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Dr. Seuss' The Lorax | 2012 | PG | - 1.3.1
Animated feature about a teen boy that sets out on a mission to find a real tree for the teen girl he has a crush on. In the process, he discovers the real reason his hometown is made of plastic and what happened to all the trees. With the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White and Rob Riggle. Directed by Chris Renaud & Kyle Balda. [1:26]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - A teen girl kisses a teen boy on the cheek. A teen boy imagines kissing a teen girl (they move close together), but he awakens and realizes that he is kissing a cereal box.
► A teen girl says, "I could kiss you" to a teen boy (she does not kiss him). A teen girl tells a teen boy that if someone were to bring her a real tree she would have to marry him on the spot.
► A teen boy appears to be smitten with a teen girl and crashes his remote controlled airplane in her back yard just to see her.
► A teen girl jokingly flips a teen boy on his back and they lie on the ground next to each other. A woman dances and shimmies her hips while asking her teen son to dance with her.
► A young man speeds on a ramp on his motorized unicycle and lands in a man's bathroom; the man is showering and we see his bare shoulder and upper chest when he peeks around the curtain and yells. We see a young woman wearing a bikini and a young man wearing swim trunks.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A teen boy approaches a dark and broken down house and rings the bell, a huge hammer slams down on the floor boards where the boy is standing sending him into the air and he's caught by a clamp that grabs him before he hits the ground; the clamp pulls him up to a window where he speaks to a man before being lowered to the ground and kicked in the back by a mechanized boot (he says "Ow" but appears unharmed). A teen boy is grabbed by a clamp and pulled into the air, and then dropped into a bucket and lowered back to the ground unharmed. A young man's bed is taken out of his house while he is sleeping in it and placed on a river, the bed floats down the river, through rapids and nearly over a huge waterfall, and a boulder falls onto the bed sending the young man and a small bear with him crashing onto the ground; a creature performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the man, and then shocks him by rubbing two bears together and he is revived.
► A teen boy rides his motorized unicycle along a winding ledge over a river of flowing sludge. A staircase shoots out of a wall (toward the audience in 3D) and a teen boy rides his motorized unicycle up the stairs. A teen boy rides outside the walls of a town and sees that it is barren and smog-filled and dark; he rides through rubble and dodges many blades attached to machinery (the swish close to the audience is in 3D), he rides over a ramp and straight down a steep wall and then up the other side (he screams and he's unharmed).
► A large man jumps out of a plane with a small man strapped to his chest, they chase a young man on a motorized unicycle through traffic, the small man hits another man off his vehicle and we see him hit another car and the small man and the large man crash into the windshield of an oncoming truck (we see them smooshed on the glass but they are later OK). A young man speeds on a ramp on his motorized unicycle and lands in a man's bathroom, and then continues to speed along rooftops and down a steep, sheer wall. A woman speeds in a car while being chased by a large man in a truck, the truck pushes cars off the road and rams the back of the car with the woman, the woman drives up a steep ramp and stops just short of the end of the road over a drop off. A skier crashes into a tree (we hear him yell). Two men in a vehicle crash into two other men seated at a table by the road (we see the rubble but no injuries are evident.
► A man punches a young man in the arm. A creature punches a young man in the nose. A mule kicks a man and the man is thrown (he seems OK). A woman slams a pitchfork into the ground very near a creature, then picks the creature up and throws him a great distance (the creature is not harmed). A boy throws a bike helmet that strikes a robotic cat and it falls to the ground where the boy runs it over with his motorized unicycle breaking it to pieces (its telescoping eyes still function and zoom in on the boy). A woman hits a man on the head with her cane. A man nearly strikes a small bear with a hammer. A man accidentally hits a small bear with his guitar. A man slams a pen into a large man's hand (no blood or apparent injury is visible).
► Animals are shown dwindling after trees are cut down (birds with no feathers and bears looking listless, fish covered with sludge) and we see them marching in a line off into the distance.
► Two men are shown cutting many, many trees down. A mechanized cutting machine cuts down many trees until there is only one left and we see it cut down too. A young man chops down a tree and several animals run in fear. An RV drives through a forest and knocks down several trees. Several animals (bears, birds and fish) appear angry with a young man and they walk toward him, as if they are going to attack him (they do not). Several animals surround a tree stump, place rocks around it and grieve over it having been cut down.
► A large cloud swirls in the sky, thunder claps and lightning flashes while a bright beam of light shoots out of a tree stump and an orange creature falls to the ground. A robotic cat's eyes shoot out (toward the screen in 3D) like a telescope and have glowing red lenses on the ends. A man is struck repeatedly by large plastic bottles that bounce on a road and hit him in the head.
► A creature threatens a young man and tells him what will happen if he continues to cut down trees. A man threatens to strike a creature with a hammer. While a man unloads his cart he throws things behind him and several sharp implements nearly strike animals that have gathered around (no injuries are evident). A teen boy runs into two large men and falls off his motorized unicycle (he is unharmed). A man runs into a tree, falls back on the ground and a small bear falls on the man's face. A man inside a dark house yells at a boy and tells him to leave the premises. A woman and a creature argue and move toward each other as if they are going to fight (they do not).
► A large digging machine knocks the head off a statue in a man's likeness. A large digging machine is driven toward a wall, it knocks the wall down and we see a barren and polluted expanse.
► A small bear that cannot swim floats on a bed down a river, and several other bears and a creature bend a tree over the river and reach for the bear to save him (they do not get him but he's in fine). A small bear falls out of a tree and lands on a capsule-shaped creature (we hear a squish). A fish eats a glowing bug and the fish's eyes glow, scaring two other fish. A fish is stuck to the grill of an RV as it speeds through a forest (the fish is OK). A bear burns his backside on a furnace (we hear a sizzle and he moans). A static charged bear zaps a fish and the fish flops to the ground. A man is struck in the head and face with thrown tomatoes in a few scenes. A girl grabs a man's guitar away from him and breaks it against a pillar. Two men throw a small bear like it is a football. A bird is struck in the head by a satellite dish.
► Two large men wearing large coats burst into a man's office and he yells at them. A man yells at a teen boy and the man and two other, very large men search his room. A woman yells at three men and tells them to leave. An elderly woman caws loudly and startles a teen boy. An elderly woman tells a boy how to find a man and that he'll need a number of items (including a snail) to find him and get information (we see the boy holding a snail in his hand).
► A house shakes and the ground rumbles as a large number of people walk over a ridge and toward the house (there's no real danger). A teen girl jokingly flips a teen boy on his back and they lie on the ground next to each other.
► We hear that a town is made entirely of plastic products. We hear that a town's air is not very good so the citizens have to buy bottled air. We hear that a town's water is not very clean and we see a young boy glowing after swimming in it. A sign on a company wall reads "Too big to fail." A man talks about poisonous ants and stinging bees.
► A bird sits in a young man's cereal bowl and pushes out an egg (we hear a pop). A fish washes itself in a young man's teacup. A creature uses a young man's toothbrush to brush his mustache. An elderly woman bounces her food on her plate and catches it in her mouth. An elderly woman holds her dentures in her hand and places them back in her mouth (we hear a slurp). A young man blows a raspberry at a creature.
LANGUAGE 1 - Name-calling (dirty, knuckleheads, intruder, stupid, some girl, garbage, weirdo, furry peanut, bad, crazy baby man), exclamations (get out, shut your mustache).
SUBSTANCE USE - None.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Nature, greed, caring for trees, mystical creatures, magic, fables, success, failure, disappointment, fraud, promises, lying, violence, love, regret, pride, survival of the fittest, rationalizing, charity, the principles of business.
MESSAGE - Maintaining and caring for nature makes everything better. Everyone needs trees. Change our ways before it's too late.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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