Hello. I am Sexy_Baboon, author of the Fan Fiction "C*ck of the Onceler".
I had a curiosity-caused question regarding the Onceler and I was hoping your expertise might be able to help. I apologize in advance if you have received this question before.
Do you have any insight as per their goal when creating our beloved 2012 movie version of the character? In the original literature, he was a shadowy figure with traits vaguely reminiscent of Dr Seuss' other famous character "The Grinch". The movie version is quite a departure from that initial design!
I am wondering how aware they were in creating such a powerful s*x-symbol, or whatever other goal accidentally created the highly erotic figure.
I would be delighted to know your insights and musings.
Thank you in advance for your time.
Hi! Even before the movie was released, it was explained during interviews that the decision to make the Once-ler a human was due to wanting the audience to be able to relate to him better and recognize that any one of us could go down a similar path. Were they right? Here's an excerpt from this article: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/50467-movie-alert-dr-seuss-s-the-lorax.html
Concept artist Eric Guillon also talked about the process here: https://miru667.tumblr.com/post/711191089415176192/part-1-2-3-4-5-to-celebrate-the-11th
Here he simply mentions that he based the Once-ler's human design off of Western pioneers and that they finalized his design pretty quickly.
Personally I doubt that they were trying to make him sexy at all, as they were making a children's movie and their only goal was to keep it bright, colourful and entertaining for children (they reiterate this point here) while still conveying an environmental message for them. Characters can of course be made to look aesthetically pleasing so they'd be nice to watch on screen, but beyond that, I say it's really up to the viewer's subjective tastes on whether the Once-ler is hot or not. Ed Helms had once called the Once-ler "extremely sexy" but Ed Helms is a comedian and of course he's going to glaze his own character haha. Contrast this to me telling my coworker about the onceler fandom last last Sunday and how people think the Once-ler is sexy and she just laughed and said "what the hell" because she obviously couldn't see it.
So what I'm trying to say is, if you're sexually attracted to the Once-ler... that's on you, bud! 😝 And here is what Ed Helms has to say about you (I'm sharing this clip endearingly): https://miru667.tumblr.com/post/36359834456/narcissism-and-marshmallows-lookie-here-i
"Go. Get. Psychiatric evaluation right NOW! This has become a community crisis. America is in crisis right now." —Ed Helms
