New Trailer For The Lorax Reveals A New Villain And A Message About Change

The latest trailer for The Lorax is out and this one inches much closer to the heart of the Dr. Seuss story on which the upcoming animated film is based. This one introduces the villain of the piece, and also gives us more than a hint at the message the film may be trying to convey to its young audience.

The international trailer for The Lorax offered a better look at the characters featured in the film than the previously released teaser did, and this new trailer (originally posted by Yahoo) takes it a step further, not only laying out the foundation of the story, which follows a boy as he comes to learn about trees, but also showing us who the big bad may be... and it isn’t the Onceler.

In Dr. Seuss’ book The Lorax, a boy learns about how a once lush forrest of trees was decimated by a greedy Onceler who chopped all of them down to make thneeds (some random item he convinced people they needed). Most of the book is focused on the Onceler’s flashback-story, however the movie looks like it will flesh things out, creating a story outside of the one told to the young boy. This apparently includes a man who wants to keep the boy from leaving town...

?The environmental message within the book is pretty clear and it seems like the movie is taking it a step further, not only in giving the boy (voiced by Zac Efron) more of a story, but also creating opposition in the form of man who seems to want to keep this kid from leaving his town and glimpsing a world beyond what’s been created and packaged for him.

Something tells me that some people won’t appreciate that very much, but the message about change seems positive and motivational. This includes the statement toward the end of the trailer, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

The Lorax arrives in theaters March 2012. More on the film in our Blend Film Database.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.