children's literature - essay 1

8/2/2019 Children's Literature - Essay 1

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Fiction vs. Film: How Dr. Seuss Stories Lose Meaning on the Big Screen

When a childrens or young adult novel is turned into a movie, crowds of

preteens often line the theater on opening night. Although the level of hype isnt the

same for the film version of a storybook like those of Dr. Seuss, the theaters are still

full of excited children and their parents. Turning a colorful, fantastical story such as

The Loraxinto film would be easy to do with todays CGI animation technology, but

it seems sticking to the storyline is difficult for most directors. Todays film versions

of Dr. Seuss The Loraxand How The Grinch Stole Christmas have the visual

components of a Grammy nominee, but lack the simple but valuable life lessons

Seuss incorporated in the original books.

It has been more than forty years since Seuss originally published The Lorax,

a fictional story about superfluous consumerism and environmental destruction at

the hands of humans. If you ask any schoolchild, they would answer thatThe Lorax

is a story of a successful businessman, the Once-ler, who invents an item called a

thneed, which, once popular, everybodyneeds. But to make enough thneeds to fill

demand, Once-ler harvests the entire forest of Truffula trees, leaving it bare,

desolate, and uninhabitable. The Lorax, who speaks for the trees, warns Once-ler of

the consequences, but his advice goes ignored until it is too late. Seuss book tells the

story of a young boy who visits the Once-ler, asking about trees and where he can

find one. The Once-ler shares what it was like when there were still Truffula trees,

and his regret for destroying such beauty.


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The book ends with the Once-ler giving the last Truffula seed to the boy in

the story, telling him, Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothings

going to get betterits not. By ending the story without a definite conclusion about

the boys actions, Seuss is leaving the children reading the story in charge of their

own future actions as well. Almost all of Seuss books end happily because they

werent an allegory for a current world problem: environmental awareness. But

because Seuss doesnt give his audience an answer, he is sparking a question within

all of them: Where do we go from here? and that is a decision each child for

themselves must make.

Directors Chris Renauld and Kyle Balda released the film version, Dr. Seuss

The Lorax, in March 2012 on what wouldve been Dr.Seuss 108th birthday. The

movie, fully animated and offered in 3-D, was Westernized and geared to humor an

audience more than anything. More characters were added to the story, along with

the usual bells and whistles (in this case, musical performances by the characters) to

make a 70-page book into a full-length feature film. The writers included cute

references that only a select crowd would understand, as well. The boy who goes in

search of Once-ler and the story of trees is named Ted, after Theodore, which was

Seuss given name, as well as Audrey, the girl, Teds love interest in the movie, which

was the name of Seuss second wife who oversaw the production of the original

book in 1971.

Unlike the book, we see what the ending is in this movie. In the book, Seuss

leaves the child wanting to make the decision on his or her own, whereas in the

movie, Ted makes the decision to plant the tree and we see it grow. Could this be


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destroying the intention Seuss had for the book? Children might get the idea that

because Ted made a good decision and planted the tree, they might not have to. In

many families, at least from my socioeconomic background, being environmentally

friendly is just something to do occasionally. If the recycling bin is right there, the

Diet Coke can gets recycled. However, if theres only a trashcan, it goes to the

landfill. My family, for example, does not recycle because my stay-at-home mother

doesnt want totake the time out of her day to sort recyclables from trash. She cant

be the only one out there who strongly believes theres some altruist out there doing

enough good for the world to make up for her lack thereof. Although some children

will see Teds planting of the tree as a good example and follow suit in caring for the

earth, some will continue to make decisions that affect others adversely because

theyve seen that others out there make good decisions to cover up for their bad

ones. Dr. Seuss original text copy ofThe Loraxleaves children wanting to make a

change because the book ends unresolved, while the movie leaves children thinking

that because people are already out there making changes, they might not have to.

The same argument can be made for Dr. Seuss How The Grinch Stole

Christmas, which was turned into a full-length film in 2000, by director Ron Howard.

Dr. Seuss original text told the story of the Whos, who live in Whoville, and are

about to celebrate Christmas. But the Grinch, who lives in a cave above Whoville,

hates the holiday because of the singing, gift-giving, and general cheer that comes

from below him every Christmas morning. So to prevent this from happening, he

sneaks into Whoville early Christmas morning before any of the Whos have woken

up to see their gifts, trees, and everything else holiday-related, and steals it all. But


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the Whos dont care, they still join hands and sing cheerful songs in the true spirit of

Christmas. This shocks the Grinch, and he realizes their happiness comes from just

having eachother, which causes his heart to grow three sizes, and he returns the

gifts and trees, and celebrates Christmas that day among the Whos. The moral of

the story is that Christmas isnt about giving or receiving presents, its about

spending time with those you love and celebrating what you have already.

The film, however, did not tell this same story. Howards version ofThe

Grinch was very crude. Although it followed some of the same storyline, and the plot

was based around a little girls desire to find the truer meaning of Christmas, the

film does not represent or accomplish that. The blatant rudeness of the Grinch,

played by famous actor and comedian Jim Carrey, turned the Grinch into a promoter

of rudeness and vulgarity. The words damn and Hell are used numerous times,

something Seuss would certainly never condone in his own work, a film

representation of it, or most importantly a child audience.

In Howards Grinchs progression from antisocial outcast to beloved member

of Whoville, the audience is submitted to a deluge of rudeness, insults, and several

sexually inappropriate scenes. The scenery and costuming of Whoville are far too

extravagant to even closely resemble what was depicted in Seuss book. Seuss never

stated that the Whos lived extravagantly, only that they were happy that they had

each other. Most of the movie is spent insinuating that rude and inappropriate

behavior is fine as long as it is funny. From a moral perspective, the film failed to

deliver the same meaning that Seuss book did, more so than any other film

interpretations of Seuss work ever has.


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The Loraxwas a cute and animatedly accurate interpretation of the world

that Seuss was trying to create on paper, and although it incorporated characters

and parts of plot that the original story did not include, it stuck to the storyline that

Seuss wrote. But because the ending of the film was an actual ending, not a

cliffhanger like Seuss intended, to inspire children to make environmentally

conscious decisions, the film failed to digitalize Seuss true meaning for the story.

The film interpretation ofHow the Grinch Stole Christmas also was unsuccessful in

portraying Seuss original story ofwarmth and the importance of love for family on

Christmas, instead twisting it into a story of acceptance into society by means of

crude humor and blatant disrespect. Although it is a guaranteed hit in the box office

for a director to pick up a childrens book, especially one as widely known as Seuss,

and transform it into a full-length film, sticking to the storyline has been proven

difficult for the directors who have tried so far. Directors want to put their own spin

and style on the film, and this makes it hard for them not to stray from the original

and simple message Seuss intended, proving that the film interpretation of

childhood stories are almost never as valuable an experience.

children's literature - essay 1

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