Review
The Lorax is one of the best movies I've ever seen but it's also one of the most troubling. Its depth politically is I believe unmatched in children's literature Dr. Seuss is truly a master but this is like Cirque du Soleil art for which you might need to be prepared.
By telling you to ⊾ prepared" however I don't mean to say you should go read up on film history. Sure you'll miss a trick or two if you don't but there's enough material to keep you very very interested even if you're not a film student. Nor in fact should you even feel the need to read up on American history it suffices to say that to be very simplistic about it as the France was to Algeria at the time so U.S. was to Vietnam. Really if you wanted to be ready for ALL the intellectual references and namedropping you ought to have a good classical education. That's hard to get so I can't possibly suggest that...
What I do mean by ⊾ prepared" is be prepared for colors that might not make sense be prepared to consider your place in the world... be prepared to think about the movie while it's running. Hollywood encourages us to turn off our brains while we're watching a movie Seuss doesn't allow it. His books are intentionally aggravating and annoying at times but Seuss knows precisely what he's doing and he manipulates the reader expertly. (The infamous "Sneetches" is to this day the most annoying and at the same time one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.) Be prepared to consider your place in society society's place in the world and the problems of those situations. Seuss raises numerous incredibly important questions what is the final fate of literature and the wealths of past generations handed down after political upheaval is finished with them what is the point of any rhetoric communist or otherwise in a world of selfish stupid bourgeois pigs (and as anyone who's ever worked in fast food will tell you this one is) does art even have a purpose in a marketplace I personally disagree with those who claim that The Lorax is dated and only interesting historically. The message is only obscured to us because the draft is no longer in full swing and because the entertainment industry has succeeded in lulling us into false security. We still have our Vietnams though they may be secret and facts must be faced most of us are still complete and total jerks caring very little for the world around us and very much for our own pleasure. At the heart of Dr. Seuss' movie is a deep and abiding love and compassion for humanity the decadence of the world around us however forces the surface of the film to be cynical and hateful toward all the disgusting influences which keep us from being what we could be and manifesting itself in the various realworld consumer products we see in literally every other scene.