The (Cut) Song That Could Have Saved The Once-Ler 

How Bad Can I Be: "Your honor, my client pleads 'oopsy daisy'" Biggering: "Your honor, my client pleads 'Dont care didn't ask'"

“He’s given a face and a personality and a hipster outfit to appeal to the pre teens” **the onceler fandom intensifies**

Not to mention that in Biggering, there's the line, "I don't wanna hear you're crying." It adds to the fact that he is aware of the pain he is causing and that so many things are suffering and he has the ability to help but chooses not too. Kinda reminds me of some modern day billionaires, no?

If they ever do a Lorax musical, this will be in it. Mainly because musicals don’t give a sh*t about “how dark they are”

There’s a irony in corporate greed cutting a song about corporate greed.

It was cut because the onceler fandom would have too much power.

How Bad Can I Be: how the Once-ler remembers it Biggering: What actually happened

5:22 "Look, Its... some circling birds, I bet you they're going to, EAT. OUR. CORPSES." is probably my absolute favorite line for some reason.

Actually the original Oncesler was intentionally made faceless so that he could represent anybody, that anybody no matter who you are could easily fall into the slippery slope he fell into.

just hearing "the onceler" in reference to to the film's plot rather than to the fandom is wild

Id love to see some indie studio remake this film without any restrictions, go as dark as they can, drive the message home

I feel like "How bad can I be" better captures the "corperate sleazeball" energy, but Biggering makes the Oncler more of an actual "villan".

I like how in Biggering. The Lorax isn't trying to save the trees, he's trying to save Once-ler

_"I am the Lorax, and I speak for the trees. Save the Amazon, or I'll break your knees."_ *~ The Lorax*

The sad part of biggering is it showed Ed helms true potential. Holy fuck he portrays it too well. I honestly don’t think anyone could’ve done it else

When you make a song so good that you have to cut it from the movie so it doesn’t implode the universe from being so good:

To be honest, "Biggering" would have made the obsession of shipping Once-Ler with himself and only with himself a bit more understandable.

My personal theory is that "How bad can I be" is the story that the onceler told the kid and "Biggering" is what actually happened

“How bad can I be” and “biggering” could have both been in the movie, and ik people in the comments already said this but god it would have made this movie so much more iconic! “How bad can I be” can show the once-ler starting his business still having the mindset of “it wouldn’t hurt to cut down a few trees.” And “biggering” would show the viewer his descent into corporate greed and his awareness to the damage he has caused but he is just too focused on the money. This would have saved his character and made him a very awesome villain.

The saddest part about this song not being in the movie is that it's more similar to the original story than the rest of the movie

They didn’t want to scare the children? God, the book terrified me as a child. It wouldn’t have been a loyal adaptation UNLESS it mentally scarred its target audience.

Biggering actually sounds like a villain song.

1:09 "It all started a long time ago" "Can we start not so long ago maybe?" "do you want a tree?" "Yes.. yes" "THEN IT ALL STARTED A LON-"

Biggering is so good it hurts. That line about pride is absolutely profound and 100% truth. It really is the root of all evil

The lorax: or how corporate consumerism ruined an anti corporate consumerist message

‘How Bad Can I Be’ is basically a Kidz Bob version of ‘Biggering’.

I kinda hope, one day, the lorax gets a broadway stage musical that gives the all the demo songs the respect the deserve .

as someone who admittedly likes both songs for different reasons (biggering is darker and overall better to listen to, but HBCIB is clever in more subtle and realistic ways), i've always imagined that HBCIB is the story told by the young onceler, while biggering is the story told by the older, wiser onceler

“Who cares if some things are dying. I don’t want to hear your crying.” Like... damn.

They basically pulled a “Frozen” and had this amazing idea in the original planning and then scrapped it all for something mediocre for the end result

16:38 honestly I’m just humming biggering to myself everywhere. While doing the dishes, on the bus, I don’t care. It’s a masterpiece

It would've been something SUPERB to have Illumination bring a story like this in the form of a rock opera with this track. Fuckin still think it rules

How Bad Can I Be Once-ler: "I didn't know killing trees would destroy our ecosystem!" Biggering Once-ler: "I'm aware, yet I don't care."

When I was 12, "How bad can I be?" actually hit me hard- this one would have absolutely blown my mind

I always thought that they scrapped 'biggering' for the whole purpose of making good ol' Oncie a redeamable character and I don't think I was to far off, I'm still disappointed that they didn't put biggering in the movie because that song is an absolute ear worm that gets its point made.

The Lorax feels like a fight between the writers wanting to make an anti corporation movie, while the higher ups wanted to make a pro corporation movie. So it bounces back and forth way to much

"Biggering" sounds so epic, I can't even- Also, they could've have made it so the Once-ler loved his donkey a lot more and it dies because of the shlop and smog. Not to be relentlessly dark, but to push another message - we don't care about anything until it personally effects us.

In French, this song IS actually showing that he is aware and human. "How bad can I be?" was translated to "It's bad, but whatever; is it my fault if I am what I am?" which both shows that he knows AND he puts the blame on anything else than him.

Biggering show the true nature of the Onceler. Especially the lines "I don't wanna hear your crying! It's all so gratifying!"

i like to think that when the last tree falls and the onceler is looking around, looking devastated, its not bc he just is realizing he killed the environment, but bc hes realizing his empire is coming to an end and now he has to face the consequences he was trying to avoid (his fam leaving him, his power getting taken from him, etc.)

"All I ever wanted was the stuff that I don't have" And that was the moment I was convinced this movie could have been good

The Lorax is the movie equivalent of “the sketch was better”

The only argument I have about "Biggering" is that without subtitles, I wouldn't be able to distinguish what the Once-Ler was even saying and I would've never gotten the message

To be honest, I’m more confused on who made a song that goes as FREAKING HARD as Biggering for a company as goofy as Illumination!

Also Biggering is a WAY BETTER example of the RANGE of Ed Helms ???? Like if that's him singing my man is BELTING

You ever think about how literally everyone except Zac Efron and Taylor Swift sing in this movie?

We can all agree that “how bad can I be” is so damn goofy ☠️

Something I noticed in the lyrics: In the last part (where the chorus takes place), the Once-ler says this: "Though biggering is triggering more biggering!" But then, in the next part, he says this: "And biggering is triggering more biggering!" "Though" is replaced with "and," like Once-ler's fully accepting what he's doing. This could imply that Once-ler was having second thoughts. Or maybe I'm looking too deep into things.

“The song was too dark” Alex Hirsch wants to talk with Illumination

The line "I don't want to hear you crying" in biggering also implies awareness and intent

honestly this version of the lorax could work as a musical adaptation of the film or as a concept album speaking of concept albums, i love how biggering sounds and feels a lot like something from a pink floyd album

16:11 And the other also means he’s possibly admitting he’s killed animals or even people

I feel like Biggering and How Bad could have both existed, if shortened. Two halves of the same song. How bad marking the start of a descent into evil, when the onceler truly is naive. The song is cut up and spans maybe ten minutes on and off, but as it progresses and the onceler makes some decisions, the tone shifts ending on the relentless greed of Biggering. I think this would make it more impactful, on how as somebody rises to power their priority shifts. At first, he just wanted to make a product. He knew a few trees had to die, but it's only a few. As he looks to production, seeing the valley he's decimated, he shows some sorrows but decides that he's come so far, why not let some more things die. That's when he makes the choice to overlook it. A fade from unknowing to uncaring.

“A corporate figure can be relatable, likable even; and still make the conscious choice to exploit and even kill to further their business” Elon Musk, is that you?

The best thing from the Biggering is.. "Greed is like a pet, the more you feed it, the hunger is gets. But you can't blame greed, he has a worm inside. A worm called Pride"

Biggering is a great song BUT How Bad Can I Be is something that feels more like what individual people are like. Most people are blind to the pollution and environmental destruction they are causing. Yes by the time you get to that level it should be too much to ignore but its a movie so everything is escalated. Biggering is a villain song and I'm not a villain so I don't need to look closer to make sure I don't accidently do bad things because only villains would do that. But How Bad Can I Be and not noticing whats happening around you because everybody is doing it/encouraging it... that's real. The movie ABSOLUTLY should have shown more of the downsides to not having trees and nature besides just not having pretty things but I think the song was a good choice.

if both songs were in the movie , with how bad can i be first , and biggering second , kind of signifying his decent into evil , it would’ve been great

imagine ted telling his grandkids how he saves trees because he simped over a girl 5 or 6 years older than him

so not only did they have a romantic interest, and some empathic backstory for the onceler,and the motivation for getting a tree was materialistic, oh and despite them saying they wanted kids to think that the people who caused climate change were real people like us, they made the main villian a person who was exaggerated beyond belief, from his appearance to his personality. i truly feel bad cuz its very clear that the writers intent was to go HAM on corporations but they got stopped by said corporations 😭

I feel like if they hadn't cut the song the internet would simp for the guy WAY more then how they do now and I despise illumination for not giving us that miracle of a permanent tumblr sexy man

To be honest “biggering” creates more of an emotional impact than the entirety of the Lorax movie

Another thing: when they made the swap to how bad can I be, they didn't just switch lyrics, the entire genre went from rock opera to pop song. I think that specific change was because the target audience was children, and they didn't know how kids would handle a loud rock opera Edit: From the responses I have come to realize that this was not the case. kids do in fact, enjoy rock operas.

To be honest I'm basically convinced The Lorax's whole deal after being dulled down from Biggering to HBCIB was to both promote the myth of plausible deniability and then paint the companies that got all those corporate tie-ins as the good guys by giving them the ""Lorax/Truffula Tree-friendly seal of approval"" - which, might I add, is one of the things that the song calls out along with "a portion of proceeds go to charity" - which turns the original message into "here, we're the good guys even though our own movie calls us out, and we severely dulled the message too to make it less obvious we're not actually the good guys while simultaneously making it catchy and marketable which is EXACTLY what the Thneed is!"

What's sad is even in the original animated version they get it right and make the Onceler aware of the impact he was having and feel conflicted but actively choose to go ahead with it.

huh, i'd never heard biggering before. it's a hell of a bop. 'too scary for kids'? come on, kids *love* scary shit. kids love villains! kids love scar, and ursula, and randall, and love villain songs.

That one Illumination employee after hearing Biggering: "Everyone, stop firing! We're shooting at our own men!"

7:39 my favorite part ☠️

Biggering wasn't too scary for kids it was too scary for the man in charge who would have been negatively affected financially.

Not gonna lie though, “Biggering” kinda slaps.

I will dispute only one thing. The Lorax is not Dr. Seuss’ darkest book. That distinction belongs to the criminally under-read “The Butter Battle Book.”

"From a goofball to a god of destruction" Why am I laughing so hard over this?!

Biggering actually fits with dr suess’s idea for the once-ler

I came as soon as I heard - oh, the horrible horrible memories "and gave him a hipster outfit to appeal to the pre-teens" *Vietnam war flashbacks*

"look there's some circling birds, I bet they gonna eat our corpses" I would of loved to hear that in a kids movie

Look, it’s, some circling birds! I bet they’re going to EAT OUR CORPSES-

Tbh I actually kinda find “biggering” actually kinda catchy, I guess it’s just me but I rather listen to that then “how bad can I be”XD

Biggering sounds like something Jack Black would sing.

You know what if the problem was that they really wanted to keep "how bad can I be" they could have just used both. Since we already had the Once-ler telling a story framing device, they could have made it so that the Once-ler first tells a white washed and sympathetic version of the story and sings "how bad can I be" (in this case the visuals are different and the final part of the song is altered so that we still don't know the entire scope of his actions) and then Ted thinks about it and realizes that based on what he told him there is no way that the environment got this fucked up, so he calls the Once-ler's bluff and only then we get biggering. I like this idea better because not only we get both songs, despite pailling in comparison to biggering, how bad can I be is still catchy and I genuinely like it, but in this context the Once-ler is even worse than if we just got to see biggering, because he is still to this day white washing and lying about what he did. Since in the actual movie the song is in story being told by the Once-ler, my headcannon is that how bad can I be is the story the Once-ler tells, while biggering is what actually happened.

The reason you can see the once-ler's face in the film is because illumination said that "It allows viewers to know that humans are the cause too."

I actually really like that the repeated line is “How bad can I be”, at first it sounds like “I’m a good guy, I don’t wanna destroy nature, I’m just trying to be someone”. And then the tone switches and it starts sounding more like “how bad CAN I be?” As in like “how far can I get with this”.

The movie screwed up by not making the Once-Ler the focus. He's a tragic hero, and tragic heroes are always the protagonists, the center of the story. Think Sweeney Todd or Walter White. Instead, he almost takes a backseat to the Ted and O'Hare stuff that nobody cares about.

The only thing I could think about this is the fact that for me the movie was showing the buyers/consumers as the buy guy. The once-ler did what he did to get money, to grow his business but the people kept buying which only showed that he wasn't bad. The song more refers to the Lorax saying "these people buy from me so like am I really a dick?" I do believe the original to be about big corporation's but this movie seems to hit the consumer side, which in all honesty is true. When they show the city of people and how easily they want trees it's saying how greedy the consumers are. When they learn they can get this air they buy EVERY DAY for free. They can spend it more on random stuff like the sneed. I believe that Biggerer would have taken away from the idea of consumers being the bad guy in this sense (not only have been scary). And if anything they did push it that it was calling out consumers, I feel like a lot of people would not like being called out as a horrible person who causes this sort of stuff. Especially the quote from 11:51. He says "it ceases to be a story that is about all of us" This gives a view that this story is not only about the greedy corporates but about the needy consumers that they feed. If the once-ler is seen as someone unknown, they refuse to see the idea they are causing it. Anyways, I think the song was added not to make the once-ler seem "innocent" but to show how the consumer side gave way for the greed that happened. And how the once-ler looked at the camera (consumers) and never looked at anything else because he was doing what the people wanted and didn't think of how this would effect the economy as it didn't seem they even cared. (shown by how many people forgot about the trees, sneed, and once-ler so easily; they were no longer relevant when they were gone).

I think "Biggering" would have been worthy of a best original song nomination.

I'm shocked at the lack of "onceler fandom" references. good job

Once-ler: haha tree go brr Lorlax: nOoOooO my a e s t h e t i c

In my opinion you completely surpassed the reason and entire point of the movie, yes I get that this is about a song, but the questions you’ve asked are answered in the movie, the entire reason the people needed to buy air was because the tree’s were gone, trees emit oxygen, and I’m pretty sure, some of those people either forgot trees existed or have never seen trees, I’m pretty sure they would want to see a tree for the first time or want to see a tree again, and I’m pretty sure they are tired of buying air several times a year even when you don’t need to in the world. The entire point of the movie is how environmental it is, I can’t type anymore ;-; I forgot what else I was gonna say

8:35 isnt that the point tho? That he didnt care about whats outside his buisness till it was too late. You gotta have a flaw to improve. Him seeing the damage after it was too late helps him teach ted to start caring now. And i think the townspeople cared cause they got hit that the world isnt sunshine. They believed everything was fine as long as it was fake. But ted showing the descrution showed that they need to "wake up" and put in the effort to make a place a good and "perfect" place. (This doesnt mean i hate biggering! I LOVED the song when i first heard it and was so shocked when i heard who sung it and it was from the lorax)

Petition to put 'Biggening' into the inevitable Lorax musical

god i love that part: "it started a long time ago" "can we not start a long time ago" "do you want a tree?!" "yes?" "then it all started a long time ago"

The onceler in biggering is the villain we needed

Once-Ler "You wouldn't hit a woman" The Lorax "That's a woman"?

One thing I really liked about the original short: Littering. The pollution wasn’t just from the factory, but also from the people living nearby. They just threw stuff out the windows, expecting their garbage to go away. It didn’t go away, it landed literally on the Lorax and his friends.

Imagine if during/right after "biggering" you saw a young O'Hare steal a bag of seeds. And we're left with the realization that instead of planting trees and helping people, he profited off of other's tradgdy. And THAT'S where he gets his air from.

Biggering is one of the animation-film songs that i actually enjiy I LOVE THIS SONG and cant understand why it wasnt added

The trees can't be harmed if the lorax is armed

"So it's an anti-corporate message!" "That's good!" "But if the company finds out..." "That's bad." "We'll make the messaging subtle." "That's good!" "But it dilutes the original message!" "That's bad." "Then we'll just cut that part of it." "That's good!.... or is that bad?"

I think it’d have been interesting if Ted got the tree and gave it to his crush, and as she marvels over it, he starts telling her things about truffula trees that he learned from the Onceler. As the conversation goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that her reasons for wanting a tree were shallow and materialistic, leading him to become increasingly frustrated towards her… which then leads to a moment of self-awareness as he realizes that his own reasons for wanting a tree have changed. Bonus points if he eventually realizes that his initial goal was equally or even more shallow: that rather than wanting a tree, he wanted a person, and how fucked it is to view other people through a materialistic lens. Which ties him thematically to O’Hare…

3:08 “Sir O Hair has hit the south tower”

If the Once-ler has a seed of the trees with him after all those years... why didn't HE just plant them? He's not a bad businessman, he's just very stupid. The customers kept saying "Yes. We want that"

/gives onceler a guitar /doesn't give him a rock song