The Lorax was what you'd expect from 90 minutes of another Hollywood assault on Dr. Seuss. The pacing was zippier than Despicable Me (which I didn't like much) and the physical environment looked Seussian enough to be interesting. The expansion of the plot didn't work as well and missed chunks of the book that would have been nice to see on screen; as with Tangled the animators were doing a much better job (and probably having more fun) than the various suits and voices and hack writers. There is a sense in which the movie is remarkable though: the plot alteration involves another villain - a metavillain? - who has a monopoly on bottled air and has walled off the town. The Big Hollywood people must be stamping their little feet that the film's even meaner to capitalism than the book was. It's a failure as propaganda goes though, as the environment of the town is eye-candy and it's not obvious that the removal of trees is a bad trade-off for a town in which everyone appears to be happy and well-provided-for, and the main character wants a tree in order to bag the hot babe, not really because he's convinced that nature is anything useful. The Lovely Daughter, upon leaving the theatre, announced that she wanted to start a business and sell things. Also:
The Lovely Daughter: What is a Lorax's favourite kind of movie? Me: I dunno. TLD: A tree-D movie.
The 3D, for what it's worth, didn't get in the way too much. The songs were mostly annoying, although I gather the person who wrote the lyrics knew enough about libertarians to pick pick pick at them in one of the Once-ler's pre-bankruptcy numbers. Still, even with A Chase Scene and lifted jokes, it's better than this fairly lifeless trailer with the HA HA UGLY WOMAN bit:
You could do worse for a kiddie movie, and of course people have. Recommended for the diversion of children; the pleasure of seeing a Seuss-style environment kept me from suffering.
On to the important stuff. The pre-movie slide-show included this:
The ugly woman joke, apart from standalone weakness, is out of place because most of Seuss's characters are grotesque. I mean, the object of the boy's lust is weird-looking. It's a team-of-hired-writers problem rather than a people-who-really-want-to-make-a-good-movie problem.
The Lovely Daughter really likes The Smurfs and it's tolerable because Hank Azaria and some others are having fun, but some mean person bought her the DVD for Christmas and I have to see it again and again. So one day I listened to the commentary by the writers and producers just to know...and it reveals the most boring unfunny clockwork vision of movie-making I have ever sat through. Entertainment is had in spite of those people, not because of them.
Ha ha ha! Did some mean person buy the Beiber stuff too? You should hang out with nicer people!
I thought I was the only person who thought Dr. Seuss characters were creepy-looking. I've always found them almost off-puttingly creepy. I'm not sure why I'm totally ok with Tim Burton creepiness but the Seuss creepy pushes my buttons. Mystery for the ages...
I love listening to director commentary. I had an awesome time listening to the commentary on one of my favorite thrillers. It added to an already great movie-watching experience.
Yeah, I can't imagine "The Smurfs" being some joyful exercise in creativity.
7 comments:
I HAVE NO INTEREST IN SUCH A FUTURE.
...also, for animation movies, we watched Rango tonight. Worth it just for the appearance of HST and his attorney.
The expansion of the plot didn't work as well and missed chunks of the book that would have been nice to see on screen
So, some hack thought they could do better than Herr Doktor Geisel?
Such HUBRIS!
Triggering the poor zombie!
What did zrm ever do to Nomi Chi?
~
Omg, nomi chi's art is amazeballs.
I, for one, welcome our new jet packed-squirrel overlords.
I thought I was the only person who would notice the ugly woman joke. It ruined what was a somewhat promising trailer for me.
I need to finish watching Tangled. I really enjoyed the impishness of the two main characters.
The ugly woman joke, apart from standalone weakness, is out of place because most of Seuss's characters are grotesque. I mean, the object of the boy's lust is weird-looking. It's a team-of-hired-writers problem rather than a people-who-really-want-to-make-a-good-movie problem.
The Lovely Daughter really likes The Smurfs and it's tolerable because Hank Azaria and some others are having fun, but some mean person bought her the DVD for Christmas and I have to see it again and again. So one day I listened to the commentary by the writers and producers just to know...and it reveals the most boring unfunny clockwork vision of movie-making I have ever sat through. Entertainment is had in spite of those people, not because of them.
Ha ha ha! Did some mean person buy the Beiber stuff too? You should hang out with nicer people!
I thought I was the only person who thought Dr. Seuss characters were creepy-looking. I've always found them almost off-puttingly creepy. I'm not sure why I'm totally ok with Tim Burton creepiness but the Seuss creepy pushes my buttons. Mystery for the ages...
I love listening to director commentary. I had an awesome time listening to the commentary on one of my favorite thrillers. It added to an already great movie-watching experience.
Yeah, I can't imagine "The Smurfs" being some joyful exercise in creativity.
Squirrels with jetpacks are the future.
And cats in diving helmets. Sloths in biplanes. Skull-blogging material.
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