Riding high on the success of Despicable Me, fledgling animation company Illumination Entertainment is dipping its toes into the world of Dr Seuss, and the first trailer for** The Lorax** is now online over at Apple.
Since the book itself is typically slim and Seussian (albeit with an expanded colour palette and more prose than his other works), the filmmakers have naturally had to expand on the story a little. So now we follow Ted (Zac Efron), a lad with a big crush on Ashley (Taylor Swift). When she expresses a desire to see a real, live tree, Ted sets out from their heavily industrialised home to seek out the one person who might help him in his mission to track a tree down: The Once-ler (Ed Helms).
But what he discovers is a tragic tale of greed over environmental care, as the Once-ler reveals how he chopped down all the trees in an effort to make himself rich via a product call Thneeds. And that’s despite the best efforts of furry tree-loving sprite The Lorax (Danny DeVito)…
Functioning as one part conservation message to two parts madcap adventure, Dr Seuss' The Lorax will be out on July 27 2012.