Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: Original Songs from the Motion Picture and Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: Original Motion Picture Score are the albums released for the 2012 animated musical film The Lorax (2012), based on Dr. Seuss's children's book of the same name, following the 1972 animated television special. The first album consisted of several original songs written for the film, released on February 21, 2012 by Interscope Records. The second album consisted of original score composed by John Powell and released on February 28 by Back Lot Music.
Background[]
Besides composing the film score, John Powell composed and wrote the original tracks with Cinco Paul, one of the film's screenwriters. Tricky Stewart served as the executive producer for the soundtrack. The producer Chris Meledandri, revealed that the inspiration of using songs, came directly from Dr. Seuss, as the animated version of The Grinch – embraced the use of songs in an unconventional way. He further revealed this in an interview to Collider:
"The use of music, in this film, is very unconventional, which I love. When you listen to the music in this film, it's working on the level of melody, but the other key element is lyrics. There are a number of songs in the film where the lyrics themselves are very much speaking to the essence of what Ted Geisel was setting out to do. Songs give you incredible opportunity to convey a tremendous amount in a relatively short period of time".
The lead single from the film, titled "Let It Grow" was sung by Ester Dean. Stewart wanted Dean to rope her for the song, as "from a subject matter standpoint, the song would be something that she would want to be involved with. Because of the message in The Lorax and the type of person that Ester is, those are the type of things that really mean something to her". He further stated about the song: "The song was a light-hearted version of what the film is about. But at the same time there is a seriousness to the message of the record. We take all those things into consideration: getting that message out there of what is going on in the environment, and not only what's going on in the environment, but what's going on with us as people. And I think that she was able to lyrically nail that soft spot in people, to tug on their heart strings a little bit, to make people walk out and maybe think about doing something nice, or think about doing something different than what they do on a daily basis. Just to do something good for the environment and good for your fellow person".
Reception[]
Critical reception to the soundtrack was mixed. Kyle Smith of New York Post, panned the film's music, referring to the songs as "musical rants". Film critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times said that the film's silliness is "loud and slightly hysterical, as if young viewers could be entertained only by a ceaseless barrage of sensory stimulus and pop-culture attitude, or instructed by songs that make the collected works of Up With People sound like Metallica". The Hollywood Reporter critics felt that the songs "did not quite hit the desired chord".
In contrast, Variety's Justin Chang opined that the songs "are genial and loopy enough to give the film something of a Seussical sensibility". James Christopher Monger of AllMusic wrote: "The main songs, "Let It Grow", "Everybody Needs a Thneed", and "Thneedville", like the film itself, are subversive and silly, incorporating dance, pop, and rock elements while maintaining the general weirdness of a tree-hugging, mustachioed monster helping a 12-year-old boy land the girl of his dreams, but they could have easily been integrated into the orchestral version of the soundtrack".
Track listing[]
All tracks are written by John Powell and Cinco Paul
| No. | Title | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Let It Grow (Celebrate the World)" | Ester Dean | 3:39 |
| 2. | "Thneedville" | Fletcher Sheridan, Antonio Sol, Beth Anderson, Oliver Powell, Edie Lehmann Boddicker, Missi Hale, Rob Riggle & Choir | 2:44 |
| 3. | "This is the Place" | Ed Helms & Choir | 2:24 |
| 4. | "Everybody Needs a Thneed" | Ed Helms, Randy Crenshaw, Fletcher Sheridan, Edie Lehmann Boddicker, Monique Donnelly, Ty Taylor, The 88 & Choir | 1:31 |
| 5. | "How Bad Can I Be?" | Ed Helms and Kool Kojak | 2:52 |
| 6. | "Let It Grow" | Fletcher Sheridan, Dan Navarro, Edie Lehmann Boddicker, Jenny Slate, Claira Titman, Betty White, Rob Riggle, Ed Helms & Choir | 3:17 |
| 7. | "Let It Grow Gospel Ending (Original Demo)" | Jenny Slate | 0:52 |
| 8. | "Thneedville (Original Demo)" | Fletcher Sheridan | 3:58 |
| 9. | "The Once-ler's Traveling Madness (Original Demo)" | Ed Helms | 1:35 |
| 10. | "I Love Nature (Original Demo)" | Randy Crenshaw | 2:43 |
| 11. | "You Need a Thneed (Original Demo)" | Keith Slettedahl and The 88 featuring Antonio Sol, Fletcher Sheridan, and Taylor Graves | 1:32 |
| 12. | "Nobody Needs a Thneed (Original Demo)" | Fletcher Sheridan and Randy Crenshaw | 1:52 |
| 13. | "Biggering (Original Demo)" | Gabriel Mann, Randy Crenshaw, and The 88 | 5:01 |
| Total length: | 34:00 | ||