An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

[u/Morr4Seiya]

Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

[u/Detective-27]

The Lorax (2012) returns to Thneedville after just one Trufulla seed is planted and congratulates the Onceler for doing good. In the original story, the seed is given to Ted with the warning "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not." 

[u/CAyukon → u/Detective-27]

[u/WaggyInc → u/CAyukon]

I’m in tears, this is fucking hilarious in the worst way possible

[u/Tk421AtHisP0st → u/CAyukon]

Oh the IRONY

[u/spike-prime → u/CAyukon]

This ad boiled my blood back then and it still does now. Just disgusting.

[u/gliscornumber1 → u/Detective-27]

There's A TON of examples from this movie like

-taking away the oncler's agency by having his family encourage him to be evil instead of him falling into it himself

• having the lorax advertise a gas guzzling car in marketing and labeling it as lorax approved. Which is something they make fun of IN THE MOVIE!

• writing one of the best villian songs ever (biggering), only to cut it for being too anti corporate for the LORAX and BLATANTLY anti corporate story

Like holy fuck this movie is a train wreck inside and our

[u/Wild-Chemistry8857 → u/gliscornumber1]

Exactly, the whole thing feels like they completely missed the point of their own story. Cutting “Biggering” while having the Lorax endorse a gas guzzler is especially wild.

[u/kulupu_kasi_seli → u/Wild-Chemistry8857]

What else did they do wrong in that movie? Can you please give specific examples?

[u/Different_Ad4306 → u/kulupu_kasi_seli]

Ted's motive is to date Taylor swift, not genuine care. She would've been a better protagonist

[u/magos_with_a_glock → u/Wild-Chemistry8857]

Bot

[u/Why-Notes5978 → u/Detective-27]

The better example is giving the Onceler a face and backstory rather than that, because the movie actually has the Onceler ponder about that lesson and thankfully pass it to the right person....which is kind of iffy a bit but ehh.

[u/Detective-27 → u/Why-Notes5978]

I didn't even mind the Once-ler having a face as long as he was properly written. Adaptations make changes and having the protagonist be faceless for a whole feature length film might not translate well. However, downplaying his unchecked greed & ambition by including his greedy family as a driving motivation lessens the impact of his character. Also, having him be a 2010s pretty boy hipster didn't help. Remember the Once-ler Secrets Tumblr blog and the Once-ler Fandom ?

[u/Egathentale → u/Why-Notes5978]

Honestly, the biggest misstep I think was cutting Biggering and replacing it with How Bad Can I Be. Those two songs are the microcosm of the Onceler's missed character arc.

[u/TheGeckoWrangler → u/Detective-27]

So, to play Devil’s advocate, it showed that a whole forest’s worth of trufulla trees were sprouting up, and things had apparently improved enough in the environment that one of the birds had returned. The Lorax returned because the environment was returning.

But, yeh, they still missed the point of the original hard. You can totally see that the big corporation realized they were telling a story that puts a lampshade on corporate greed and went “I’m in this story and I don’t like it”. So they took out the banger of a villain song that was Biggering, and tweaked the Onceler so that they can argue it wasn’t his fault and nothing bad would’ve happened if not for his greedy family, and said “Ah, much better”.

And holy crap I didn’t realize they actually did a “Lorax approved” car advertisement. That kinda hilarious.

[u/Royal_Bitch_Pudding → u/TheGeckoWrangler]

Regardless of family pressure It was still the onceler's decision to cut down the trees instead of harvesting them in a sustainable way.

[u/TheGeckoWrangler → u/Royal_Bitch_Pudding]

Well, obviously, but again, this was the work of a corporation trying to make corporate greed look less….. greedy. That was far more acceptable to them than the alternative where the Onceler spirals into greed without another character for them to point at and blame for his actions.

[u/NDinoGuy → u/TheGeckoWrangler]

The movie even made fun of that advertisement by having the Onceler falsely making an advertisement saying that the Thneed was "Lorax Approved".

The Lorax truly is a special case of an Illumination movie because it's soo painfully obvious that there was an actual story and lesson that they wanted to tell, but the studio/corporation forced them to silence it, as opposed to most Illumination movies, which are just generic kids movies designed to be as marketable as possible.

[u/JaimiOfAllTrades → u/Detective-27]

Worth mentioning. The main character in the Lorax isn't given a name. Which is important because instead of the Onceler addressing Ted, the character you've become aquatinted with, the Onceler is addressing you, the reader, which makes for a more impactful call to action.

[u/Detective-27 → u/JaimiOfAllTrades]

I actually don't mind that change because Ted is named after Theodore Geisel, Dr Suess' real name. I wish his motivation for seeking out the Onceler wasn't just trying to impress a girl.