Fourth-graders ask Universal: Let the Lorax speak for the trees

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A class of Massachusetts fourth-graders has launched a petition drive targeting Universal Pictures’ marketing of ‘The Lorax’ movie. The 9-year-olds have collected almost 4,000 signatures encouraging the film studio to add Truffula trees with green living tips and a green discussion forum to the website promoting the film interpretation of the Dr. Seuss classic.

‘Each year my students are inspired to do more for the planet after reading [‘The Lorax’],’ said Ted Wells, a teacher at the Park School in Brookline, Mass., who launched the Lorax Petition Project in December. ‘This year, they saw the trailer, and to them, the movie looked more like an adventure and romance, like it had totally lost its message about helping the planet,’ he said in a Change.org news release.

The online campaign is being run through the social change website Change.org. ‘The Lorax’ is due in theaters in March.

-- Susan Carpenter

Images: The Lorax, top, and the Once-ler from ‘The Lorax’ movie. Credit: Universal Pictures.