Recap / The Nostalgia Critic S 7 E 9

Release: May 6, 2014

Film: The Lorax (2012)

Tagline: How can you dumb down a story intended for 3-year-olds?

The review begins with the Lorax's visage everywhere, due to moviegoers obsessing over the movie adaptation of the classic book. The Nostalgia Critic, frustrated by the movie ruining the book, heads to the nearest focus group facility and confronts the Analysts from his review of The Cat in the Hat, who are planning to make a live-action version of Goodnight Moon starring Madea. He reviews the film to show them the harm that the Lorax movie is causing.

The Analysts argue that by depicting Black-and-White Morality, they didn't want the audience to feel downbeat from watching the film. The Critic brings their attention to the movie audience, showing them that without humanizing the characters, the people watching them film remain oblivious to their careless littering. The Analysts nevertheless claim that it's okay since the film satirizes environmental destruction, but the Critic disagrees.

When the Critic gets upset over the Once-ler being depicted as a hip, "completely dated product of the times" rather than a timeless everyman, the Analysts explain that the Once-ler has fans dubbed Once-lings, who formed online communities revolving around him. They then introduce the Critic to one such fan named Hyper Fangirl, who obsesses over the Jonas-esque haircuts the characters in the Seuss movies have. She and the Critic argue over whether or not the Once-ler should be considered a hipster, when the Critic unwittingly describes himself when describing what characterizes a hipster. Hyper Fangirl then falls in love with the Critic, who gets creeped out and would rather not talk to her anymore.

Later, the Analysts explain to the Critic that the musical elements of the film sound like dated pop songs because they're trying to reach the most popular demographic. The Critic has them check in on the Lorax audience again, who by now are moving on to Grown Ups 2 and throwing away their Lorax merchandise. The Critic explains to them that the movie's own popularity would've lasted longer if they'd focused more on making it good and substantial, rather than attempting to appeal certain audiences. The Analysts, however, are confident that the Internet will speed up the period of disinterest and set up timers, believing that in five minutes, the film will be "popularly retro".

After the Critic finishes reviewing the movie's finale and rants about the lack of a thought-provoking ending to make the audience keep coming back, the Analysts note that it's finally time to check if the movie gained the retroactive reputation they anticipated. However, only one member of the movie's former audience remains, and he ends up dissatisfied with it and leaving. As the Analysts chink their champagne over running out of Lorax exploitation, the Critic tells them the biggest problem with the movie:

Critic: Though it's not as bad as The Grinch or The Cat in the Hat, and the animation style is colorful and lends its way to Seuss's world better than live action, The Lorax still sucks in capturing the spirit of Dr. Seuss. Instead of being poetic, it panders to the mainstream; instead of having it speak to everyone, it paints extremes that alienates the truth of the story; and instead of being dark and subtle, it knocks you on the head with its message, ironically making it far less memorable.

The Critic further explains that by watering down the movie so much, the audience sees no reason to return to it, and they end up returning to the original books, which are worth remembering far more. Upon the Critic making this claim, one of the Analysts reveals himself to be Black Willy Wonka. Upon dismissing the remaining Analyst, Black Wonka takes the Critic for a ride in the Black Wonkavator, and upon seeing the moviegoers reading the original book, the Critic is surprised that the fans hadn't had enough of The Lorax after all. Black Wonka explains that sometimes, people take the power of Dr. Seuss's books for granted, so movie adaptations aim to be popular yet end up falling short and dated so that people can go back and rediscover what made the books so good. The Critic thinks that for discovering this, Black Wonka will reward him with his money making secrets as well as a lifetime of happiness, but Black Wonka gives him a "I'm a Smartie" button instead. The reviews ends with an uncomfortable attempt at a heartwarming moment.

This review contains examples of:

• Adaptation Decay: The Critic's opinion on the film. As it turns out, it was a deliberate setup by Black Willy Wonka.
• Anviliciousinvoked: Discussedd by the Critic, who complains over how the film comes off as brutally unsubtle compared to the original story/animated adaptation (in which both the Once-ler and the Lorax had their points), up to including a Captain Planet-level Corrupt Corporate Executive as the Big Bad.
• Atomic F-Bomb: Upon seeing that the Once-ler was retooled into a lovable hipster, the Critic immediately flies into a rage, preparing to let out one of these... before sitting down and calmly saying that he doesn't care for this.
• Back from the Dead: It was acknowledged that the Analysts had died in the review for The Cat in the Hat.
  Analyst 1: We're like mononucleosis: we never fully go away.
  Analyst 2: And we often put you to sleep.
• Beyond the Impossible: Apparently "Let It Go" was being satirized before it even came out!
• Broken Aesop: The Critic calls out the film for being anti-consumerism even though it was involved in a lot of Product Placement when the movie came out and for having so many pro-consumerism songs. He does understand that the songs were meant to be ironic, but that it's still messed up to have only one out of five of the movie's musical numbers to be pro-environmentalism.
• Call-Back: The Critic asks the Analysts how playing bad things for laughs make it less bad, only to immediately drop the question when the Analysts consult the charts like they repeatedly did in the Cat in the Hat review.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The Critic spouts out a string of fuck-yous when he sees that the Once-Ler was given a face, the first thing that betrays his original design as The Everyman.
• Dissonant Serenity: Black Willy Wonka reveals nonchalantly that he killed an elderly man and took all of his possessions, and he then expected the Critic to hug him after he had admitted to this murder.
• Gateway Series: Invoked by Black Willy Wonka, who reveals that Dr. Seuss films were deliberately designed to be well-marketed enough to attract crowds, but bad enough to force them to return to the original books and discover how great they are.
• Like You Would Really Do Itinvoked: The Critic laughs hysterically over the idea that the film, Anvilicious as it already is, would simply end with Ted walking away with the last truffula seed, as in the original book and animated adaptation.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Subverted. The Critic starts the review by speaking entirely in rhyme, like he did in another review of an adaptation of Dr. Seuss' work... but decides to just speak normally when he can't think of a word to rhyme with "orange".
• Running Gag:
  • Whenever the Once-ler's name is mentioned, it automatically causes fangirls to shriek which is quickly silenced by the Critic.
  • After nearly every sentence, the Analysts clink their champagne glasses.
• Shout-Out:
  • The various animals are often compared to the minions of Despicable Me, a film also made by Illumination Entertainment.
  • The ending of the review spoofs the ending of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
• Stalker with a Crush: When Hyper Fangirl and the Nostalgia Critic realize that he fits the Hipster description perfectly, Hyper Fangirl is immediately attracted to him. Creepily.
• Take That!: The Critic spends quite the time ranting about the Misaimed Fandom of the Once-ler as well as the film's marketing...
  • Self-Deprecation: ...then realizes he's not that different than the Once-ler.
• The Teaser: The video starts as a parody of The Giving Tree, which ends with the titular tree being chopped down and turned into paper that's used to advertise The Lorax.
• Viewers Are Morons: The Analysts state that the reason the film was so heavy-handed with its Green Aesop was so that the audience wouldn't be confused. The Critic argues that like the book, the film should try challenging the audience and make them think, and it's shown that the audience quickly lose interest in the film due to how forgettable it was.
• Vocal Dissonance: The Critic finds Zac Efron's voice far too mature-sounding for Ted, and makes fun of it by dubbing over a scene from The Iron Giant and giving Hogarth an even more unfitting voice.

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I'm just sayin'...