Recently discovered this treasure trove: https://www.youtube.com/@LoraxStuff/videos where OP compiled a whole bunch of Lorax storyboards into videos! Thanks to [this post] and @fun-twisted-tales for linking me to the youtube channel!!
I just wanted to post some of my personal favourite panels from Matt Flynn's and David Berthier's boards (posts have already been made for Didier Ah-koon's, Nassos Vakalis', and Habib Louati's boards), with my notes for them below:
1) ADS ON THEIR GELATIN CUBES?? holy shit that's galaxy brain. I'm definitely making that canon in my Audrey OC's lore haha. I also love "MEAT CUBE" and "PROCESSED FROOD" and "CHOCO FU" sdkj
2) They have 3 cent coins and 12 cent coins......lmao OF COURSE they would if they also have 34 days in October and a "day 12 1/2" on their calendars....sighs another reminder of just how isolated Thneedville has been from the rest of the world
3-4) "Keep your nose out of trouble or it might get cut off!!!" Wow what a violent threat from O'hare! Imagine if he might be serious...:^)
5) A pin-up ad LMAO?? Selling water as "air with water in it" is so gd stupid i love it!!
6) Truffula tree with branches! We've seen them in concept art by Colin Stimpson before but I think this is the first time I've seen the idea drawn by an official storyboard artist
7-9) When he whacked the tree with his ax, butterflies flew out from the tuft! I love the idea that butterflies nest in truffula trees, it would make sense why they're said to smell of butterfly milk...
10-11) That's so cool that the furry design for the onceler made it all the way to storyboard stage!! You can easily tell that they kept a lot of his expressions here for the human version as well
And that's all for now! OP of that youtube channel is a life saviour, thank you OP!! I hope those vids will stay up forever...also if you guys want to see more lorax concept art, here's my tag for it: [link]
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Hi again, Miru! I need your opinion on something as an old onceling. Do you think there's still room for new oncelings to do an analysis of something in the movie, or maybe interviews, or maybe the fandom itself? Is it possible to find a way to output new content? I look through archives and it honestly feels like the entire movie has already been picked apart way back in 2012 - 2014. Your thoughts?
As we are all unique individuals who have gone through different experiences in our lives and no experience is the same, yes there can always be some new perspective that someone can bestow through their watch of the movie.
For example, in 2020, 8 years after the fandom began, @floooopafloooopa made several analyses on aspects of the movie that I personally had never seen anyone else delve into, and I was really impressed by them. My favourites include the one comparing Once-ler and Thneedville to Disney and EPCOT: [link] and of course the 85 page analysis comparing Once-ler to the Beatles and other popular people and aesthetics of the 60s and 70s: [link]
And another example, just recently I happened to revisit The Conservative Lorax video on YouTube from 2012: [link] and although I know many youtube comments are the most worthless comments in the world, I still found some interesting perspectives from people in the comments even in the past year, talking about capitalism. Here's a topic that really stayed with me: One person said "a real capitalist would replant to make a profit" and another said "a true capitalist would farm the trees instead of cutting them all down" to which others replied:
These comments were all made only within the last 3 years. I doubt these people have even seen the 2012 movie.
So now if you take these ideas and think about our dear Oncie...yes, he is still a dumbass for not thinking about maintaining his resources and then being shocked that he ran out of trees, but there are evidently people out there who would've instead called him dumb for not planning to immediately move on to capitalize on the next big thing, like air. Some people would've agreed that short term profits are the smart move! This, or the Once-ler should've moved on to synthetic fibres to replicate Thneeds, or that he should've planted GMO trees that grew really fast, patent them, then also patent the air they produce (and then we wouldn't need O'hare anymore). But we all know what genetically modifying truffula trees can cause... 🧟 haha. So the 1st comment up there has a point - the story really is more of a metaphor for respecting nature rather than trying to say something specific about business decisions.
And look! I just gathered and put together a mini analysis on the subject of "sustaining your resources vs how far the Once-ler actually could have gone in the other direction". In 2023! So yes, I believe there's room for more analyses.
Not to mention that concept art for the 2012 movie keeps gradually being shared over the years well beyond 2014: [link] I pretty much consider it new source content which can then spark new analyses, as well.
As for anaylses on the fandom itself...I would just advise to be careful and respectful if you're wanting to talk about anything from the past that you weren't a part of (having been in the fandom for only a month in 2012 doesn't count either, iykyk), since many past oncelings are still around even if they're not active in the fandom anymore, and it hurts to get misrepresented.
do you have any favorite onceler/lorax related headcanons ?
i had to think long and hard for this ask, wow. There have been so many headcanons made by the fandom over the years, many that have just been passively absorbed into my brain as near-canon by now, so i rly drew a blank when i first saw this question. |,D
Some headcanons that crossed my mind weren’t headcanons but were instead analyses or little details discovered by looking closely at screenshots or stuff from official concept art that never came to fruition so I’m not gonna mention any of those....
Anyway my fav ones include:
the onceler’s height being 6′4″ [link]
the onceler being idolized in public during his biggering days (p much canon already but i love to see/create fan content of him looking casually intimidating and untouchable, high above the crowd in a figurative sense [link] [link] [link])
the onceler wearing suspenders under his suit 😍
the onceler smoking cigars during his biggering days (this and the previous headcanon i love to see in fanart)
the onceler being personally influenced by fashion of the 60s/70s growing up [link]
the onceler having good proprioception. I know most of the fandom liked to think him clumsy, but I think he’s the opposite. He can dance so smoothly while multitasking, he caught all those pancakes perfectly, he balanced himself on that bed frame so well despite being rushed down the rivur, and he’s got magician fingers. i bet he could tie a cherry stem with his tongue.
magic electricity in the air. His electric guitar wasn’t plugged into anything, and he could turn a lamp on and off in his tent, and even keep a fridge running. This would’ve helped make lerkim-living bearable as well. i know in reality Illumination prolly just couldnt be bothered to work around the lack of electricity in the valley, and some ppl even go with the excuse that the flashback was seen thru ted’s imagination so of course he’d imagine an electric guitar etc [if anyone has a link to the og post pls msg me], but it’s my personal de-meta headcanon intended to poke fun at the movie out of endearment and i love it lol
thneedville recycling deceased ppl into foodstuffs [link] (Elf made this canon for their Ted’s thneedville, and I had my Audrey eating soylent green in zomb au, tho the product’s authenticity was never confirmed 9.9)
i have a lot, a lot of little personal headcanons for Audrey/thneedville that i ended up making canon for my Audrey, from her archaeological interests to her celebrity crush to thneedville’s high restriction of outside-world information, but that’s getting into oc territory!
There are also a lot of headcanons that askblog mods have made specifically for their characters that i love deeply and accept as movie-canon in my heart, but those are also oc-ish territory so I'm leaving them out.
i have 7212 headcanons that I’m absolutely crazy for but i dont think ur looking to hear abt crossover stuff lol
That’s all I can think of for now! I’ve probably missed some important things so if I think of more I’ll edit this post in secret. Thanks for the ask, this was fun :D
How do you think Once-ler survived all those years without food or water especially in that terrible environment?
Maybe he turned to cannibalism ;)
Haha just kidding. The directors admitted that “if you really take a step back, time doesn’t make sense in the story, there’s a lot of things that aren’t real, but hopefully it’s still getting the message across” and that it “still works without being literal-minded about it” so it doesn’t seem like they bothered to think too hard about how the onceler survived his isolation in the wasteland. Which allows fandom to make up anything we want!
But I guess if you wanna be practical, as an inventor he probably built a water filtration system so he could drink from the schlopp river or any rain that fell. And then he probably ate bugs (and snails that ppl before Ted brought him). In zombie au, I had my Audrey eating grubs she collected from tree stumps, and she carried around a portable water purifier as well, since she was also living in lerkims. However I also imagine that the onceler, being filthy rich, probably had a massive stash of food leftover in his factory that lasted him a good long while. A lot of canned goods and dry foods, including a giant supply of pancake mix.
Or maybe he cooked and ate his leftover thneeds, since thneeds are edible according to the 1972 film. Yeah, I like that one, let’s go with that. 😂
Huge thanks to Vanilla for finding the Once-ler ref in the Green Eggs and Ham series that just came out!! This makes me SO happy. I’d like to hear everyone’s headcanons for this.
This is a building in Meepville. Can you buy Thneeds there? Is it one of the onceler’s branch offices? Or maybe it’s an office for his many lawyers and PR people? At what point during the onceler biggering phase could this have been? Interesting that the sign says ONCE-LER here, because in the book all the company signs said THNEEDS!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
At the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows and the wind smells slow and sour when it blows and no birds ever sing excepting old crows... is the Street of the Lifted Lorax.
And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say, if you look deep enough you can still see, today, where the Lorax once stood just as long as it could before somebody lifted the Lorax away.
What was the Lorax? And why was it there? And why was it lifted and taken somewhere from the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows? The old Once-ler still lives here. Ask him, he knows.
You won't see the Once-ler. Don't knock at his door. He stays in his Lerkim on top of his store. He lurks in his Lerkim, cold under the roof, where he makes his own clothes out of miff-muffered moof. And on special dank midnights in August, he peeks out of the shutters and sometimes he speaks and tells how the Lorax was lifted away.
He'll tell you, perhaps... if you're willing to pay.
On the end of a rope he lets down a tin pail and you have to toss in fifteen cents and a nail and the shell of a great-great-great- grandfather snail.
Then he pulls up the pail, makes a most careful count to see if you've paid him the proper amount.
Then he hides what you paid him away in his Snuvv, his secret strange hole in his gruvvulous glove.
Then he grunts, "I will call you by Whisper-ma-Phone, for the secrets I tell are for your ears alone." SLUPP! Down slupps the Whisper-ma-Phone to your ear and the old Once-ler's whispers are not very clear, since they have to come down through a snergelly hose, and he sounds as if he had smallish bees up his nose.
"Now I'll tell you," he says, with his teeth sounding gray, "how the Lorax got lifted and taken away... It all started way back... such a long, long time back...
Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean, and the song of the Swomee-Swans rang out in space... one morning, I came to this glorious place. And I first saw the trees! The Truffula Trees! The bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees! Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze.
And, under the trees, I saw Brown Bar-ba-loots frisking about in their Bar-ba-loot suits as they played in the shade and ate Truffula Fruits.
From the rippulous pond came the comfortable sound of the Humming-Fish humming while splashing around.
But those trees! Those trees! Those Truffula Trees! All my life I'd been searching for trees such as these. The touch of their tufts was much softer than silk. And they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk.
I felt a great leaping of joy in my heart. I knew just what to do! I unloaded my cart.
In no time at all, I had built a small shop. Then I chopped down a Truffula tree with one chop. And with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed, I took the soft tuft, and I knitted a Thneed!
The instant I'd finished, I heard a ga-Zump! I looked. I saw something pop out of the stump of the tree I'd chopped down. It was a sort of a man. Describe him?...That's hard. I don't know if I can.
He was shortish. And oldish. And brownish. And mossy. And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy.
"Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze, "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs"-- he was very upset as he shouted and puffed-- "Whats that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?"
"Look Lorax" I said, "There's no cause for alarm. I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm. I'm being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed. A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat. But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that. You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets! Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!"
The Lorax said, "Sir! You are crazy with greed. There is no one on earth who would buy that fool Thneed!"
But that very minute I proved he was wrong. For, just at that minute, a chap came along, and he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great. He happily bought it for three ninety-eight.
I laughed at the Lorax, "You poor stupid guy! You never can tell what some people will buy."
"I repeat," cried the Lorax, "I speak for the trees!"
"I'm busy," I told him. "Shut up, if you please."
I rushed 'cross the room, and in no time at all, built a radio-phone. I put in a quick call. I called all my brothers and uncles and aunts and I said, "Listen here! Here's a wonderful chance for the whole Once-ler Family to get mighty rich! Get over here fast! Take the road to North Nitch. Turn left at Weehawken. Sharp right at South Stitch."
And, in no time at all, in the factory I built, the whole Once-ler Family was working full tilt. We were all knitting Thneeds just as busy as bees, to the sound of the chopping of Truffula Trees.
Then.. Oh! Baby! Oh! How my business did grow! Now, chopping one tree at a time was too slow.
So I quickly invented my Super-Axe-Hacker which whacked off four Truffula Trees at one smacker. We were making Thneeds four times as fast as before! And that Lorax...? He didnt show up any more.
But the next week he knocked on my new office door.
He snapped, "I'm the Lorax who speaks for the trees which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please. But I'm also in charge of the Brown Bar-ba-loots who played in the shade in their Bar-ba-loot suits and happily lived, eating Truffula Fruits."
"NOW...thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there's not enough Truffula Fruit to go 'round. And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!"
"They loved living here. But I can't let them stay. They'll have to find food. And I hope that they may. Good luck, boys," he cried. And he sent them away.
I, the Once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go. BUT... business is business! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.
I meant no harm. I most truly did not. But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got. I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads. I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads of the Thneeds I shipped out. I was shipping them forth to the South! To the East! To the West! To the North! I went right on biggering...selling more Thneeds. And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.
Then again he came back! I was fixing some pipes when that old-nuisance Lorax came back with more gripes.
"I am the Lorax," he coughed and he whiffed. He sneezed and he snuffled. He snarggled. He sniffed. "Once-ler!" he cried with a cruffulous croak. "Once-ler! You're making such smogulous smoke! My poor Swomee-Swans...why, they can't sing a note! No one can sing who has smog in his throat.
"And so," said the Lorax, "--please pardon my cough-- they cannot live here. So I'm sending them off.
"Where will they go?... I don't hopefully know. They may have to fly for a month...or a year... To escape from the smog you've smogged-up around here.
"What's more," snapped the Lorax. (His dander was up.) "Let me say a few words about Gluppity-Glupp. Your machinery chugs on, day and night without stop making Gluppity-Glup. Also Schloppity-Schlopp. And what do you do with the leftover goo?... I'll show you. You dirty old Once-ler man, you!
"You're glumping the pond where the Humming-Fish hummed! No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed. So I'm sending them off. Oh, their future is dreary. They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary."
And then I got mad. I got terribly mad. I yelled at the Lorax, "Now listen here, Dad! All you do is yap yap and say, 'Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!' Well, I have my rights, sir, and I'm telling you I intend to go on doing just what I do! And, for your information, you Lorax, I'm figgering on biggering
AND BIGGERING
AND BIGGERING
AND BIGGERING,
turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!"
And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack! From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall. The very last Truffula Tree of them all!
No more trees. No more Thneeds. No more work to be done. So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, every one, all waved me good-bye. They jumped into my cars and drove away under the smoke-smuggered stars.
Now all that was left 'neath the bad smelling sky was my big empty factory... The Lorax... and I.
The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance... just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance... as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants. And I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he heisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks, with one word... "UNLESS." Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn't guess.
That was long, long ago. But each day since that day I've sat here and worried and worried away. Through the years, while my buildings have fallen apart, I've worried about it with all of my heart.
"But now", says the Once-ler, "Now that you're here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.
"SO... Catch!" calls the Once-ler. He lets something fall. "It's a Truffula Seed. It's the last one of all! You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back."
venitus reblogged your photo: (Full View Link) So this is what I have so far....
CONFNEECTION Confection? Remember, you can eat thneeds. Thneed confectionary. My mouth waters at such a thought~
MAYBE!? I'm not even sure if I got the letters right but if I did, the "NEE" could be from "thNEEds" and confneection building could be the factory cafeteria but all it has are sweets and thneeds haha
I took screenshots of the thneed from the movie and tried to visualize what it actually looks like. I hope it's alright. Basically it's 4 sleeves and a hole in the middle but two of the sleeves are continuous with each other, as shown in my diagram.