Well I just watched the trailer for The Lorax and it seems it really doesn't stray from the environmental message.
Seems to make it pretty stark in fact.
http://www.theloraxmovie.com/index.php#/splashHere's the plot:
Premise
The film follows Ted (Zac Efron), an idealistic young boy who lives in "Thneed-Ville", a city that, aside from the citizens, is completely artificial. He sets out to find the one thing that will win him the affection of Audrey (Taylor Swift), the girl of his dreams, who wishes to see a real tree. While attempting to find a tree, he discovers that their city has been closed off from the outside world, and meets the reclusive Once-ler (Ed Helms), who recounts the story of how he met the Lorax (Danny DeVito), a grumpy yet charming creature who serves as guardian of the land. When the young businessman introduces a revolutionary invention from the native Truffula Tree's tufts, it tragically spirals into a mass overproduction leading to the depletion of the forest, and the creation and isolation of Ted's town. With the Once-ler's blessing, and the last Truffula Seed, Ted sets out to remind his town of the importance of nature. Unfortunately, he finds himself hounded by the wealthy mayor of Thneed-Ville, O'Hare (Rob Riggle), who has no intention of leaving any traces of the Lorax's world.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lorax_(film)
With Zac Efron and Taylor Swift this could be a good vechicle to introduce environmental issues to the young and clueless. Of course it could just make them feel alienated and hopeless about the world, which could be the ultimate intention anyways. The Nissan/Diapers thing is pretty ridiculous. I wonder if Taco Bell is going to have big plastic Lorax movie cups?
The anti-consumer pro-environment angle is always a great bait to get people to consume things. But then the original Lorax was a book, which was mass produced, by cutting down trees for its paper and binding. Irony.
By the way did you hear about Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is also now in production? I guess Adam Sandler is going to be the boy and "the Tree" is going to be voiced by
Christopher Walken. They've changed it to a romantic comedy of errors where the Boy grows up getting advice from the Tree which doesn't always work out in his favor.
