This is the first trailer for The Lorax, the animated movie based on the book by noted word-inventing, rhyme cheater Dr. Seuss. It’s neat to look at, and very cute, and features voices by perfectly harmless people like Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, and Betty White (nice to see those three getting work). For the voice of the titular character, however, they cast Danny Devito… and blew a short, squat hole right through my backflipping mind.
I understand that Danny DeVito is a show business legend. His involvement with shows like “Taxi” and his long career as a film producer have earned him plenty of juice with the kinds of people who make movies. But to members of a younger generation, namely me, he is most identifiable as Frank Reynolds, the trainwreck of a father figure on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” So when I hear his voice in this trailer, I’m not thinking “cute, animated character,” I’m thinking “guy who does crack with prostitutes.” (To be fair, I spend a lot of my day thinking about doing crack with prostitutes.)
Maybe they could work that into the movie somehow. Instead of saving trees or whatever, the Lorax could run a Philadelphia bar with some ne’er-do-wells. And run Ponzi schemes. And do crack with prostitutes. (We can call it “doing crafoogle with prostinoodles” to appease the Seuss family.) And they could put it on FX for a half an hour on Thursday nights. I’m just spitballing here, but I think I’m on to something.