me but also give an important message to all of those who are watching. Then, there was that musical scenes which I thought is a very common way to know that the characters are going through in the story. Finally, there was that sense of happiness right through the ending in order to bring that they-lived-happily-ever-after moment to the watchers.

                Dr. Seuss’ goal is to persuade us that tree logging is one matter that we, citizens of Earth, must take seriously. This is one of the many causes of destruction of our nature and to the loss of habitat of the animals. We are the cause of these damages and the future generations are going to suffer. He is encouraging us to save our mother nature with determination. Being concerned with our own habitat is much needed if we want to stay in it for a very long time. All of this can be summed up to Dr. Seuss’ wise words -- “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” (Dr. Seuss, 1971). A quote like this that possesses a very strong message can be applied to most situations in our lives. The same answer can be utilized in whatever problems we are facing. Like I said, this quote possesses a very strong message as it is like a general rule to everyone out there. I felt happy when I first encountered this message because it basically served as a universal rule to all complications that I will encounter.

                When we wonder on how to solve the environmental problems, we can immediately think of the World Wide Fund (WWF), one of the leading non-governmental organizations around the world that is dedicated to restoring the environment to its former beauty. They are currently working on a hundred different countries supporting at around 1,500 environmental missions. They are somehow living the words of Dr. Seuss in caring for the nature.

                This message is being sent to us to show us that money is not everything. We are giving up our very own home for the fortune that is not going to last long. The nature is already giving us an opportunity to live because it is the one who is giving the life support yet we are taking it for granted. This reason alone should be enough to motivate us to save our nature. It is about time that people give something in return that will benefit both sides in the end... It's somehow better to be late than never. 

All photos are owned by Illumination Entertainment.