The Lorax

Here is a perfectly charming adaption of Dr. Seuss's environmental cautionary tale The Lorax. Renders the 2012 version obsolete.

8/10

Wreck-It Ralph

A cute little film about video arcade games. And you don't have to know arcade games to enjoy it.

Wreck-It Ralph, the title character, is the bad guy in Fix It Felix Jr. Basically, he spends his time beating down on a building that Felix and his friends live in. Felix, with his magic hammer, fixes it all up again and gets a medal and has cake with all the friends he saved. Ralph, however, lives in a dump all by himself, dreaming of getting a medal himself one day. Then everyone would love him...or at least invite him to the party celebrating the 30th anniversary of the game he is in.

When he takes matters in his own (huge) hands and gets a medal in a game called Hero's Duty he starts total chaos in the game he went rouge in, as well as his own. Felix sets after him to keep them from getting unplugged, along with the tough blond chick from Hero's Duty.

In another game, called Sugar Rush, he encounters a loner, Vanellope, who is kept out of the regular races for being a 'glitch'. After a bad first meeting, that has Vanellope stealing and misusing Ralph's medal, the team up to resurrect Vanellope's avatar and save Sugar Rush from the drones that made it over from Hero's Duty.

Sounds complicated? It's not. It's lovely.

7/10

The Lorax

I love Dr. Seuss' books. Wholeheartedly. Most of the film versions, animated or not, I enjoyed a lot (Horton Hears a Who FTW).

Unfortunately, this one falls flat.

Considering this is intended for a very young audience, the story of big business and its exploitation of nature may not go beyond a simplistic human (in the film version) = bad, Lorax (and the trees he represents) = good.

Also, too many musical numbers for my taste.

4/10