YMMV / The Lorax

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Sustainable logging, rather than no logging whatsoever. Had The Once-Ler planted one new Truffula tree for every tree he cut down (i.e. deforestation plus mass reforestation instead of only deforestation), the environmental impact would have been greatly reduced. If nothing else, the Once-Ler's company wouldn't have run out of trees to cut down. Then again (if the 1972 adaptation's to be believed), since the Lorax mentions that it takes ten years for a Truffula seed to grow into a sapling, and at least ten more years to fully grow (his speech about how long it takes a tree to grow gets cut off as he falls into a coughing fit due to the Once-ler's family's car exhaust), it might not have mattered anyway.
  • Note that the Once-ler cuts down whole trees just to get the foliage on its branches. Careful plucking of the needed resources could have saved the trees (and ensured their further use) over reckless tearing down of tree after tree. In fact, this was directly discussed in the movie; the Once-ler initially harvested the Truffula trees by just collecting the tops and kept the trunks around so the foliage could still be produced, but stopped it once his family considered it too time-consuming. Thus, impatience and lack of pragmatism directly left them with no profit instead of mildly late profit.
  • Words alone can't change things for the better. All of the Lorax's pleas and lectures fall on deaf ears and the Once-ler continues on with his business until it's too late. The Once-ler tells the boy at the end that he has to plant the seed and carefully tend to it to begin the healing process. Action is needed to make a difference.
  • Some argue that the book is also about imperialism, specifically economic imperialism, and how it effects the locals and their environment.
• Epileptic Trees: People are very divided on whether these iterations of the Once-ler are human or not; there is evidence pointing towards either.
• Fair for Its Day: Others have argued that the message itself is actually subtle when compared to other Green Aesops - or at least it was for the time.
• Spiritual Antithesis: Anyone depressed by the "Ray of Hope" Ending can read The Man Who Planted Trees or watch the Oscar animated adaptation where a single man takes on the boy's appointed task, and over a lifetime, succeeds completely.
• Values Resonance: Sadly, the shortsighted consumerism which the book was attempting to bring to light in the first place hasn't slowed down enough since its publication, and now with the threat of the environment being permanently damaged beyond repair due to climate change, our world is dangerously close to suffering the same fate as the Lorax's. On a more positive note, however, these circumstances have encouraged real people to "speak for the trees," as mass reforestation is now being promoted to combat the damage done by carbon emissions and slowly helping to restore all natural environments.
• The Woobie: The titular Lorax REALLY gets put through the wringer, and you'd want to give the poor guy a hug after seeing his home destroyed and his friends cast out of what was once their own home.

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