what do you think about the lorax 2012? did you like it?
Anon, you have opened a can of worms. I wrote more than 400 and that's still not all I wanted to say but it was getting long already. TL;DR in the last paragraph.
You must know I haven't been introduced to the Lorax as a child. I took interest in it in 2021 because I heard Biggering. Previously all I knew was something something oncest. Then I watched '72 version and read the original book (in this order). And after doing so I have decided to watch 2012 version as well.
It's not a terrible movie as far as children movies go. I believe I have some idea about animated American movies from the first half of 2010s and it's really not the worst. However it isn't good Lorax adaptation. It uses its runtime really non-efficiently. It has some good ideas but it's too scared to take them further. When you learn more about its concept art and deleted songs it starts physically hurt. So much wasted potential. We really could get a masterpiece.
While I may not take Lorax philosophy as my own I can understand it and see when it's underutilized. The environmental message falls flat. They make it about trees (all trees in the world) and it was never about trees. Once-ler says in '72 version something like "never in my life I have seen treese like these" (it may be not word for word I quote from memory). Truffula is not the only kind of tree in Lorax-verse. And more important it is a SYMBOL. What Once-ler does is symbolic. Once-ler and Lorax are themselves a symbols. Both older versions are great cautionary tales for children because they use symbols and allegories to express complex concepts in a simple manner. In 2012 version Once-ler and Lorax don't work as symbols.
I also don't like the direction they took with the Once-ler. Despite having a longer screentime he is still less complex than his '72 version (some people say ‘72 and book versions are identical but that's a lie. But it's a thing for another post). He's transformation into a villain is unrealistic and dumb. It only takes a length of how bad can I be. He destroys the environment because his family told him to do so. Struggling with own conscience? Thinking about what will happen to your workers, to the economy if you quit? Nah.
And I don't like his design. It's not even that he is a human. It's that stupid fedora and the fact he doesn’t age. He should! Then it wouldn't look like his company lasted for two years.
TL;DR: It's not the worst thing ever but I don’t like it. It misses the point of the original and has a lot of underused potential.