News Taffy

Well hello there! Welcome back to the blog where your local movie expert, Raven Hearton (that's me), gives you the dish on what’s playing at the movies every week. This week, my movie of choice turned out to be a little bit harder to watch than all the rest. I severely underestimated the allure Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax holds for children or that technology could fail you at such inopportune times. I went to see The Lorax at 2:35 p.m. on Saturday, but I should have gone earlier because it was completely sold out and my friend Cindy had to be somewhere, so we bought tickets to come back and see the 12:20 showing on Sunday. We get there early on Sunday, we get great seats and then they start the movie, but there is only sound, no picture. At this point, I’m imagining little kids hyped up on soda and Sour Patch Kids starting a riot yelling “WE WANT THE LORAX!” and throwing popcorn at the guy who said it would be another seven minutes before it would start, but that didn’t happen (wouldn’t it have been hilarious if it did). Instead Cindy and I sit there for 30 more minutes before some guy comes in to tell us that the projector is beyond repair at this time and that they are sorry. I get my refund and walk away defeated, but I am determined more than ever to see this movie, so I go back at 4:50 p.m. with my friend Allison. I guess it’s true what they say, “third time’s the charm.”

I know you all probably don’t care about my movie-going adventures, so I’ll just get on with it now and tell whether to see it or that it sucked. But first let me lay out the plot. The fourth feature film based on a book by Dr. Seuss, The Lorax is basically a story about conservation and respect for the environment. The movie, a computer-animated 3-D musical comedy-drama film (I saw the real D version), follows a boy named Ted (voice by Zac Efron) who is smitten with an older girl named Audrey (voice by Taylor Swift) and in efforts to win her heart, is on a mission to find her a real tree because the kind they have in the town of Thneedville are fake. Once his charming grandma Norma (voice by the loveable Betty White) learns of his plan, she tells Ted that he should go speak to the Once-ler who lives on the outside of town which is walled off so people can’t leave. Once Ted reaches the Once-ler’s home, he is told the story of the Truffula trees and what happened to them all.

When the Once-ler was young, he had a product called the thneed, that became very popular, but at a very high cost. He was cutting down the beautiful colorful Truffula trees to make the thneeds and while cutting, out popped a little orange man with a thick mustache exclaiming, “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.” Despite making a promise to not cut down any more trees, when the Once-ler brings his greedy family in to help him grow his business, he gets pressured to do just that. As his business grows and the Truffulas come down, the environment becomes affected by pollution and the lack of trees forces the animals to leave. When the last tree comes down, the Once-ler’s thneed production stops and his family leaves him. The Lorax then departs leaving the Once-ler alone and he becomes a recluse separated from the rest of Thneedville forced to live in the desolate wasteland he created. Before Ted leaves, the Once-ler gives him the last Truffula seed as a challenge to make things the way they were. Although it seems that the task would be easy for Ted to just plant a seed and water it, things get complicated when businessman, Mr. O’Hare, owner of O'Hare Air," a company that supplies fresh air to Thneedville residents, tries to stop him.

Now, if you’ve read the book or seen the cartoon, the movie ends a little bit differently, but don’t expect to find out what happens here. I will however tell you what I thought about it.

I would usually shy away from a kiddy movie like this, but when I found out about the plot and compared this to the other movies that were coming out this past weekend (Project X and Wanderlust), I figured why not. So after seeing it, I can’t say that I was disappointed, but I wasn’t overly thrilled. The movie had a good message about being aware of our environment and I can respect that, but it did have cheesy songs and was obviously more kid friendly rather than 21-year-old friendly, so with that I give it a 6.5. I expected and was actually looking forward to more rhyming, but there was barely any. The movie is definitely a departure from the original story and you can tell that Hollywood went crazy with infusing it with modern-day touches, but what else do you expect from the movies these days. What I did find to be incredibly cute and entertaining was the little boy who sat behind me yelling things like, “That’s the Lorax mommy!” and “Trees momma. Those are trees!” ADORABLE!

If you’re looking for a night out with your younger brother or sister or time with the kids, this is a definite must see. If not, then I guess you’ll go see Project X or Wanderlust, which will probably make you have to wash your eyeballs afterwards (I can’t say for sure of course, but I bet I’m right). Well, that’s all, folks.

This weekend I’ll be seeing Eddie Murphy in A Thousand Words. Can’t wait!

Until next time,
Raven