Film Theory: The Lorax Movie LIED To You!

you're really not quite the contrary how wrong could we possibly be hello internet welcome to film theory the show that tells jokes that ooze with such ease but those jokes are filled with such cheese that the joke police might one day raid my home and say freeze the keyboard they'll seize the lawsuits they'll tease and by now you're all shouting stop please today we're talking about a dr seuss classic the lorax the classic tale of how a flourishing forest full of truffula trees was reduced to a barren wasteland when a businessman rolls into town and exploits the trees for profit it's a classic story about how something beautiful that everyone love can be ruined by greedy corporate interest and what better way for illumination entertainment creator of the minion movies to teach that very lesson to a new generation than by taking the iconic story and adding an extra hour of run time now some people might call this an unnecessary cash grab that totally negates the message of the original story what were you expecting a butt at the end of that sentence it totally negates the original message of the story but not nearly as much as the decision to take the pro-environmentalist icon lorax and use them to promote a mazda suv not hybrid or electric or anything like that just a gas guzzling suv and also hp printers and ihop and freaking comcast you see this this right here it's called the point illumination entertainment you missed it but see they're not alone because when it comes to the lorax movie audiences missed the point too and to be clear i'm talking about that movie itself and all of the stuff that was shoved into it to stretch that 30 minute story into 85 minutes of run time the lorax film seems to have a message that's pro-tree ending with a big musical about how we all need to let it grow but if you really look at what's actually happening in this movie neither the once-ler nor the new villain aloysius oh hey are to blame and yes i sang it's the way i remember how to pronounce his name every song in this movie is a bop movie itself yeah questionable quality but man the songs are just delightful obnoxious for everyone involved unclear anyway the villains of this movie aren't the villains here rejoice all you once slur and greedler shippers how ba can they be not as bad as you might think you see meanwhile the characters that the movie is trying to cast in the role of heroes aren't quite as heroic as they might seem the long and short of it all is that no one understood this story which is just a wee bit concerning since in a very literal way the fate of the world depends upon its message for starters let's take a look at the main villain of the story as you may or may not know the classic story of the lorax is about the once-ler an enterprising businessman who chops down all of the truffula trees to manufacture these wildly popular garments called these but in this new lorax movie that's all in the past it's a story within a story in the present day of the film we're living in the aftermath of the once-ler there are zero trees and the one city that we see needville is a synthetic consumerist mecca run by a new businessman who's come to power aloysius o'hare who built his empire on selling bottled air while mr o'hara officially is a businessman he basically just runs the works for place and he has his own secret police that try to stop our main character ted when he attempts to sneak out of town cenidevil is basically a corporatocracy a word that sounds like it was made up in a dr seuss book but nope it's uh actually right here in the dictionary because truth is more ridiculous than fiction sometimes the business model of o'hare's air company we're told is that bottled air is made in a factory which manufactures plastic bottles you gotta be kidding me you really think people are stupid enough to buy this our research shows that if you put something in a plastic bottle people will buy it of course there's an obvious conflict of interest here the factories that manufacture o'hare's plastic bottles spew smog which in turn drives more people to buy bottled air the more smog in the sky the more people will bomb but if you take a closer look at what's going on o'hare might not be the villain that the movie sets him out to be because as much as what i've described sounds like a dystopia if you look at the actual lives led by the people in sneedville the movie actually tells us a completely different story for starters the most dystopian part of this might be the idea that people are paying for air it'd be pretty dang evil if o'hare monopolized the most vital resource of all and then locked it behind a paywall forcing people to pay him if they want to live but that's not what's happening here it's not as if everyone in this society is spending their lives strapped to an oxygen tank sure some of them buy bottled air for their homes but they can just go outside at any point and breathe the air for free in fact on the extended version of the opening song that appears on the soundtrack o'hare straight up tells us this fact something they can get for free and it's not as if the air outside looks all that polluted people are dancing and singing in the streets without having any health concerns they're not coughing they're not struggling in any sort of way compare that to what the town was like before aloysius o'hare showed up you got yourself a different story i wonder what the next million dollar invention's gonna be yeah i wonder the air quality was so bad that people outside were indeed coughing and wheezing what i'm getting at is that though people act as though this bottled air is something that they need in order to breathe the bottled air they buy isn't really improving the quality of the air that they have access to in their homes or outside it is pure placebo effect and we can prove it using science take a closer look at those bottled air machines inside of people's homes we see that they dispense air from bottles that are similar to the standard water cooler bottles which are around 5 gallons or 19 liters in capacity and something about that should strike you is off the average human breathes around 7 to 8 liters of air every minute which is more than ten thousand liters of air per day meaning that if the citizens of the needville were solely reliant on o'hare's jugs of air they would run out in mere minutes sure they might get themselves some psychological boost from thinking that o'hare's air is breathing fresher but it's just that it's psychology not biology the fresh air that they're buying from o'hare is no different from the fresh air they'd get if they simply opened up a window wow it's kind of like another resource we have in real life that's available to us that many opt to pay for because it comes in tiny plastic bottles that claim to be fresher go figure i'm talking about water here guys thought the metaphor was obvious enough but i feel like i need to spell it out bottled water o'hare's air is just the stand-in for bottled water but one thing we can say is that before o'hare the town was a wasteland thanks in large part to the once-ler cutting down trees in the present day of the movie needville is an artificially created utopia where everyone is happy where the air is cleaner than anything that exists around it we saw how much of a wasteland it was before o'hare and in the present day we see ted cough on smog-filled air when he leaves the city's walls as ted gets further away from the city the more air pollution there seems to be if anything thineville is the one place that seems to have escaped from this fate somehow by hooker by crook aloysius o'hare managed to create what is by all accounts a thriving city despite the lack of trees he found a way to allow people to breathe free air even when they're not consuming his bottled air if you look at it that way o'hare almost seems like a hero at the end of the movie when we look out over the ruined wasteland it's important to understand that isn't what o'hare created it's what he had to overcome for his company and town to be successful and he did it the people are happy as we see in the opening song of the movie his consumers are clearly thriving happy about him happy about the city they live in welcoming his entrance and the city's new parking lot in a grand chorus in fact if you actually look at the living conditions of people in sneedville it seems not bad at all for a movie that's supposed to be all about the woes of modernity and the harm brought by capitalistic greed we don't see anyone in sneedville that seems to be a real victim of o'hare's enterprises we don't see people who are left poor and destitute we don't see people who are forced to work jobs that they don't like in order to keep up with the rat race or worse yet in order to breathe people happily prance around while they're on the job and everyone seems to have tons of time for leisure and enough money to buy giant cars the inciting incident of the film where ted goes off in search of a tree isn't because someone is actually suffering from a lack of trees it's because he wants a kiss from audrey the hot girl next door that he has a crush on what i want more than anything in the whole world is to see a real living tree if a guy somehow got you one well i'd probably marry him on the spot heck she's not even pining for nature she doesn't want to see a forest she just wants to see a tree in her backyard for the funsies for the novelty of it these are the concerns of the people of the needville it ain't too shabby so o'hare doesn't really seem to be that much of a bad guy here sure he doesn't want to grow the tree at the end of the movie but outside of that he took a desolate polluted wasteland and turned it into a consumerist utopia where everyone is happy sure he's rich but he's rich off of producing a product that people were willing to pay for so if o'hara isn't the bad guy then surely the bad guy is the one slur i'm not bad i'm the good guy here looks like someone's seen an episode of film theory before but seriously it's hard to defend this guy considering he's definitely the one to blame for all the trees being cut down kind of i mean technically it was his overbearing mother who pushed him to the brink see we're not making sneeds fast enough we could always start chopping down the trees man it is no wonder that tumbler fell in love with this guy he's a tall thin guitar playing nerd who wears vests loves marshmallows and has mommy issues you always said i wouldn't amount to anything remember oh hush your mouth that was just trying to motivate you i'm really glad that you clarified that because it actually hurt my feelings for a really long time but yeah at the end of the day it's old onesie who's responsible for chopping down the trees which is bad so thus he is the villain except we see his backstory he sets off on his own to make a business because he has a product that he believes in garbage oh no oh no you do not get it this is a revolutionary product that will change the world as we know it it is a million uses and nobody believes in him nobody but nobody's gonna buy that thing he goes to town every day for a week and just gets harassed by the awful terrible people there like it is brutal for just this one guy in his guitar and a dream and yet despite all of this adversity he still keeps trying and you know what it eventually pays off onceler wasn't wrong his product is something that everyone wants the thnead is the world world-changing product that he thought it was i'm sorry i just can't fault a hard-working guy with a dream who overcomes adversity to achieve tremendous success as the bad guy in this case his one fault and this is a biggie is that he doesn't replace the trees and that's not evil it's just stupid and bad business as he too quickly learns without trees his business dies there's a reason why in real life 80 to 90 of newly planted trees are planted by logging and paper companies to quote from one of their websites how would it be in their best interest to destroy forests with no intention of replacing the trees that are used to make paper sustainability of harvestable areas is crucial to the long-term survival of any paper company and that means that sustainable managed forests are crucial to their business model the harvested areas for paper companies are also known as managed forests essentially detailed models are built that allow trees to be harvested sustainably for each tree that's cut down several are planted or naturally regrown in its place at a rate that keeps the environment stable according to the u.s forest service over 4 million trees are planted in the united states every day with nearly 2 million planted by the paper and wood products industries remember mr beast's team trees 20 million dollars for 20 million trees amazing accomplishment right and it was but in perspective that's five days worth of planting for these companies the businesses aren't evil or at the very least aren't evil for those reasons their business interests force them to be sustainable and that is the once-ler's big mistake he didn't see the forest for the trees if you'll pardon the pun so who is the villain of the lorax it's the consumer it's us it's easy to point at the big business guys in this case the once-ler and aloysius o'hare and say you did this you're the one at fault for all of this but they're only doing what we as the consumer are telling them to do both o'hare and the once-ler reference the consumer at various points throughout the movie you gotta be kidding me you really think people are stupid enough to buy this can we fold him for selling us a product that we're telling him we want he doesn't believe it but if that's what we want he'll sell it to us and again with the once-ler how bad could i possibly be all the customers are paying and the money's multiplying the customers are buying that is us telling him we approve of what you're doing keep providing that service again both men are just fulfilling a need that the consumer is telling them that they want for more proof onceler was ready to pack up his need business when it wasn't selling but ramps it up again when consumer demand is through the roof if it wasn't for all of those people wanting to buyeth need the forest would still be intact from what we see and hear in the movie the people of the needville are perfectly happy with their giant cars and their inflatable trees and their waste of batteries they want those things and you know what they don't want trees stop it one slur and o'hare aren't the bad guys like the movie wants to frame it it's much more complicated than that we're the bad guys here because we are the ones that let their bad business practices slide we didn't prioritize nature we didn't care about the trees because we wanted a need no matter the cost we didn't care about air quality to worry about o'hare's pollution for change to happen it doesn't fall on them it falls on us and if we disapprove of the way someone is doing business or what a company stands for it's up to the consumer to vote with their dollar but to both o'hare and once-ler in the movie the dollars thus far had been telling him we approve what you're doing that's why this line in the movie and in the book is so important because unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing is going to get better it's not about the once-ler it's not about o'hare it's about us and that is the message of the lorax one that i think most people and especially illumination entertainment completely missed but hey that's just a theory a film theory and thank you again for supporting this channel and for supporting today's sponsor nordvpn why use a vpn you ask well for one thing a vpn encrypts your online life to ensure that you stay anonymous so whether you're banking online or you know trudging 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Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 615,967

Rating: 4.8819208 out of 5

Keywords: the lorax, lorax, the lorax movie, the lorax full movie, lorax full movie, lorax songs, let it grow lorax, lorax lied, let it grow, the lorax song, how bad can i be lorax, how bad can i be, oncler, the onceler, dr seuss, dr seuss the lorax, once-ler, the once-ler, film theorists, film theory, film theory lied, film theory lorax, the theorizer, the lorax zac efron

Id: m-_GFcWr0lI

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/DiabloGraves]

I mean, okay, in a world where no other cities exist and we have magical technology that can keep all of the air pollution (and any of the other consequences of pollution, for that matter) out of our living spaces, and in a world where corporate actions are completely transparent to consumers and they can clearly make informed choices about their purchasing actions, sure, this makes sense.

*cough*

[u/a14pdeb8]

Yeah this just seemed like capitalist bootlicking to me, what was the actual theory here (I mean I get the premise that we're the villains and that the once ler and o'hare were the good guys because "vote with your wallet") but he completely ignored the actual problems and didn't really say anything substantive here. Like Jesus Christ

[u/Argon_H]

This was literally captalist propaganda

[u/S0und-Barri3r]

As much as I can agree on the idea that consumers are the problem of this environmental destruction I have to disagree that both O'hare and the Once-ler can be considered the "good guys who simply want to do business."

​

O'hare was already beginning to pollute the air through bottles. His whole business strategy was to create plastic bottles for air in order to pollute the air that is considered "free" in order to increase the demand for O'hare Air.

​

Once-ler itself was aware of the damage he was potentially doing through the song "Biggering" (a song that wasn't added in the movie but is still in the movie soundtrack, really good song ngl).

"

And the customers are buying,

And the money multiplying

And the PR people lying

And the lawyers are denying,

(Biggering)

Who cares if some things are dying?

"

​

He admits the lies that the press and the lawyers are making. You can still make the excuse that he didn't realize the consequences until it was too late, but he was still aware that what his actions were wrong; yet he still kept doing it.

[u/billybobthortonj]

This latest film theory was pretty darn cringe. To quote a comment I saw:

"I still feel like this is just you justifying corporate businesses to be terrible by pushing the responsibility to the customer, Matt.

I like your stuff, I really do. But this is on par with your Phoenix Wright theory."

[u/Walter_Alias]

How does MatPat think scuba tanks work?

Also, as he said himself, sustainability is in the best interests of corporations. The only reason that O'hare and the Once-ler go against their own self interests is because they hate trees like some kind of captain planet villain.

[u/OttoVonBooty]

I’m a long-time fan of MatPat and the Theorist channels, but every so often there’s a video that really rubs me the wrong way, and this is one of them.

I do understand that part of the “brand” is to make bold claims that directly contradict the source material, and I have mixed thoughts on those - in order to be palatable to me they either have to be well-founded or maintain a self-aware, comedic tone. This episode hits neither of those marks.

This episode takes itself remarkably seriously; it is never made apparent that this defense of the characters is done with comedic or ironic intent. But it also lacks any foundation as a legitimate argument in their favor.

MatPat makes three major claims here: O’Hare improved the lives of Thneedville citizens; Once-ler overcame hardship to achieve success; and that the citizens of Thneedville are to blame for the extreme pollution.

The first argument is by far the most solid, which is actually kind of pathetic. The idea that O’Hare’s control increased the standard of living is apparent in the movie, but it’s undercut by the kind of cherry-picking that I hate to see from this channel. O’Hare also conspires to pollute the air to increase the need for his product He seems to rule as a dictator, and in the *main plot of the movie * he attempts to violently suppress the introduction of trees that would break his monopoly.

That point is lazy, but not abnormal to hear; however, the other two points are just kind of gross to hear from a channel I so enjoy.

MatPat posits that the Once-ler shouldn’t be held accountable for the destruction of an entire ecosystem because of this reason: he worked really hard to achieve success. This is what we call “equating wealth with moral virtue.” In this point, the video takes the song “How bad can I be” literally.

The final point is the worst: pinning blame for the annihilation of the ecosystem on the consumers at large. This is a typical tactic that corporations use to evade responsibility for the consequences of their businesses. The argument goes that the company wouldn’t have done bad things if the consumers hadn’t bought the products they made; so the responsibility for the damages rests not with the company that caused them, but the people who performed transactions with said company.

By this logic, anyone with an iPhone is personally responsible for child labor. If you buy clothes from almost anywhere, you are causing people to work in sweatshops. If you buy anything made in China, you are the reason for greenhouse-gas caused climate change. I find it morally reprehensible to blame the consumers and not the companies that actually do these things.

I could rant on and on about how disingenuous and morally abhorrent this argument is, but this comment is already getting absurdly long, so I’ll wrap it up.

This video is the worst I’ve seen from this channel in a long time, and I hope MatPat understands how problematic it really was.