Predictive Programming: The Lorax (Movie)

I wrote this article before the revelations of Edward Snowden. The surviellance state that is present in this film is now even more relevant.

The Lorax. This is a picture of the first scene of the movie. Pretty blatant all seeing eye symbolism.

The movie begins with a musical number that acquaints the viewer to many of the societal conditions that residents of Thneedville live in. The residents rejoice over their fake, plastic city which they never leave. All plants in the city are artificial. A singing resident boasts of a “tree” takes 96 batteries. We then see a delivery man, singing as he makes his rounds. He delivers what appears to be a 5 gallon jug, similar to the ones we are all familiar with in water coolers. In this jug however, is air rather than water. You see, the air quality in Thneedville is terrible, so residents buy bottled air. This seems similar to the idea of a carbon tax to me. One of the lines in the song states “in Thneedville, we don’t want to know, where the smog and the trash and the chemicals go.” This willful ignorance seems awfully similar to the attitude of many Americans. We then see a small child joyfully singing “I just went swimming, and now I glow!”. The child turns florescent green as he is pulled out of the water. His parents seem enthusiastic about this occurrence. Clearly, some of the chemicals went into the pool where the child was swimming. We learn that there is surfing and snowboarding right in town, year round. Two of the reasons residents never have to leave. We are then introduced to Aloysous O’Hare (as the crowd cheers and hip hip horrays), “the man who found a way to sell air, and became a zillionare.” The townsfolk state that they love living this way, calling it paradise and perfect.

The movie centers around a kid named Ted. We meet an older girl named Audrey, who loves real trees. She paints them on the back of her house. Ted has a crush on her, so he begins a quest to find her a real tree. We are then introduced to his mother and grand mother. There is no mention of Ted’s father during the movie, which is fairly typical. It is very rare for a main character in a children’s movie to have both a mother and a father. This relates to the agenda to destroy the nuclear family. Another part of the anti family agenda, is horrible and disrespectful interactions between family members in tv/movies. The Lorax is no different in either of these aspects. In the majority of scenes with Ted’s mother and grand mother, the two disrespect one another in various ways. Ted asks his mother about where he can find a real tree. His grandmother begins to answer, stating that Ted would need to find the Once-ler, before she is interrupted (and disrespected) by his mother who calls the idea a magical fable. Ted’s grandmother than patronizes his mother, stating she forgot that she is old, and can’t even remember to put her teeth in. The mother than goes off to retrieve the grandmother’s teeth. It turns out it was just a ploy to get rid of the mother, as the grandmother retrieves her teeth from her pocket. The grandmother reiterates that Ted must find the Once-ler, to which Ted replies (in a condescending tone) “Grammy, is this a real thing that we are talking about now?” Clearly, the disrespect for ones elders shown by Ted’s mother has rubbed off on him. The grandmother states that the Once-ler is real. In addition to these horrible interactions between family members, the family is clearly eating processed (garbage) food.

Ted sets off to find the Once-ler, but first he must leave town for what appears to be the first time. The outside of the town is surrounded by a massive wall, presumably to keep people in. This wall appears to be under constant surveillance. A security alert goes off when Ted leaves the town, the news of which is relayed to Aloysous O’Hare by his two guards. O’hare seems very upset at the idea, stating “no one ever leaves town!” He orders his guards to “see what he’s up to.”

Ted eventually finds the Once-ler, who begins to tell him the story of his youth. We are briefly introduced to the Once-ler’s family and once again, there is absolutely no mention of a father. We learn that the Once-ler is leaving home to bring the world his invention, the thneed. The Once-ler’s horrible mother leaves him with the following advice: “Just remember Oncie, if somehow your invention ends up a failure instead of a success… Well, it wouldn’t surprise me at all!” The Once-ler heads out to laughter and ridicule from his family. It is disgusting how prevalent horrible interactions between family members such as these are in tv and movies. If you pay attention to the interactions between family members in tv and movies (instead of just laughing at the jokes), you will be as disgusted as I am. The next few scenes actually follow the book the movie was based on, although very loosely. The Once-ler finds a forest full of truffle trees, cuts one down to create a thneed, which brings forth the Lorax. The Lorax then tries to get the Once-ler to leave. The Once-ler promises to continue the story the next day, and Ted goes home.

The next day, we see Ted breaking his fast on what I am sure is a nutritious cereal called “Empty O’s.” Before Ted can leave to seek out the Once-ler, he is informed by his mother that it is family time and they will be playing board games. The next scene shows Ted and his family playing a board game. Ted seems bored, and it is the grandmother’s turn. While thinking about her move, the grandmother is scolded by Ted’s mother for taking too long. It isn’t long before Ted’s mother becomes frustrated at the grandmothers hesitation to make a move, as she jumps up stating “Family time is over, it is now personal time, I’ll be in my room” as she sulks away. It is then revealed that the grandmother was intentionally playing slow to get rid of the mother. The grandmother states “I knew I could break her.” Fuck family time, right? The grandmother then instructs Ted to go back and see the Once-ler, because his crush on some girl is obviously much more important than spending quality time with his family.

On his way out of town, Ted is ambushed by O’hare and his two guards. O’hare asks Ted about his new found fondness of trees. When Ted asks how he knew about that, O’hare states “There’s not much that goes on in Thneedville that I don’t know about.” O’hare then threatens Ted because what O’hare makes a profit on, trees provide for free. O’hare then instructs Ted to go back to his family game time. When Ted asks how he knew about that, O’hare responds that he has “eyes everywhere.” We then see random security cameras everywhere, very 1984ish. It is clear that the intent here is to condition children to being surrounded by video surveillance, and an overall lack of privacy. O’hare then states “You’ve got a beautiful town here Ted, lots of stuff to occupy your short attention span. Why, I can’t think of a reason you’d ever want to go outside of town again, ever.” Ted does not listen to O’hare, and immediately leaves town to see the Once-ler.

The Once-ler continues his story, the growth of consumer demand for his thneed, and the Lorax’s attempts to stop him. Ted goes back to town.

We then find out that O’hare knows Ted has disobeyed his orders, as the exit from town has been welded shut. O’hare has also had Audrey’s tree paintings covered with white paint. It becomes clear that O’hare basically owns the town in Orwellian fashion, with constant surveillance of its citizens and his personal guards being the closest thing we see to law enforcement over the course of the movie. Ted then manages to escape the town, and goes back to see the Once-ler.

The Once-ler continues his story. The demand for thneeds were so high that the Once-ler had his family come to the forest to help with production. Of course, the family now loves him as he is successful. We then see the Once-ler and his family destroy the environment in order to keep up the demand for thneeds, making them all rich in the process. When the last truffle tree is cut, everybody realizes the game is up because there is no longer trees to make thneeds out of. The Once-ler’s mother insults him one last time before departing. With such a mother (and apparently no father), it is no wonder that the Once-ler is easily consumed by greed and spiritually bankrupt. The Lorax and forest critters depart. During this scene, there is a musical number that attempts to justify the greed displayed with references to survival of the fittest. It is a pretty ridiculous song for a children’s movie.

You can listen to the song here:

This picture is shown during the song:

The Once-ler then gives Ted the last truffle tree seed. Ted manages to sneak back into the town, and heads home.

O’hare shows up inside the house with his guards. The mother is clearly uncomfortable and afraid around O’hare, since she knows he owns the town. They know about the seed, and ransack Ted’s room looking for it. Finally, a positive interaction between mother and son occurs, as she orders the men to leave. In typical Hollywood fashion, a happy ending is packaged up in the last few minutes of the movie, as the seed is planted, the townsfolk learn the error of their ways, and we later see other trees growing outside town along with the return of the Lorax and forest critters.

The seeds planted in the packaged happy ending are far different than the seeds planted in the minds of the young viewers that comprise this movie’s targeted audience. These seeds depict terrible family dynamics/interactions, a near totalitarian society under constant video surveillance, and the profitable sale of resources that should be free (air). These ideas will remain in the minds of young viewers long after the relatively brief feelings of happiness at the Hollywood ending fade away. This is how conditioning works.

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