In an environmental wasteland, a boy meets the old Once-ler on The Street of the Lifted Lorax. He recalls the story of coming to the paradise in his wagon. He finds the wonders of the tuffs of the truffula trees and uses it to make Thneeds. The Lorax confronts him speaking for the trees. However he refuses to listen as he gains great wealth cutting down all the truffula trees.The darker 'real world' subject matter takes much of the magic of the usual Seuss world. It could be argued to be an important story but it's not a fun story. It's also leaves tons of questions like why doesn't the Once-ler plant trees himself. There is a much better animated environmental movie called 'The Man Who Planted Trees'. I recommend that before this.

When a little boy living in what appears to be a polluted brownfield pays a visit to a lonely and depressed industrialist, called the Once-ler, he tells the boy a story of how he polluted the earth cut down every last tree and drove the animals away, much to the annoyance of some sort of tree creature called the Lorax.This was made in 1972 around the time Silent Spring by Racheal Carson had come out, and around the time of the Love Canal disaster and the beginning of the environmental movement, so it's mostly a load of hippie propaganda making out businesses, factories and industry to be evil. And what's wrong with pollution, I love pollution, who cares about the planet? I litter, pour chemicals, don't ever recycle, and I'm proud of it! However, the difference between this and the 2012 animated film is that the animation was better, the voice acting is better, the characters are more planned out and rather than inserting crude humor and romance they stick to the book with this one.It is rather biased and one-sided, but it's not a bad cartoon for kids. But you know what would be nice? If nature and pollution could co-exist with none of this crazy hippie extremism.

I love Dr Seuss and I love the cartoon television specials based on his work, the live-action movies excepting The 5000 Fingers of Dr T not so much. The Lorax is one of Dr Seuss' best stories and the 1972 television special is one of the classics too. It has a wonderful message that is still relevant now, simple and I think beautiful animation, catchy songs, witty dialogue, timeless characters that have their conflicts(especially Once-Ler), a story that is just as charming, whimsical and surreal as Dr Seuss' writing and stories and great voice acting from Eddie Albert and especially Bob Holt. I know this is not adding very much to the previous reviews, but anything I wanted to say about The Lorax has been said brilliantly already and better than I could do. I haven't seen the recent movie yet(doesn't come out until July where I live), I am very dubious in all honesty but even if it does turn out better than expected I don't think it will surpass this classic. 10/10 Bethany Cox

As Dr. Seuss's work was usually politically charged,* "The Lorax" does a good job looking at the environment. Scary is how realistic the book/movie eventually became (especially under George W. Bush). But it does have an element of hope to it. I guess that it makes sense to have Eddie Albert narrate, given his environmental work. After watching the movie, you just might feel like speaking for the trees, and all other wildlife.*"The Cat in the Hat" was promoting rebellion, "Yertle the Turtle" was about the class system, "The Butter Battle Book" was about the Cold War-era arms buildup.