Directed by Chris Renaud, co-directed by Kyle Balda, produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy and written by the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (who also served as executive producers alongside Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel), it stars the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, Jenny Slate and Betty White.

The film builds on the book by expanding the story of the Lorax and Ted, the previously unnamed boy who visits the Once-ler.

The Lorax globally premiered at Universal Studios in Hollywood on February 19, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 2, in IMAX, 3D (known in the film exclusively as "Tree-D") and 2D.

After chopping down a Truffula to create a knitted garment known as a Thneed, he was confronted by the Lorax, the self-proclaimed "guardian of the forest".

The Once-ler harvested the Truffula tufts in a sustainable manner until his unscrupulous relatives arrived to help him with his business and convinced him to resume cutting down trees, which led to large profits, but also deforestation and pollution.

After the last tree was cut down, the Once-ler's business folded and the Lorax vanished into the sky, leaving behind a stone platform etched with the word "Unless".

Inspired by Ted's conviction, the crowd turns on O'Hare, whose henchmen banish him, and the seed is finally planted.

The Lorax is the fourth feature film based on a book by Dr. Seuss, the second fully computer-animated adaptation (the first one being Horton Hears a Who!

[13] The idea for the film was initiated by Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss's widow, who had an established partnership with producer Chris Meledandri from a collaboration on Horton Hears a Who!.

Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda were announced as the director and co-director of the film, while Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, the duo who wrote the script for Horton Hears a Who!

[18] Universal added an environmental message to the film's website after a fourth-grade class in Brookline, Massachusetts, launched a successful petition through Change.org.

[27] In total, Illumination Entertainment struck more than 70 different product integration deals for the film,[28] including IHOP, Whole Foods and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is cute and funny enough but the moral simplicity of the book gets lost with the zany Hollywood production values.

Demonstrating how the book's text was used in the film in this excerpt from the review, Edelstein discusses Audrey describing the truffula trees to Ted: The touch of their tufts was much softer than silk and they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk – and [in the movie] Ted says, "Wow, what does that even mean?"

So one of the only lines that is from the book, that does have Dr. Seuss' sublime whimsy, is basically made fun of, or at least, dragged down to Earth.The film also garnered some positive reviews from critics such as Richard Roeper, who called it a "solid piece of family entertainment".

[4][5] The film topped the North American box office with $17.5 million on its opening day (Friday, March 2, 2012).

1 the following weekend, dropping 45% to $38.8 million and beating all new nationwide releases, including Disney's John Carter (second place).