Universal City, U.S.A. – The colorful and captivating world of Dr. Seuss bursts onto the screen as never before on August 7, 2012 in the hilarious and captivating adventure, ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Available on Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and Blu-ray Combo Pack — both featuring DVD, Digital Copy and UltraViolet so you can watch it anytime, anywhere — ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ is non-stop family fun that includes three delightfully entertaining mini movies not shown in theaters, available only on the Blu-ray Combo Packs. The film will also be available on DVD and Digital Download.

The imaginative world of Dr. Seuss comes to life like never before in this visually spectacular adventure from the creators of ‘Despicable Me’. Twelve-year-old Ted will do anything to find a real live Truffula Tree in order to impress the girl of his dreams. As he embarks on his journey, Ted discovers the incredible story of the Lorax, a grumpy but charming creature who speaks for the trees. Featuring the voice talents of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, Jenny Slate and Betty White, ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ is filled with hilarious fun for everyone.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is the third feature created by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment (‘Despicable Me’, ‘Hop’). For more information, please visit www.theloraxmovie.com.

‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ transports viewers into a fantastical landscape imagined by Dr. Seuss and vividly brought to life by Chris Meledandri and his acclaimed filmmaking team at Illumination Entertainment. Directed by Chris Renaud from a screenplay adapted by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul (‘Despicable Me’, ‘HOP’, ‘Horton Hears a Who’) from the 1971 children’s classic, the film is an imaginative journey that begins in the town of Thneedville, where a boy searches for the one thing he knows will win the heart of his dream girl. But in order find it, he must discover the story of the Lorax, the often grumpy but loveable protector of Truffula Valley, in an exciting adventure filled with comedy and heart that USA Today’s Claudia Puig calls, “The right blend of funny, silly, and sweet.”

Danny DeVito (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” ‘Twins’, ‘L.A. Confidential’) lends his unmistakable voice to the Lorax, the remarkable creature who “speaks for the trees,” with Ed Helms (‘The Hangover’, ‘The Hangover Part II’, “The Office”) as his enigmatic nemesis, the Once-ler.

One of the best-selling children’s book authors of all time, Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel created more than 40 cherished books that have been published in 95 countries and 17 different languages, selling more than half a billion books worldwide. The Lorax, which Geisel named his favorite work, is included on the “Educator’s All Time Top 20 List of Children’s Books.”

Blu-ray Combo Pack bonus features:

• Mini Movies
  • Serenade — Two Bar-ba-loots — one love shy and the other suave and confident — battle for the heart of their would-be sweetheart with the help of a colorful cast of characters, including the Humming-Fish and Swomme-Swans.
  • Wagon-Ho — Two Bar-ba-loots take The Once-ler’s wagon on a ride they won’t soon forget.
  • Forces of Nature — Determined to scare The Once-ler out of Truffula Valley, The Lorax decides to create the illusion of ominous forces of nature.

• Making of the mini movies — Go behind the scenes at Illumination Mac Guff to see the joys and challenges of continuing the characters’ stories in the dynamic format of the mini movie.
• Deleted scenes
• Seuss to screen — A fascinating look into the translation of Seuss’ iconic style from book into the big feature film canvas.
• Seuss it up! — A great tutorial on how to draw the Lorax, a Humming-Fish and a Bar-ba-loot in the unique Seuss style.
• Trufulla run — The player moves left and right to avoid obstacles while attempting to pick up berries with modes for easy, medium and hard. As difficulty increases, the player will have more obstacles to avoid.
• “Let it Grow” Sing Along — Karaoke-style sing along to the end credit version of Let It Grow.
• Feature commentary with co-directoris Chris Renaud & Kyle Balda
• Once-Ler’s wagon — While the Once-ler is away peddling his wares, the curious forest creatures have fun with his belongings. Users can select an item for the creatures to mimic or play with and then watch the adorable antics of all the forest friends.

Image Courtesy of  The Lorax

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Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment and The Nature Conservancy announced on February 17, 2012 the launch of their environmental action campaign “The Lorax Speaks.”

The project aims to start a movement that generates support and awareness to save one of the planet’s most endangered tropical forests.  The Atlantic Forest in Brazil once spanned 330 million acres and has been reduced to a mere 7 percent of its original size.  The Forest is home to more than 2,000 animal species and approximately 20,000 species of plants, many of which can only survive in this Forest.  The Nature Conservancy’s “Plant a Billion Trees” (www.plantabillion.org) is a campaign to restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.

People are invited to customize their Facebook profile pictures to help raise awareness for “The Lorax Speaks” project.  In addition to spreading awareness, there is an opportunity for people and groups to make direct contributions to The Nature Conservancy to help plant trees in this threatened Forest.  The app is available on the official Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax Facebook page (www.facebook.com/theloraxmovie).

The movement was started by a generous donation from Universal Pictures, as well as support from the Audrey S. Geisel Dr. Seuss Foundation, Seventh Generation, HP, Mazda and IHOP, to The Nature Conservancy’s “Plant a Billion Trees” campaign.

“As we bring Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax to filmgoers, it remains crucial to honor the spirit in and the message of Dr. Seuss’ timeless book,” said Josh Goldstine, President of Marketing, Universal.  “Through this donation to The Nature Conservancy, we hope to further a conversation among the audience about serving as stewards of our environment.”

Illumination Entertainment Founder and CEO Chris Meledandri said: “Since 1971, Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Lorax’ has brought awareness to the precarious state of the environment.  His message is more important today than ever.  The Atlantic Forest in Brazil represents a microcosm of the Lorax’s story, and there is not a lot of time left before it disappears forever.  It has always been a goal of mine to utilize the massive reach we achieve through marketing a film to inspire social action.”

“This exciting partnership goes to show that bringing back the splendor of one of the world’s great forests is not an idea confined to the imagination of Dr. Seuss, but something that people everywhere can do now—by helping plant a billion trees in Brazil—to ensure a future in which the lungs of the Earth are healthy and thriving,” added Sarene Marshall, Managing Director of the Global Climate Change Team, The Nature Conservancy.

Facebook fans will be encouraged to “speak for the trees” by personalizing their profile pictures with custom Truffula Trees from the film.  They will join the cast of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax—Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Rob Riggle and Betty White—in pledging their support.  The reforestation efforts will be helmed by The Nature Conservancy in a way that is ecologically sound and economically advantageous to the local population through its “Plant a Billion Trees” campaign.

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Did you love “The Hagover Part II?” Or were you completely disappointed to the max?

It looks like critics are bashing the film, saying it’s complete garbage- while others are saying it’s definitely worthy. It’s getting some high grades, plus it made $135 million in its opening weekend.

A question that lingers is if “The Hangover” needed a sequel in the first place. The first movie was beyond successful, not just at the box office, but all over the Internet and audience’s words. People continuously talked about how much they loved the movie, which brought the film to not just have a high popularity mark, but to become one of the biggest cult classics. Sometimes it’s not necessarily the money that makes a movie successful. It’s how a viewer handles what they’re watching, and boy, did they watch well!

But was a sequel really that necessary? Maybe it would’ve been better if “The Hangover” was left as a great memory. This movie could be something that everyone will talk about in thirty years as that one movie that should be a crime to not watch. Because no one in their right mind would have made a sequel to “Heathers.” Or to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” But there were some popular movies that made pretty decent sequels, including “American Pie,” “Austin Powers,” and “Shrek.”

The original ‘Hangover’ did have some crazy moments to remember. Just the opening scene left some anticipation. When Bradley Cooper is talking to the groom’s fiancee about how they “messed” up really badly, one can tell that there’s going to be quite a story coming along the way. And the scene when they wake up in their hotel room with all the random items and animals around? Who would’ve thought that all of that could be explained?

Now the second version ought to have some more hilarious facts to be explained. The trailer already shows that the group of guys go to Thailand for another wedding where they wind up with another adventure. Alan wakes up with his head shaved while Stu wakes up with a tattoo- on his face. This is the one that led Mike Tyson’s tattoo artist to sue Warner Bros. for copyright infringement since Mike Tyson happens to have a similar tattoo.

The trailer of this movie leaves some more questions. What it all comes down to is “What the heck is going on now?!” That might drive some people to check this movie out. But how much of the audience will be satisfied? Will people think of this as a complete waste of time, and a poor exuse for the film industry to make some extra cash? Or will people think of it as another fun and happy adventure with pleased results of seeing the old Wolfpack back together again?

You’re the audience. What do you say?

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Let’s face selling insurance may be one of the most boring jobs ever. But Cedar Rapids proves that going to an insurance convention in Iowa may be the most fun a person has ever had in their life. Tim Lippe, played by Ed Helms, was born and breed in Brown Valley, Wisconsin. He spends his days selling insurance to all of the people in his town. He is not the star seller but does a pretty darn good job.  Whether star seller does, Lippe must be the one to fill in for him at the annual convention held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Little does he know, that this one trip will change his life for the good, the bad and the necessary.

Ed Helms, known mainly for his role in The Hangover, delivers a very funny performance in this movie. His character has never really been anywhere in his entire life. When he comes to Cedar Rapids he’s surprised at what is out there. Helms did a brilliant job of played that clueless out-of-towner.

Lippe is guided by three regulars to these conventions. The first one he meets is his roommate Ronald Wilkes, portrayed by Isaiah Whitlock, Jr., who is the first African-American he has ever met and the first friend he meets there. Whitlock’s performance was hilarious and very unexpected because most of his roles are supporting and not very-well noticed. Let’s hope we can see him in more roles like this.

Then there is the rival insurance salesman, Dean Ziegler played by John C. Reilly, who Lippe was given specific instructions to stay away from at the convention. Ziegler is nothing but trouble but shows Lippe how to loosen up. Reilly’s portrayal of this foul-mouthed, alcoholic is really nice to see after all of those Will Ferrell movies he had been doing for so long. Reilly’s outgoingness made this movie even more enjoyable.

Finally, there is Joan Ostrowski-Fox, played by Anne Heche. Not one of my favorite people, but her performance was really important because she brought out a new side of Tim Lippe that he never thought could be released. The film also has a great supporting cast including Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Root, Kurtwood Smith and Alia Shawkat. Since, this was an independent-type film the cast fit very well for the type of film that was given to them.

The film’s director Miguel Arteta, who previously did the Michael Cera comedy Youth in Revolt, showed his comedy range with this movie. Doing a teen comedy is funny but doing an adult comedy and making it much funnier than a teen comedy sure does say a lot about a director. He brought a new style to this genre by adding some real awkward scenes. One of which involves male back nudity. Now, while I’m sure it was not necessary this type of nudity is all for comedy and certainly made the scene memorable.

The film in itself is not very long, less than 90 minutes; while very short we are taken on this unbelievable journey. Helms at the beginning, is this sheltered, small-minded insurance salesman and at the end he is this ballsy, intelligent business man. It’s quite amazing to see how a character can develop in such a short amount of time. It’s is form the same studio who brought such comedies at Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, so expect that type of comedy.  It’s that humor that can be a bit awkward at first but heart-warming at the end. That is what happens on this short trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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