The fact that a movie about greed was made by Illumination, a company that milks the minions to death and cares about money instead of quality is ironic.
@Stephen Qualio that can be said for all the Dr.Seuss movies. Remember live action cat in the hat? I can give the live action Grinch a pass cause it had people who knew what they were doing for the most part. But after that it all went down hill. And it all came full circle with the cgi grinch movie. Honestly this is the same kinda feeling I have for the Disney remakes.
I feel the entire thing with giving Onceler a face COULD have worked if they did something to somehow make him 'Faceless' by the time he's Biggered his company. My Idea is that he starts off as the Oh-fuck-we've-summoned-tumblr character we know and tolerate. Then, as he cuts more trees and makes more money, he slowly obscures his face with accessories; nothing to start, before suddenly a scarf, sunglasses, and then the top hat to fully shadow his face. Symbolic of how he starts as a unique person with a good intent, before becoming just 'That greedy, unseen businessman who sells thneeds'.
I love his editing so much. He could just be talking about like the most devastating event in humanity and then 10 pictures of among us and Kanye would pop up with almost as many sound effects as hazbin hotel
What is important to note about The Lorax book is that the Onceler actually brings up very good arguments that the Lorax admits he doesn't have an answer to. IT is an environmentalist book, but it shows that there are still two sides to the issue and that a "right" answer is far more complex than saying "industry bad." I think that very few people understand that.
Hear me out: since the lorax and knockoff minions threw a funeral for a tree, when they were all cut down it would be the equivalent of witnessing the holocaust
like that one scene from "life is beautiful," where the dad is taking his son back to their room in the concentration camp, and he stumbles across the stacked piles of naked corpses. Man that scene freaked me out as a kid.
In the original, the oncler wasn’t a bad guy but rather a fellow flawed human who ended up letting pride and greed blind him for a while until it was too late. To me at least, it was supposed to show how we too are very capable of making his mistakes. It’s easy for us to get caught up in it all and end up hurting something or someone even if we didn’t mean to as we are flawed beings. Therefore, it’s important to be humble and give back from where we took. I wish the remake could have embraced the original’s darkness but they wouldn’t because it’s a greedy corporate entity.
And the 1972 short nailed it by having the once-ler point out that humans do it regularly to the point that to stop would ruin their lives to which the lorax had no solution to
Literally the whole point was to be better than greedy corporate entities and then those same people turned the movie into a cash grab. Also, fun fact, the Lorax was used in car commercials after the movie was released ( I’m talking about the 2012 movie and Lorax btw )
The issue with that, is that it’s already happening now, in which industries aren’t being held accountable for all the pollution and instead people are being told to stop using straws as if they make up the majority of all the pollution.
Hot take here, but the Onceler's face being shown wasn't the problem. The point they were going for was that the Onceler was just your average guy, that he could've been anybody - and that even the seemingly most innocent person can turn into a monster when greed gets the better of them, which, in theory, is a really good message to convey, one very in line with the original book's themes and messages. The problem lies within the execution. "Biggering" would've driven that point home perfectly, showing that the Onceler had turned into a ruthless megalomaniac beyond the point of redemption, who was aware of exactly what he was doing and didn't stop regardless. "How bad can I be" on the other hand paints him as a mostly innocent goofball who mostly destroyed the environment on accident (oopsy) and make us believe that he was not aware of the consequences of his actions. The lines "who cares if a few trees are dying" vs "who cares if some *_things_* are dying, I don't wanna hear your crying!" drives this come perfectly. And you gotta keep in mind, it wasn't just this one song. It would've felt extremely out of place to have just one song be this dark and gritty, so the rest of the movie most likely would've followed suit in terms of tone. But of course, the corporate higher-ups denied this for two reasons: 1) It was "too dark for kids," and likely would've caused the movie's age rating to go up. This would've meant a smaller target audience, and less toys being sold. It's bullshit, obviously, but if the kids were made aware of the exact scummy business tactics these people were trying to abuse, that could've damaged their sales, and we can't have that. 2) The higher-ups who came up with that first BS excuse felt called out by the movie. It made them uncomfortable just how much of themselves they saw in this version of the Onceler, didn't want the world to see them for who they really are, felt exposed by it, so they made them scrap it. TL;DR: A movie about corporate greed got destroyed by corporate greed. It's a joke that practically writes itself, and yet for some reason, I don't really feel like laughing.
I like how Dumbs tries to convey how beautiful and legendary the original adaptation is in the most serious tone while a video of a drunk guy falling over a refridgerator while being accompanied by music which sounds like a cat trying to swallow a working lawnmower plays in the corner
If you think about it, the Onceler is a pretty bad business man. Him cutting down the trees wasn’t neccessarily his problem. It was that he never planted any trees. If he was on the true sigma-male-hustle he would’ve made sure he had plenty of resources.
yknow, this movie had the potential to be a decent adaptation of the book. Maybe instead of making the main character some brat whos family can obviously afford to live in thneedville, maybe focus on a character who isnt able to afford to buy the clean air constantly, and make them actually want to improve the environment instead of him trying to impress some boring girl. idk just a thought
All jokes aside, that car commercial bit is just sad. The fact that a pro-environmentalist film is used for this cross-promotion just proves that Illumination put no thought or effort into adapting the book, and couldn’t care less about its message. It feels like a giant crap on Dr. Seuss’ legacy.
His original motivation in the Thneedville demo was better imo. He wanted a tree bc he wanted to be the coolest kid on the block, and was really greedy
Imagine this. The opening number is cheery, but as we go through the movie, we discover that the people signing were more upper class, people who could afford stuff like air. Imagine if as Ted is sneaking out, he sees poor and homeless people, and they are suffering and begging for a bottle of air. It would give us an ACTUAL dystopia, humanize the protagonist, and show just how dangerous corporations can be not only to the environment, but to the people too
another way is that the song at the start is just them faking their happiness bc ohare was coming there and when it finished they would start to cough violently and look miserable ANOTHER way is to straight up use the demo song and still do the whole coughing thing but this time the entire song was a presentation for o'hare as he was coming to sell the air but then ted asks about the trees, which leads to teds mom taking him out so he stops sayig that to the most powerful man in the town
Biggering: * exists* Illumination: nah nah, they don’t need such a good song *takes it out of the movie but puts it onto RU-vid to show it as a demo * The viewers/fans: *hahahahaha, don’t worry, we got you covered *casually makes amazing animations for such a crappy movie **
To be honest, I'm still kind of glad they just released it as a demo. They could have easily just have let it rot with the public never even knowing of its existence.
They said it was too dark for kids. When I first watched the movie as a kid, I did not understand that the Onceler was supposed to be a bad person, because the songs were so upbeat
Don’t forget Tadashi x Once-ler, but even the Once-ler Fandom was confused as to why the hell it was there. Honestly it seems like every 2 years someone has to edit teh Once-ler wiki to something cursed, first Tadashi now Dream. I’d like to kindly exit this drug train now please.
@@yer_yer6795 there are pictures in the video where the Onceler and Dream (Minecraft RU-vidr) are in a rather sexual position. Both characters seem to enjoy said position. This is a ship. Yet even though it is one hell of a cursed ship there are things in the video that are even more cursed than this image. I hope this helped
Original idea: *Save the trees for the future of the world, and a bunch of really genial messages for humanity* The Lorax 2012: *h0rny boe tries to get a tree seed for girl*
The Last Airbender, Death Note Netflix Adaptation, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, the Cat In the Hat, Dragonball evolution, and the Super Mario movie: Amateurs!
When I read the lorax book as a kid I used to be scared of the onceler because I thought behind his curtain he was a horrible nightmare creature because we never saw his face.
Ikr, even though I find the Movie Onceler kinda weird because he is an adult with child's face(i don't know how people find that attractive), but with the book is worse
What makes me sad is this movie covered up the serious message with colourful visuals and goofy characters. The "protagonist" - Ted - doesn't give a shit about trees, he just wants to get the girl.
I hate them for not putting this masterpiece (biggering) into the film, this guy was singing with his whole soul the DEMO, so it means it could be better. But no, how but can i be comes in
Tom & Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the bastardization of Roald Dahl’s Magnum Opus and Illumination’s The Lorax is the bastardization of Dr. Seuss’s Magnum Opus
I personally think Roald Dahl's Magnum Opus was the Witches. Oh, wait that recently got bastardized too. Poor Dahl. No wonder he had such an anti tv mindset.
This movie to me is like chicken little. I only liked it as a kid cause I grew up with watching both of these movies a lot, but I didn’t realize how bad both of them were until I recently looked back at them. Lorax was actually a lot worse than I thought.
"Well id probably marry him on the spot" Zack the Mary Sue: hehe yeah boi Edit: the reason why i called Zack a Mary Sue is cus during the final song everyone one agreed with him expect the villain He was the bad guy (along side being the bad guy but we ignore that)
8:15 I cannot even begin to tell you how utterly refreshing it was to hear someone FINALLY getting the terminology right and blame corporatism instead of the usual blame thrown at capitalism. That honestly just made my day.
Donkey Kong exists in the Lorax Universe, that means Mario exists too because that was both Mario and Kong's debut game. Know what that means? Nintendo exists. Nintendo publishes a game called Legend of Zelda. Guess what? Link appears is Soulcalibur 3. That means the Soul Series exists. Keep that in your head. Kratos appears in Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. Kratos is from God of War which is an exclusive to the Playstation by Sony. Sony exists. Going back to the Playstation and God of War, it got it's start on the PS2. There is a certain game on PS2 that is from a worse movie. The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 2.5D platform game for PlayStation 2. That means Dr. Seuss made the book which was then adapted to film and then into a game. Dr. Seuss made a little book known as.... _the lorax_ That means they live in a world where their fates are already known. _They know they're not good_ I rest my case.
And by Kratos existing in Playstation All Stars this connects not just that game to Lorax but also by Heihachi Mishima being in that game and in Smash stage/Mii this makes every Smash Franchise and entire Tekken series connected to Lorax who connects with Street Fighter who connects with Marvel who connects with DC WHO MAKE ALL OF THIS CONNECTED TO FORTNITE AND EVERY FRANCHISE IN THAT GAME
They should play the old hand drawn one instead, I saw it thanks to one of my online classes and it's way better at being realistically morally gray and all. But I'm not against you using Biggering if you prefer.
Biggering:"because the customers are buying in the money multiplying in the pr people line in the lawyers are denying who cares if some things are dying I don't want to hear your crying" Illumination: oh hell no
Having to look at a Onceler cosplayer in 2021 caused me so much physical pain, oh god. At least we had Danny DeVito in the film. That’s the best we’ve got.
Same I was only like 6 when the movie was released but seeing the onceler be liked like this hurts I guess the only upside to me about the onceler is that I like the shade of green his suit is.
I remember one of the director's actually saying that the Oncelor being given a face and personality is to give off the message that anyone can become the Oncelor because busineessmen and CEOs are still human and can be anyone. Personally I actually like this decision. Too bad it's the only thing I like.
To give a counter-argument, I think the original did this way more effectively *by* making him faceless. By making him faceless, you can apply anyone onto him, including yourself. By giving him a face, you're not looking at yourself or a man who you could become, you're looking at a pre-existing pre-baked character, and that dissonance is what ruins the 2012 version of the character for me.
@@dumbsville Understandable. I'd also like to note that I feel like the movie has also so much more wrong with it when you take into account the context surrounding its development, hypocritical messages, oversimplification of the issues presented in the film and Illumination as whole. There's stuff like Thneedville which I actually didn't think was that bad an idea but they never go into detail how the fucked up comodified society affects those who can't afford the commodities, or the consequences for the fact they literally need to buy air (there are these two fantastic videos by Drawpinion Dump and The Squad discussing the issues that The Lorax refuses to accept or tackle) or if they have breathing issues for that matter amongst others. It doesn't help that one of the lyrics in 'How Bad Can I Be' is "And the PR people are lying and the lawyers are denying" yet Illumination does literally that in their ad campaigns for the film. The implications are truly just depressing honestly and only adds to the reasons that this film and Illumination are a garbage fire.
@@dumbsville counterpoint, by not showing a face you turn him in to an entity that may as well doesnt exist. If you can't see him, whose to say he's even real? Most of these evil people aren't faceless,, you see them.. having him hide in the shadows makes it out to be that its just some person hiding in the shadows when thats not true. You don't know who he is so you can say he's real or that he can be anyone because people have faces and you see them.
Thinking about it, i think i know how they could have made biggering fit the oncler in a relatable way. In the beginning of the movie, before the oncler finds the trees, he's attacked by a bear or something, he swings an axe, but its too small to reach, he goes "I need a bigger axe! I need a bigger axe!" finds he packed one, and somehow manages to drive off the bear. I think this small change would both tie in his need to "bigger" and his disregard for nature nicely
Being a fan of Viziepop's creations, I thought I've already seen enough Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss/Zoophobia's memes and jokes to resist when they pop out; but everytime that gif with Charlie dancing and the: "Death to Israel" near pops out of nowhere, I just keep losing the lungs from laughs😂 Jokes apart, I'm with you on this, especially the excuse of love story to motivate the boy, it's not the first time an adaptation has this situation, take Netflix's "Watership Down" series, they took away the scene in wich Fiver alone finds his brother and was trustful in the fact that he was still alive... to give screentime to the girl for a romance story rushed as fuck: they see each other one time and they istantly go with the: "Oh, I knew you would come back for me" and then again, after a few only line of dialogues, they already start to talk like a couple and while someone could argue that rabbits fuck non-stop, yes, they show to have still animal instinct in the books, but there is another love story that is handled well and it's far more realistic and isn't rushed and unnecessary slapped in your face instead of giving space to the protagonists, not to mention that they put it there for the cliché of the weak damsel in distress that needs to be saved before growing up a spine (and there were already strong females characters in the books, the one that is the real mate of the protagonist in the books for example) and change other parts of the plot that could have been modified in less clihcé-filled ways. I'm with you evem on the fact that "Biggering" should have been in the movie, I've seen many animations mixing togheter *perfectly* some of the movie's Oncelor and even some of the one in the book! That makes you angry only 'cause you see that he as a villain had potential and the movie had a really big potential too (just thinking about the many things that could have been changed in something better makes you want to destroy illumination, a bit more of attention especially on the villain and the Oncelor real self and we could have a movie that, even if changing the original plot, can have it in too and be still a good movie). Now time to watch other reviews from your channel, I admit that I was at first a bit fearful of finding another youtuber that goes for: "I don't like one thing about this movie, so it sucks and who enjoyis it must die of cancer!", you know, it's pretty hard to find someone that doesn't do that and tries to stay as objective as it can, but your "Alpha&Omega"'s revies just hypnotized me (and made me feel a bit ashamed of the board on Pinterest I once created in Lily's honor😂)
"This doesnt even make sense on a creatively bankrupt level" is actually a fair statement. You probably could narrow down the story to 3 Character maximum and you dont even have to fully 3D-model and animate one of them. It took more money and effort for them to do this then to do it correctly.
Ok, I'm willing to defend illimination's attempts to make the oncler "relatable". Showing the onceler as a person, not the faceless thing we saw in the book and original movie, is an attempt to dispel the myth that all corporates are unrelatable douchbags. You're meant to see yourself within the onceler and see yourself in his decent to villainy. however, since corporate meddleing happened, the entire purpose of giving the onceler a face was shipped to marketing. what a fucking shame.
i think it would've worked a lot better if they actually took the faceless route after he became successful, showing that this is something that could happen to anyone while also still giving him time to be a normal guy- and o'hare really shouldn't have been there either, because he's played 100% straight and just makes the whole dichotomy worse.
I love how they made biggering and this song could have saved the whole entire movie but instead nah it's too dark and said they made another song that was pretty lame
bigmac 1014 --- sadly it wouldn't save the movie, since to save it we need to remove the whole """"distopia"""" set-up which is really pointless... and also make The Onceler faceless.
ngl the cosplayer at the beginning is actually really cool and knows full well being a sexy onceler thirst trap is unbelievably cursed but finds it hilarious
I loved Biggering and I still listen to it every now and then. It’d be pretty nice if they remade The Lorax into a musical maybe. The songs would have a more dark and dismal tone to really make the audience feel the weight of the story’s message
@@totallyahuman5055 the joke from my understanding is the aforementioned tumblr users are simping for someone who gets rich and famous for the same reasons that they shit on capitalism for
@@totallyahuman5055 Onceler is basically the equivalent to Jeff Bezos, i.e. busiessman who creates large, environmentally destructive corporation but ungh he's so hot who cares because how a man looks clearly matters more than his principles.
This somehow takes the Hazbin Homotel style of humor (i.e. being loud and having 10 random sound effects playing at once is funny) and yet this is genuinely entertaining
The moral lesson is: break as many laws, harm as many people, risk your life and your family's safety; all to get some pussy. That way everything will be okay in the world
I love the fact we have instead of Biggering, this almost back-and-forth anti-capitalist song showing Onceler’s downfall, we got How Bad Can I Be, a Pop song
the fact that got the biggering got cut for "how bad can i be" to appeal to the onceler fandom just goes to show that god is dead and his beard was used to make the thneed.
Honestly, when I look back at this, the Once-ler’s face being shown does take away from the ambiguity, but I always thought it was meant to humanize him more, showing that any of us could’ve become the villain in a story like this (though they could’ve done without the guitar and family thing). Other than that, yeah, I guess I always did love the original more than this.
@@BabyGirlTiny Honestly it's a double edged sword. To quote Nostalgia Critic though before the Onceler got his personality revealed: "At the VERY least, they're making him timeless". Effectively, if in an AU we got a good Lorax movie but the Onceler had a face, one would need his personality to follow the book and be broad enough so that one could fill his shoes - effectively, being relatable in any time period. None of this 'guitar playing' unless its a hobby he's trying to learn. One idea I thought of was an added in line: The onceler is just a nobody, a guy from a small town just eager to make his mark in the word and finding inspiration in order to achieve said goal. Yes the impact of the original faceless idea of the Onceler is lost, but it would still be respectful to the source material if done right. The trick would be to make it so that despite having a 'face', you could change that face still and the Onceler would still be 'anybody' - and as someone else has stated one could thematically make his face appear less and less (but that would require some expert camerawork / animation to make that work). But the grave mistake done was giving the Onceler an ACTUAL face; not a general 'one size fits all' face and personality that one could presume could've come from anybody, but some rad 2000s guy playing a guitar being driven by his family to make more money while stating 'oh how bad could I be mang'. It's a damn shame, the idea COULD of worked but it's all corporate and pandering and on the nose. Hell, the one line I wish they KEPT was the whole argument with the Oncler and Lorax about shutting down his factory: "And what would you have me do, fire all of my workers?" as others have said it was really impressive The Lorax managed to strike a balance of both sides having very valid points, where the conflict wasn't black and white. Not this film, sadly. This film spat in its face.
