Once-ler’s guitar hop + other aesthetics considered in Earth’s context, giant ramble
ages ago, i wondered where Once-ler’s guitar hop came from, I was certain I saw it, but I couldn’t remember where.
Then I saw the hop again.
And we know Marty Mcfly probably pulled his moves from somewhere.
Chuck Berry!
It says Duck-walk up there, but Chuck Berry also did that one-legged hop, (and some consider the hop as a type of duckwalk).
And the Once-ler’s hip-moving moves could be influence from Elvis. Elvis was nicknamed Elvis the Pelvis because of how much he moved, well, his pelvis.
The pelvis moving of Elvis among his performances was mildly scandalous.
From Wikipedia:
“Ben Gross of the New York Daily News opined that popular music “has reached its lowest depths in the ‘grunt and groin’ antics of one Elvis Presley. … Elvis, who rotates his pelvis … gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos”.[109] Ed Sullivan, whose own variety show was the nation’s most popular, declared him “unfit for family viewing”.[110] To Presley’s displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as “Elvis the Pelvis”, which he called “one of the most childish expressions I ever heard, comin’ from an adult.”[111]”
So there’s possibly some 50′s influence on his movements.
WARNING: EXTREMELY EXTREMELY LONG AND IMAGE HEAVY POST. Including copy-pasted sections of text (but not including screenshots of text), this entire post clocks in at over 13,000 words long.
To read the rest, click the link to my google drive. I tried putting it on tumblr, but the length of it means Tumblr crumbles under the attempt to save it, so I had to save it as a PDF.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nh019Yxi_31Y5lhNXigjedQ4xJbmpP8w/view?usp=sharing
(or, attempting to use the HTML side of tumblr’s post editor, not sure if it works)
Press this post’s own permalink
https://floooopafloooopa.tumblr.com/post/624818335533727744/once-lers-guitar-hop-other-aesthetics
and hopefully a preview for the document might show up between the stars below if the HTML thing works.
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It’s a really long document so i hope I didn’t have blatant errors like accidentally deleting half a paragraph.
Also, remember this gif of Paul shaking his hair. You’ll need it, since PDFs don’t have animated gifs and I refer to this at one point.
(And if you have read my entire ramble, thank you!)
I’ve finally read all 85 pages of this analysis from beginning to end and first of all THANK YOU OP for all the hard work and research you put into this, it was such a genuine joy for me to read, I LOVED learning about the fashion and aesthetics and culture of the 1950-70s and I felt so well taken care of with all the links and refs you included. I did take notes while reading; here were the points you made that I found most interesting (and I know you invited us to add onto your post with our own thoughts/corrections/opinions so I’ll include those too):
-All the new terms I learned. Mod fashion in the 60′s, glam rock in the 70′s, yuppies, morning dress, Chelsea boots (which is consistent to when the fandom realized he was wearing boots and not shoes: [link] although his boots seem to be longer than Chelsea ones), colonizer wagon (omg 😂), the POWER SLIDE!!
-You mentioned he didn’t seem to partake that much in glam rock aesthetic but I believe the concept artists did at least consider it at one point, because of this drawing by Yarrow Cheney, where he wears oversized jewelry and platform heels:
-All the famous people mentioned and how culturally influential they were. Elvis, David Bowie, Twiggy, The Beatles…I loved that you dedicated 13 whole pages to Beatles hair. I think you’re right in that his hair was supposed to be a rebellious “moptop”; it’s more obvious in concept art than it is in the final movie design (the following is by Sergio Casas):
-That clip of the Beatles interview where they were totally owning all the news reporters trying to dunk on their hairstyles. No wonder they were so popular among teenage girls LOL
-Waistcoat - the fandom had always called it a “vest” (and instead of greedler and oncie, some ppl used the terms suitler and vestler), so I looked up what the difference was between waistcoat and vest and it seems there’s no difference; “vest” is more an American term and “waistcoat” is European, though a couple sites said a waistcoat is more formal
-The term “Peacock Revolution” made me smile because the fandom had associated the Once-ler with literal peacocks before: [link] [link] [link]
-How androgynous his fashion was - his women’s mod glasses, and his opera gloves, but I want to add that his suit buttons are on the women’s side, as well: [link] and thus, following the button holes upward on the right side, they also placed his boutonniere on the right lapel, when it’s supposed to be on the LEFT lapel always (I’m skeptical of whether they did this on him intentionally though) [link]:
-The possibility that he set out on his journey not only to pursue the American Dream but also to dodge the Vietnam draft skdhgkjg
-How, in the context of the 60′s, the aesthetics he chose for himself pre-biggering were already considered “futuristic”, from his mod clothes/accessories to his stratocaster. I loved the way you worded your headcanon that these items may have been “a promise to himself” to aim for “upward social mobility”, which he did! He updated his fashion as soon as he was rich enough. All out of the desire to live in a modern world, to be revolutionary, and to avoid a life of stagnation. And then this part you wrote on page 82:
Basically these headcanons made me cry, and I felt like I was in 2012 again, reading @once-ler-fluff‘s analyses (most of them now deleted, sadly) and falling hard for the onceler :,)
-I know your headcanon is that Once-ler started his journey around 1971, but if you’re interested, there is a very underrated and amazing askblog called @398thneedvilledrive which has a Once-ler based in the 1960′s, and the mod draws him in 60′s fashion in a lot of their posts! It’s like getting transported back in time, I highly encourage a look!
-And lastly it was really cool to see my Once-ler suit buttons post being mentioned ♥ Thank you!
I don’t know if this can be of any use to help you people discover the time period in which the events between the Once-ler’s arrival and fall occurred, but I think I would not lose anything by sharing my little hypothesis. I clarify that I am not a certified expert in the central element of my hypothesis; I am just a mere amateur who has dedicated some years to this hobby. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Some people have written hypotheses regarding when the events between the arrival of the Once-ler to Greenville (later, “Thneedville”), and the end of his business, based on certain cultural elements (such as clothing and music, for example).
However, I would like to delve into the technological aspect. Yes, I am aware that many electrical devices that we see in the movie have been altered to fit into the Dr. Seuss’ world. But even so, I would like you to pay attention to an element forgotten until now:
The photographic cameras.
We have two models to analyze, so I’ll start with the “simplest” one.
At first, it can mislead us the fact that it has a built-in bulb flash and is therefore a professional camera used by the press. However, the use of bulb flash was already extensively used for home cameras since the 1940s, as we can see in this Kodak Brownie Hawkeye model (released in 1949):
Although the model of this camera does not resemble any model that we previously know, I will venture to affirm that it is a fusion between these types of cameras:
Fujica Half (Fuji, 1963)
Fujica Half 1.9 (Fuji, around 1963)
Fujica Drive (Fuji, 1964)
All Demi Series (Canon, 1963-1966)
Canon Demi (Feb., 1963)
Color Demi (Oct., 1963)
Demi S (Sept., 1964)
Demi C (Apr., 1965)
Demi Rapid (Jun., 1965)
Demi EE17 (May, 1966)
To support on these claims, I relied on two aspects of the camera used here: the lens, and the shutter.
It may not be able to be seen with the naked eye, but if we look closely, we can notice that the lens’ size is compact, or better known as “pancake” (between 9 and 40mm). When comparing it with the type of lens used in the Fujica Half 1.9, we can find certain similarities, such as the length and width of the lens, in addition to both being half-frame type.
It should be noted that both types of cameras used in The Lorax are of the half-frame type; To delve a little into this aspect, I will quote the Wikipedia article:
“A half-frame camera is a camera using a film format at half the usual exposure format. A common variety is the 18×24 mm format on regular 135 film. It is the normal exposure format on 35mm movie cameras. For still cameras using the 35mm film, the usual format is 24×36 mm, so still cameras taking 18×24 mm exposures are called half-frame cameras.”
In addition, this type of photographic capture format was in fashion during the 60s. And, as we can see in the below comparison, the reflection in the lens makes us think that it is this type of format:
And, adding another speculative element, this type of photographic capture would only focus on the figure of the Once-ler, giving him the full attention of the lens. And, considering his desire to be admired and praised by the masses, we can come to understand the use of this type of film.
As a small section, you can actually use a bulb flash in this type of camera. Specifically, of the Class M type; in addition, it was also compatible with electronic flashes.
And lastly, this type of shutter was used on the Fujica Half and Fujica Drive models, as can be clearly seen in the images:
Regarding the type of camera housing, the Canon Demi series was most likely used as a base, since both have a frame with rounded edges, and a round viewfinder:
In conclusion, we can deduce that this camera was inspired by the Fujica Half, Fujica Drive, and Canon Demi Series, all of them manufactured between 1963 and 1966.
Although the subsequent analysis can give us an idea of when the events took place during the youth of the Once-ler, the element that gives us more clarity on the matter is this camera:
Clearly, it has been highly influenced by the Nikkorex (Nikon) AUTO 35, which was released in September 1964:
In addition to the obvious similarity in the housings of both cameras (with slight variations), the most notable feature is that the shutter for both is located directly in front, and not above (as in most cameras).
(Higher gif resolution here)
With this said, I hypothesize that the events between the Once-ler’s arrival in Greenville and the end of his odyssey happened during the 1960s, specifically between 1963 and 1966-1967.
Thank you very much for reading this essay, I am open to comments, corrections and debates (preferably in Spanish).
Sources:
Nikon page Leitz Museum Kodak List Canon Museum CorsoPolaris Camera Manuals (Fujica Half 1.9) Butkus Camera Manuals (Nikon AUTO 35) Digital Camera Lens Buying Guide Pancake Lens Carole Cohen Photography
Hi everyone, although I don't really post much on Tumblr anymore, I thank everybody for their fantastic additions and continued interest in this onceler post.
You may notice the orignal link in some reblogs leads to a restricted file. That's because there was some personal information somewhere, so I updated the link to someplace that has less personal information. I've updated the original post a long time ago to reflect the link change, but reblogs don't update if the original post is edited. If anyone in the future is still interested in reading the long pdf, the link is
Or just click on the date of the original post, and it will lead to the updated edited post.