Trivia / The Lorax (2012)

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: In the film, the main villain is charging people for clean air mainly because of their overly polluted air and smog. In recent years, an "oxygen bar" in Delhi gives Indians a gulp of fresh air, and even later than that, China began selling bottled air as well. Low air quality has given a business opportunity to entrepreneurs offering pollution-free oxygen at a price.
• Adored by the Network: Since the summer of 2022, Nickelodeon has been obsessed with airing this movie, to the point where it will often air two days in a row.
• Billing Displacement: The film's opening credits start with the three characters from the book in order of importance (Danny DeVito as the Lorax, Ed Helms as Once-Ler, and Zac Efron as Ted) and the rest following. The trailer on the other hand plays up Zac Efron and Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, and gives Danny DeVito an "And Starring".
• Cut Song: There are a few on the soundtrack, as well as some alternate versions of "Thneedville" and "Everybody Needs a Thneed". Also, a song called “Biggering” was supposed to be in the film but was eventually changed to “How Bad Can I Be?”
• Executive Meddling: According to Word of God, this is the reason that "Biggering" never got animated in the movie, likely because they thought that it would be too dark for the audience and cause the movie to sell less. Other elements like Ted's motivation and the "buddy picture" feel were also imposed against the producers' will.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Despite Ted and Audrey being voiced by Zac Efron and Taylor Swift respectively, their characters never sing a note. To make it even more ironic, the demo version of Thneedville actually had a verse that Ted would sing, which was later cut out of the finished version. Even more ironically, Universal would give the world a much less successful movie where Taylor Swift DOES get to sing...
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Danny DeVito voiced the titular character not only in English, but also in Italian, German, Spanish (both Latin American and European), and Russian.
• The Other Darrin: In the Italian dub, Danny DeVito replaces his regular voice actor Giorgio Lopez as the Lorax.
• The Other Marty: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Jesse Conde was cast as the Lorax, and he even recorded the dialogue in advance. However, Danny DeVito, the Lorax's English voice, was eventually cast to dub over Conde's lines before the release.
• Production Posse: Being the second big-budget animated Dr. Seuss adaptation produced by Chris Meledandri, this movie shares a few people who previously worked with Meledandri on Horton Hearts a Who!, such as screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, composer John Powell, and singer Fletcher Sheridan (JoJo's McDodd's singing voice in Horton and Cy the O'Hare Delivery Guy in Lorax).
• Real-Life Relative: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Arturo Mercado voices the Once-ler, while his son Arturo Mercado Jr. plays the younger version of the Once-ler.
• Same Voice Their Entire Life: The Once-ler's younger and older selves are both played by Ed Helms.
• Stunt Casting: Taylor Swift voicing Audrey, a character who wasn't even in the source material.
• Throw It In!: According to the DVD Commentary, Danny DeVito ad-libbed the "That's a woman?" line when the Lorax meets Aunt Grizelda.
• Two Voices, One Character: In quite a few foreign release (including Latin Spanish), the Once-ler's younger and older selves are played by two separate actors.
• What Could Have Been:
  • There was originally a different song that served as Once-ler's villain song titled "Biggering" instead of "How Bad Can I Be". It wouldn't have been out of place in a rock opera, and was a fair amount darker and less goofy than the final product, showing that greed and pride were the reasons Once-ler went as far as he did. It was scrapped reportedly because Illumination found it too dark for the film.
  • The Once-ler was once going to be a non-human character. Designs ranged from things looking out of Rayman Origins to versions resembling pre-existing Seuss characters like the Grinch or the guy who didn't like Green Eggs and Ham. It was later decided he would be a human, so the audience can be closer and relate to him (which, ironically, was already damaged by giving him a face at all).
  • Ted's motivation was originally getting something called a "Whosit", rather than wanting to impress Audrey (who apparently didn't exist at that point).
  • According to a demo of "Thneedville", the big blue sky painting originally didn't exist; the citizens were exposed to the smog-covered sky and aware of it. Also, there was a hill named after the city's founder (presumably the Once-ler), which was the only place that always stayed the same, but was soon going to become a pizza chain.
  • O'Hare was originally named "Oxy" (as in "oxygen") and underwent several designs. Ted also had several versions, some of which weren't as close to his book version. He also was seen with many strange accessories (such as giant gloves and unicycle/self-walking chairs, probably the "Whosits" mentioned above).
  • Concept art and cut songs from the soundtrack imply early versions of the film where completely different and more darker and more somber, Biggering in particular.
• Word of God: On the DVD and Blu-ray commentary, it is mentioned that after "How Bad Can I Be?", 5 years have passed.

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