Althouse: "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax... has been licensed to advertise an SUV."

February 24, 2012

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax... has been licensed to advertise an SUV."

Oh, my.

Well, that's just terrible — melding this heavy-handed moralizing scold to a perfectly decent little Mazda.

20 comments:

Henry said...: And Charlie Brown will insure it.; 2/24/12, 1:37 PM
Dan in Philly said...: What a dreadful time to "The Lorax" to come out. It's already too greenish, I dread to see what they'll do to one of my least favorite Suess books after the abomination of my very favorite one "Horton Hears a Who."; 2/24/12, 2:00 PM
write_effort said...: Oh, The Places You'll Go...in an SUV.; 2/24/12, 2:03 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I think you mean "welding".

The original Lorax book isn't so bad. The Lorax speaks well for the trees, and the Once-ler is cleverly portrayed a disembodied arm. It's a simple tale of good and greed.

My favorite Dr. Seuss book is I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.; 2/24/12, 2:04 PM
edutcher said...: From the previews, they better have another campaign in reserve.; 2/24/12, 2:07 PM
tim maguire said...: Just because the trees got together and elected the Lorax to speak for them doesn't mean they or we get to tell the Lorax he cannot also speak for Mazda.; 2/24/12, 2:13 PM
Bob Ellison said...: RE: the Lorax movie-- Danny Devito seems wrong for the lead voice. I hear the Lorax speaking more like Mr. Peterson (actor John Fiedler) from The Bob Newhart Show. He died in 2005, though.; 2/24/12, 2:24 PM
Dan in Philly said...: I actually realized that The Lorax was a good illustration of the tragedy of the commons. If the "onceler" had actually OWNED the trees himself, he would have had a vested interest in replanting them and growing them like the useful crops they were, instead of trying to beat everyone else to cutting them down. Alas, I don't think that was the message which was intended in the book or cartoon, and I severely doubt it will be the one conveyed in the movie.

Capitalism works.; 2/24/12, 2:30 PM
Amartel said...: This is like when Nike named one of its shoes the Incubus.
(This actually happened.); 2/24/12, 2:31 PM
Bender said...: I saw the commercial the other day, and immediately thought that Theodor Geisel would be none too pleased to see his work used to shill for anything.

Then again, the bastardization of his brilliant work by the current "animation" style is in itself enough to provoke outrage.; 2/24/12, 2:36 PM
Revenant said...: That's kind of hilarious.

On a related note, there was a great article a few years back (in Reason Magazine, maybe) noting that "The Lorax" actually works well as an illustration of the tragedy of the commons, and of the need for strong property rights. The trees of the story are exterminated because nobody owns them.; 2/24/12, 2:56 PM
Wince said...: I got the impression Danny Devito didn't do a voice-over specifically for that Mazda commercial, and Universal just pulled audio clips done for the movie.

Devito probably got a piece of the "merchandizing" revenue in his contract in exchange for full use, but didn't expect a stand alone car commercial would be included by the language.

Speculating here, but I bet Devito held-out doing specific voice work.; 2/24/12, 5:03 PM
rosebud said...: Bender--

He probably would have been okay with The Lorax advertising Flit.; 2/24/12, 5:31 PM
Nancy said...: The Onceler brought jobs to his community! He was a misunderstood capitalist!; 2/24/12, 5:34 PM
robinintn said...: Another of it's "partners" is the US Forest Service. That's a public/private partnership that gives me the willies.; 2/24/12, 5:47 PM
Pete the Streak said...: ". heavy-handed moralizing scold".

C'mon, Professor. You can work the Santorum family into this with minimal effort.

You know you want to.; 2/24/12, 6:02 PM
Holmes said...: I like the irony of Motherjones lamenting the moralizing heavy-handed scold.; 2/24/12, 6:28 PM
Mark Nielsen said...: Bob Ellison: "I hear the Lorax speaking more like Mr. Peterson (actor John Fiedler) from The Bob Newhart Show."

Ha! Perfect! I love that show, and that *is* the perfect Lorax voice.; 2/24/12, 7:11 PM
Joan said...: The stupidity of "The Lorax" is only matched by the idiocy of "The Butter Battle Book."

Dr Seuss should've kept to nonsense and avoided social commentary.; 2/24/12, 9:46 PM
Clyde said...: Fortunately, Paul R. Ehrlich was unavailable for comment.; 2/24/12, 11:02 PM