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Lorax Thursday!

I did these for the Philadelphia Zoo last year for their Lorax/Orangutan exhibit. I had to combine my style with Dr. Suess' style which was a lot of fun. As you can see by the photos below (no, they're not out of focus), the illustrations were done in multiple layers and converted to 3D to coincide with the Lorax movie. Kids were given 3D glasses to view the exhibit signage in order to learn more about Orangutans and what they can do to protect them. If you ever get a chance go to your local zoo and sit for a good hour to watch the orangutans. I worked at the zoo for many years and would often eat my lunch while watching the primates. They really are fascinating.

Fox Business’s Lou Dobbs claims that President Obama’s “liberal friends in Hollywood” are “targeting a younger demographic using animated movies to sell their agenda to children.” He cites Studio Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty and Illumination Entertainment’s upcoming The Lorax as evidence of this indoctrination. One of Dobbs’s guests claims that these films are creating a generation of Occutoddlers, referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement which these films allegedly promote.

Of course, I wouldn’t put it past Fox that they’d try to stick it to Chris Meledandri, who runs Illumination and is a competitor of Fox in the animation market. After all, Meledandri used to run 20th Century Fox Animation and oversaw the earlier Dr. Seuss animated adaptation, Horton Hears a Who!, which was distributed by Fox.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | 3 comments | Post tags: chris meledandri, CNN, Lorax, Lou Dobbs, Secret World of Arrietty

I can say, “coming to a theater near you,” and mean it this year.  NEA’s Read Across America campaign will showcase Dr. Seuss’s  classic book, The Lorax  (1971), as well as NBC/Universal’s movie,  The Lorax.  The movie premieres on March 2, 2012, Dr. Seuss’s 108th birthday!  1998 marked the first of NEA’s Read Across America events, 2012 will be the 15th.  Sts. Peter & Paul Salesian School will join the celebration again for our sixth year.  See SSPP Reads blogs Get Ready for Read Across America (01/02/2011), The Perfect Book (02/16/2011), and Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! (03/02/2011) for tips on reading to your child, book lists, and news about Dr. Seuss.

You might want to check out the Dr. Seuss National Memorial at the Quadrangle in Springfield, MA, the site of the Lorax sculpture pictured in the graphic above.  Target stores, Scholastic Books and Random House Publishers also have special events, books and lesson plans you might want to explore.

I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues. –Dr. Seuss

Graphic from Flickr Creative Commons License Alex Whalen.

Yesterday, I shared that Andrew Henry's Meadow has been turned into a screenplay by none other than Zach Braff.  Today, I learned that The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - and it JUST came out - has already been optioned by Warner Brothers.  Oh my! 

I grew up reading all of Walter Farley's wonderful horse books. - Well, I thought they were wonderful.  I have revisited The Black Stallion since then and it is still wonderful.  Some of the later titles turned into formula books - scrappy jockey and/or trainer takes underrated loser horse and turns her or him into a WINNER!!!  YAY!!

Reading The Scorpio Races brought all that excitement back.  HOWEVER, the Scorpio Races don't end in just a win or losses.  They always end in death for one or more jockeys.  And their mounts are the predators!  So take Farley and add Bram Stoker and throw in a signature Stiefvater strong female character, some struggling siblings and a lad enslaved to his magical mount and its owner and you have...breathlessness. Intense page-turning breathlessness. 

Download a free Lorax (Dr. Seuss) activity book from Energy Star. You can also request to have a paper activity booklet mailed to you (up to 10 copies in the US, or 1 copy internationally).

I love Dr. Seuss, and I especially love The Lorax, so I have mixed feelings about this. Glad that a children’s book is being brought to children’s and parents’ attention, and a tiny bit sad that the book’s wonderful text is being, well, mistreated. But anything that brings a wonderful children’s book to people’s awareness is good, I think. It also helps increase children’s awareness about energy saving in a fun way.