‘Passable Animation’
“Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” is an animated film directed by Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda. Its script is written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul. The screenplay is loosely based off a book by Dr. Seuss. This film features the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, and Betty White. Its plots follows a 12-year-old boy (Zac Efron) who searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl (Taylor Swift) of his dreams. In order to find it, he must first discover the story of the Lorax (Danny DeVito), a grumpy yet charming creature who protects trees.
Chris Renaud and co-director Kyle Balda lead this film in a fine direction. While this film isn’t a proper adaptation of the beloved Dr. Seuss book, it is still a reminiscence of it. The animation is gorgeous. Vibrant and fresh colors are used to provide a bright setting for this film. The characters are well developed and its very easy for this generation to understand their thoughts and feelings.
The voice cast is great. Each character is given a fitting voice in the film. Danny DeVito delivers a fantastic voice performance as the Lorax. Even though his character isn’t in much of the film, DeVito is perfect and one of the biggest highlights. He makes the Lorax an entertaining and fun character to watch through the way he speaks and acts. Zac Efron is fine as Ted. He resembles a child at heart and makes his character a fine role model. The rest of the voice cast including Taylor Swift, Betty White, and Ed Helms is okay.
Despite fine direction and a great cast, this film struggles because of too many subplots, unnecessary music, and a predictable storyline. There are many unneeded subplots in this film. It focuses on many characters and that’s one of the reasons why the Lorax character isn’t of much relevance. The film is also filled with irritating songs that could have easily been taken out if the filmmakers knew their movie was already entertaining. The predictable storyline unfortunately doesn’t offer anything new for people with high expectations.
“The Lorax” is a good time pass, but not a film a person will remember for a long time. The direction, animation, and cast is spot-on, but the other additions are disappointing. This film could have been a whole lot better and that’s the reason why people will be unsatisfied with it. Children on the other hand, will most likely enjoy it because of the colorful animation and the message it offers. Recommended for anyone willing to pass time.
2.5/5 stars
The Film Buff 
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