* * Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. Written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, based on the book by Dr. Seuss. Directed by Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda.
* * * 1/2 The Secret World of Arrietty. Written by Hayao Miyazaki & Keiko Niwa, based on a novel by Mary Norton. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi.
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| The Once-ler takes a whack in The Lorax. |
A day at the movies should be magic, you see
for kids who are ninety or only just three.
So Hollywood set about making a film very large of a short ecological screed
called The Lorax.
Dr. Seuss wrote this book long ago,
When hippies in town let their hair grow.
It was short and sweet and oh so clear,
this elegant plea to save all we hold dear.
Read it on a plane and you’ll see, or a boat,
a car, a train or in a moat.
Won't you read The Lorax?
The story is classic, about a young youngster
who learns the tale of a man called the Once-ler,
a newcomer to the forest of truffula trees,
who cut them all down because of his greed
to fashion their tufts into garments called Thneeds.
He was warned, of course, of life's bitter facts,
like what happens when our forests get whacked.
Who spoke for the trees? It was the Lorax.
But don't see the movie, I beg you and plead
for busy it is, and too long and guaranteed
to bore you to death with its desperate need
to be all things to all ages, and indeed,
it is much like a thneed, this Lorax.
It really is nice in this age of Santorum,
With its war on sense and all with clitorum,
to close your eyes and imagine a fellow
of such grace, wit, and decorum
As the Lorax.
But the movie strikes all the wrong notes
as it offers lame songs and unfunny jokes,
As Seuss says, though "biggered" to an extreme,
I guess we can be thankful at least
that making this film harmed no truffula trees.
* * *
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| Small is beautiful in The Secret World of Arrietty. |
If truffula trees were native to Japan, there probably would still be plenty of them. Notwithstanding its industrialized image, Japan is among the most heavily forested nations on earth. This is because Japanese Once-lers pay other nations to cut down their trees instead.
Thankfully, along with deforestation, Japan exports the films of Studio Ghibli, the now legendary house of animation that gave us Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Ponyo and a half dozen other truly unique creations. Lately, the studio’s visionary co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has stepped back from directing, leaving the task to animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi for Ghibli’s latest, The Secret World of Arrietty.
Delegating those chores away hasn’t diminished the final product: this is a Miyazaki film in all but name, and is quite wonderful. That’s “wonderful” in the literal sense—as in full of wonder. Based on Mary Norton’s book The Borrowers, it concerns the unlikely friendship between a sickly boy (voiced by David Henrie) and Arrietty (Bridget Mendler), a four inch-tall sprite who lives between the floorboards with her Pop and Mum (David Arnett and Amy Poehler). The little folk are human in all but size, and just want to be left alone to filch bay leaves and cubes of sugar and other small necessities of life from the humans. Having discovered the Borrowers by accident, the boy sees them as the cures for his loneliness; Arrietty, likewise curious, encourages him despite herself and the dark forebodings of her father.
The root of Arrietty’s appeal, as in most Ghibli films, lies more in its treatment than its story. Using old-fashioned hand-drawn cel animation, it conjures a universe in the space of a single backyard. Miyazaki asks “what is important for us to see?” and forces nothing more—in contrast to The Lorax, which seems to demand how much more banter and music and color it can shoehorn into the frame. Where the American film feels over-stuffed and over-busy, as if afraid it can’t sustain close scrutiny, Arrietty is confident enough to entertain us and invite us to think at the same time. Often, it takes the patience of an adult to tell the best stories for children.
© 2012 Nicholas Nicastro
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