Would Dr. Seuss's Politically Charged The Lorax Work as a Feature Film?

It's quite fascinating to realize (when you become an adult) how political Dr. Seuss's books really were in-between the clever poetic lines and illustrations. But that shouldn't surprise us when a lot of classic children's books have hidden political themes and agendas from the minds of the authors. Most of the Brothers Grimm stories alone are loaded with political themes and dealing with such complicated issues as religion, repression and sociological complications that any kid with an early-developed brain would probably still understand. Being able to cloak all of that under clever dialogue and story--that can stand alone for kids who choose not to be an adult early--is what makes certain children's authors stand out from others. Dr. Seuss was obviously in the Top Three in that department.

With those thoughts in mind, it makes you wonder how many sharp kids get the message in the latest and most successful film adaptation of a Seuss book ("Horton Hears a Who") that, on the surface, just gives the message of treating others who are different with respect. Even though Dr. Seuss (aka Theodor Geisel) never really spoke outwardly about the political leanings of his books (and his widow, Audrey Geisel doesn't like the idea of bringing politics into them), it was quite clear to perceptive adults that the 1954 book edition of "Horton" was a metaphor for the McCarthy witch hunts against Communists during the early 1950's. Some even contend (wrongly, probably) that the line "a person's a person, no matter how small" relates to an anti-abortion stance from the good Doc that's never been proven.

Whatever you want to think about "Horton"--it's quite clear that just about all of Seuss's books had strong messages about the world around us and how our government was shaping it not always for the better. When Seuss published the oddly-titled "The Lorax" in 1971, America was in a fairly volatile state nearly akin to what's happening here now (or arguably worse) what with a controversial war, an approaching energy crisis and a Presidential administration that was a few years away from going under with a major scandal. The environmental movement was going gangbusters by this time with the Hippies, too, which may have been a major factor in Seuss writing about a little creature who "speaks for the trees."

Not that I want to insinuate that Seuss was a closet Hippie. (No, let's not create more nightmares that Seuss's surreal landscapes don't already create.) It just so happened that a lot of the environmental causes were making it a household subject, no matter if you wore your hair long, had a beard and had just attended Woodstock a couple of years earlier while on an acid trip. It was quite clear that the industrial revolution had doubled within those years--especially during the 1950's when the American economy was giving big business (as well as middle-class families in a time of rare economic balance) a chance to flourish.

As a metaphor representing big business, Seuss managed to create one of his most brilliant characters who's actually never seen but just "heard": Mr. Once-ler. And the Lorax becomes somewhat of a defense lawyer for natural environments--or perhaps Al Gore in the tiny, guise of a Dr. Seuss character with a giant walrus moustache...

The haunting and touching story of the extinct forest with the Truffula trees...

Perhaps one of the most evocative aspects to Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax" is in the ancient-sounding names he gives to the nature surrounding a particular forest that once existed, but is now a slummy street (called "The Street of the Lifted Lorax") that an unnamed boy encounters one day. Seuss also provided a haunting opening device of a public "whisper-ma-phone" on this street that manages to tell the secrets of the street's past (a hybrid of the public telephone and historical street marker). When the boy listens to a voice on the other end of this peculiar phone to find out what happened to the Lorax, it's said to be the voice of a man named "Once-ler" who tells the tale of what used to be at this location. It was once a thriving and beautiful forest that's described pretty much how the ethereal forests in many of the Disney fairy tale movie classics look.

The name given to the trees there (Truffula trees) sounds like something out of another extinct era--and the same for the creatures that (for nature lovers) will make you get a bit misty just seeing their seemingly gentle and fragile names as well as laugh at their creativeness: The Swomee Swans, the Humming Fish, the Brown Bar-ba-loots. The contrast between that and the emerging ugliness that comes later had probably made kids feel a strong sense of emotion, even if they don't understand that it's indicting the encroaching of industrial entities on natural environments.

When Mr. Once-ler tells the story of his own encountering of this forest, he tells about how he cuts down the Truffula trees because of their unique texture and smell that could be used in a particular product that would sell...yes, like hotcakes (and not green eggs and ham). As he cuts down the trees, our star subject The Lorax appears as a representative to the Truffula trees due to the trees being unable to defend themselves verbally. He admonishes Once-ler for cutting down the trees and tells him that the product that will be produced (an almost unpronounceable "thneed", which was brilliant using the word "need" in there) won't sell. Well, The Lorax is unfortunately wrong about that--giving the plot another emotional angle of the fragility of nature being unable to stop a behemoth.

The destruction of the trees, as you might guess, forces the above-mentioned creatures there to have to move elsewhere (if they really have anywhere else to go)--hence ruining the ecosystem. What's interesting is that Seuss gives Mr. Once-ler a true human quality when he shows Once-ler displaying dismay over the animals disappearing due to his actions...yet providing a contradictory feeling of big business sometimes evaporating any immediate emotion when Once-ler goes ahead anyway with his plans to build a huge factory in the area to mass-produce his cloth-like needs.

In the end, the factory completely destroys the environment (with a darkened sky and smog) and deadens the whole area so no nature exists there any longer other The Lorax himself who berates Once-ler for his actions. The Lorax also eventually leaves in disgust--while placing a sign reading "unless" as one key word in reminding Once-ler he could re-grow the forest with one last Truffula tree seed. And, as you might remember if you read this as a kid, Once-ler replants the seed out of remorse--yet apparently isn't successful overall due to the area being a seedy-looking street in the beginning.

Yes, that's a shocking, downbeat ending from Dr. Seuss who gave hope for renewal while also making us think that even replanting might make fragile nature unable to come back entirely the way it was before.

The 1972 TV special of "The Lorax" and whether the time's right to do a CGI movie version...

It's probably fortunate that the animated TV special version of the book was produced only a year after the book came out. If it had been done at any point after 1975 or the 80's when the environmental movement had dwindled considerably, it probably wouldn't have received a green light from CBS who originally aired it on February 14, 1972. But ever since Al Gore managed to bring the environment back into focus (through your own opinion of being rightful or just through self-interest)--it managed to bring on the DVD release of the TV special in 2003. It appears it only aired once (I don't remember it at all, even though I was barely a year old then), yet was kept in mind as a favorite all these years without being reprimanded for its blatant message.

That once again gives proof that Theodor Geisel was the greatest children's author of the 20^th century in being able to say something controversially powerful without offending a single soul. Never do you hear people going on diatribes about Dr. Seuss possibly being a left-leaning socialist who obviously cared about humanity, nature and where we were taking it. If everybody could see the same in "Horton Hears a Who"--then it wouldn't have been a smash at the box-office as it was. Although I give credit (or blame) to all those unnecessary, modern cultural references used in "Horton" for its success with kids and easily masking the more controversial messages.

With that notion, it makes you wonder if "The Lorax" could easily be adapted into a feature film as the next Seuss film venture in the land of CGI. It wouldn't have to be so pointed either as you might think it should be--even though they could easily get overly political and have it be a smash just based on all the left-leaning films being produced now that get supported across the board. If they do make "The Lorax", though, I hope they give a centered story that plays up the complexity of emotion for both nature's side and Mr. Once-ler's side. Dr. Seuss made it quite clear in the book that it's more complicated than it appears on the surface and that cause and effect in this situation can also be reciprocal.

Showing the strange balance of natural sacrifice for the sake of capitalistic progress would create a great discussion for the adults (and smart kids) to say the least. It could also provide some answers in how nature and big business could very easily co-exist with a sense of balance without having to choose one extreme side or the other...