In the age of Hollywood's seeming endless films aimed against greed, consumerism, and environmental destruction, "The Lorax" is not to be outdone. Unlike the other films with hidden messages, this one is very direct. The voice of Danny Devito and Betty White made the film very special as you can see them in those roles. The film incorporates some of the original Dr. Seuss poetry to convey the message, but doesn't bog down the film with it as to lose the target audience who may not enjoy it as much as we did when we read the original first edition hard covers in the third grade.

The story is about the Once-ler (what's in a name? Ed Helms) who cuts down all the trees and at times looking like Elton John playing the Pinball Wizard. He did this to make the Thneed (a versatile Huggie) that no one wanted until a pretty girl wore one. Ted Wiggins (Zac Efron) wants to obtain a tree because the pretty redhead Audry (Taylor Swift) wants one. Sort of like Brad Pitt suddenly caring about hungry third world kids. There are musical numbers and numerous messages about consumer marketing, greed, bottled water, and the environment. SNL's Nasim Pedrad did the voice of the Once-ler's mom, reminding me of the grandmother in the old Carol Burnett series.

Perhaps the best message of the film is that individuals can make a difference. As an adult I enjoyed the film.

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" is an updated version of its own television cartoon written by Kenneth Chisholm called "The Lorax" (1972) about the telling of the story of an industrialist who turned a lush tree filled environment into a wasteland in order to mass produce his fashion product.

In the updated version, "Dr. Seuss The Lorax" in 3D, it's the re-telling of a very similar story. When a young boy, Ted (Zac Efron) falls for a girl, Audrey (Taylor Swift) who lives down the street, there's just about nothing he wouldn't do to capture her heart. They live in a town called "Theneedvile" that has no trees. They rely on store bought tree replicas which don't have the benefits of photosynthesis that produces fresh air. The town's zillionaire, O'Hare (Rob Riggle) made his fortune on this fact by selling bottled fresh air with his "O'Hare Air" products.

When she shows him a mural of trees that she painted in her backyard and tells him that she would marry the first guy that brought her a tree, or "Trufulla", it turns Ted's world into a frenzy as he focuses on where to get a real tree for her. His grandmother, Norma (Betty White) remembers a time when trees were plentiful and tips him off on where to find out how to obtain a tree. Ted ventures off to see the only one person that can help him, "The Once-ler" (Ed Helms) who lives high above the devastated, grey and barren land without fresh air that he is responsible for.

As a young man, "The Once-ler" harvested the Trufulla trees to use their colorful, cotton-candy like textured tops to make "Thneeds", a product that can be used at fill any human need- a scarf, an umbrella, a hat, even a tight-rope. His pitch tag-line is "everyone needs a Thneed". With the first chopping-down of a Trufulla tree, brings "The Lorax" (Danny DeVito) the guardian of the forest who warns the Once-Ler to stop his greedy commence, anti-environmentalist ways.

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" is a great reminder to children of the importance of conservation and preserving mother nature and animals. In the Dr Seuss' case, it's the Humming-Fish, Swomee-Swans, and Brown Bar-ba-loots bears that thrive in the natural Thneedville land.

The colorful palettes used in "Dr. Seuss The Lorax" is very true to the classic picture books I remember as a child. The 3D effects was a fresh and welcoming change at the beginning of the movie but faded as the movie went on and ultimately the movie stood alone without the need of it.

"Dr. Seuss The Lorax" opens in theaters in realD & IMAX 3D on Friday, March 2nd.

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Thneedville is a plasticized world where everything is about consumerism and creating an environment with fake grass, trees and bushes. Through some flashbacks, a boy learns that this world wasn't always this way...it used to be beautiful and green. But mankind's greed destroyed the natural beauty.

When I was a kid, I loved the cartoon version of "The Lorax". It told a great story AND a great lesson about preserving the environment....and it did it in a fun way that made you listen to the message. Now, decades later, you could see the original...or you could watch this incredibly loud and padded 2012 CGI offering. Loud....big time! Heavy padded? Yep. The original was only 25 minutes...this thing from Universal is nearly 90 minutes and they can't help but overly pad out the story to keep it going this long. The padding consisted of adding a lot of songs...mostly terrible songs...as well as adding side stories that weren't in the cartoon nor Dr. Seuss' book. They also padded it by having countless scenes of the boy riding his motorcyle-like device....all things that really test the patience of folks who actually KNOW and care about the original story. Overall, I hated this film. Despite great CGI and some decent voice acting, the story just was diluted and dull. A huge misfire that is MUCH worse than its current mediocre score. Oh well...at least it wasn't the live action "Cat in the Hat"!

By the way, if you DO watch, note the little bears. They are, essentially, the minions (from the same film studio) just dressed in different garb.