History Literature / TheLorax

* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailers never bother to tell you that the TV version is a musical with full, three-minute musical numbers, though viewers who've seen any other Dr. Seuss TV special beforehand would doubtless come in expecting songs.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailers never bother to tell you that the [=TV=] version is a musical with full, three-minute musical numbers.

* LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: Before the events of the story the Once-ler and his relatives ran a lucrative, though highly destructive, business turning the foliage of the Truffula Trees into Thneeds. When the last(?) Truffula Tree is felled, however, the Thneed factories shut down and the Once-ler's relatives leave for new ventures. By the time the story begins, all that remains of the forest is a field of tree stumps, the ruins of the Thneed factories, wild weeds (call Grickal Grass) growing, and the Once-ler himself. The Once-ler has become a bitter, sad old man who sits around in his home, sometimes telling his and the Lorax's story to passersby in the hope that they may be able to fix his terrible mistakes.

* InformedAbility: In the animated special, the song "Do Do Need a Thneed" lists a number of uses for the Thneeds, including a hammock, a toothbrush holder, a nest, an addition to soup, a grooming item, a dust cloth, a rust remover, a windshield wiper, a viper trap, a tobacco substitute, and a baby's diaper. We never see them used in any of these ways.

* IgnoredEpiphany: The Once-ler does this twice in the 1972 Animated Adaptation of this story. Once when the Bar-ba-Loots were sent away, and again when the Swomee Swans and Humming Fish leave. The latter instance segues into his rant from the climax of the book.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than other Dr. Seuss books, surprisingly. Its content discusses the effects of using up natural resources, such as trees, and not being able to replace them. However, there was still a glimmer of hope in the form of the last Truffula tree seed and the implication that the trees and the Lorax will return.

* TheFaceless: The Once-ler and his family.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The Oncelers are pretty much the stand-in for humans in this story. They consume the territory of all its Truffula Trees and then move on when there is no more, leaving the once flourishing land a deserted polluted mess. (This is made more explicit in the film, where the Once-ler is a human.)

* DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler: [[DarkestHour the forest gone, the animals gone, the settlers gone, the city gone, the factory gone, and the Lorax gone]]. Only the Once-ler remains, who regrets his actions. However, there is one ray of hope: UNLESS. If the boy can regrow the forest and protect it, maybe the Lorax will come back. What makes this even more depressing in the animated version is that the Lorax tells the Onceler family shortly after they move in that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to sprout, and ten more years for that seed to grow.]]

''The Lorax'' was adapted into a TV special in 1972 by Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises and featured Eddie Albert and Bob Holt as the voices of the two main characters of the story. A [[WesternAnimation/TheLorax feature-length film]] from the producers of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' was released in 2012, with Creator/DannyDeVito as the title character.

* GainaxEnding[=/=]DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler: [[DarkestHour the forest gone, the animals gone, the settlers gone, the city gone, the factory gone, and the Lorax gone]]. Only the Once-ler remains, who regrets his actions. However, there is one ray of hope: UNLESS. If the boy can regrow the forest and protect it, maybe the Lorax will come back. What makes this even more depressing in the animated version is that the Lorax tells the Onceler family shortly after they move in that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to sprout, and ten more years for that seed to grow.]]

* HopeSpot: The Once-ler managed to save one Truffula seed and gives it to the boy who was listening to his story. Telling him to plant it and start a new forest in the hopes the Lorax and the animals that once lived there will come back.

* RayOfHopeEnding: ''Unless...''

All you do is yap-yap and say, 'Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! \\

* SugarBowl: The land started out as this... and became a SugarApocalypse.

* SugarBowl: The land started out as this...

* [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Once-lers Are The Real Monsters]]: They're pretty much the stand-in for humans in this story. They consume the territory of all its Truffula Trees and then move on when there is no more, leaving the once flourishing land a deserted polluted mess. (This is made more explicit in the film, where the Once-ler is a human.)

** SugarApocalypse: ... and became this.

''The Lorax'' is a story written and illustrated by Creator/DrSeuss that was first published in 1971. It is an environmentally-oriented story about a person named Once-ler (shown only as a pair of arms) who caused devastation to the land and was constantly scolded for it by a creature called the Lorax, whose warnings the Once-ler had ignored until it was too late.

* {{Determinator}}: The Lorax gets a speech that illustrates this well in his book's 1972 AnimatedAdaptation.

* PyrrhicVillainy: The Once-ler starts off with a factory and even makes a super axe hacker to chop down the Truffula trees four times as fast when the stock market quotes Thneeds, Inc. as up by 27 5/8 points... and then, just as the last Truffula tree has been cut down, the Lorax gave a sad backward glance and lifted himself by the seat of his pants through the smog clouds as the Once-ler is left all alone with his abandoned factory.

''The Lorax'' was adapted into a TV special in 1972 by Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises and featured Eddie Albert and Bob Holt as the voices of the two main characters of the story. A [[WesternAnimation/TheLorax feature-length film]] from the producers of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' was released in 2012, with Danny [=DeVito=] as the title character.

** A possible answer to this is that the Once-ler could've repurposed his factories for something more useful to society, and not so destructive, setting an example for future generations to follow, or to replant truffula trees to replace what they cut, [[SocietyMarchesOn like the real logging industry does nowadays]].

* GainaxEnding/DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler: [[DarkestHour the forest gone, the animals gone, the settlers gone, the city gone, the factory gone, and the Lorax gone]]. Only the Once-ler remains, who regrets his actions. However, there is one ray of hope: UNLESS. If the boy can regrow the forest and protect it, maybe the Lorax will come back. What makes this even more depressing in the animated version is that the Lorax tells the Onceler family shortly after they move in that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to sprout, and ten more years for that seed to grow.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: Despite the titular character, the story is really about the Once-Ler. The Lorax basically represents the Once-Ler's conscious, something to tell him he knows what is the right thing to do, but his production of business continues to eventually lead to his great downfall.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler: [[DarkestHour the forest gone, the animals gone, the settlers gone, the city gone, the factory gone, and the Lorax gone]]. Only the Once-ler remains, who regrets his actions. However, there is one ray of hope: UNLESS. If the boy can regrow the forest and protect it, maybe the Lorax will come back. What makes this even more depressing in the animated version is that the Lorax tells the Onceler family shortly after they move in that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to sprout, and ten more years for that seed to grow.]]

* HeroAntagonist: If you consider the Once-ler a VillainProtagonist of this story, then the Lorax would fill this role.