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Dr. Seuss - The Lorax/Pontoffel Pock & His Magic Piano

Dr. Seuss - The Lorax/Pontoffel Pock & His Magic Piano

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grickle Grass, Grickle Grass....
Review: I watched this video for the first time when I was about 10. I know I wasn't the target audience for the movie, but I loved it! For one thing, all the songs and rhymes are really catchy, and the acting is great. On a deeper level though, it is really a haunting story, especially when you have to watch all the animals leaving because they were forced out of their home. Read the book, then be sure to watch the movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Please help the other Lorax lovers Part2
Review: If Pat McCulloch or anyone else can help us get hold of a copy of the video that would be great. I have used the book in teaching my economics class but I would love to be able to show the video

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It's No Grinch
Review: Kids will enjoy this video and maybe even understand a little bit of its important message about the environment, but adult fans may be quite disappointed, even annoyed, by pedestrian animation and voice talent, and what has to be one of the worst musical scores of any movie, let alone cartoon. On the plus side, the text is expanded so the Lorax gets to make an even stronger case for environmental awareness than he does in the book. After a pleasant introduction, nicely sung by Eddie Albert (remember Green Acres), the "bouncy" songs showcase the worst of the 60's beach music school of melody (think Raffi meets Frankie & Annette and you may get the idea). Remake anybody?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wore it out now have to buy a new one!
Review: My 3 year old and 20 month old love this movie and I love the message it sends. It is the video I play when I need to get supper made. My kids sit quietly and watch the wonderful animation and listen/sing/dance to the catchy songs. It is an important environmental message the video sends that I hope every child can grow up with and learn from.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great!
Review: My son is not even 4 yet and he loves this video. I find him singing the songs and saying "I speak for the trees" often after watching it. I think the environmental and capitalistic messages are revealed to kids in a manner that won't scare them, but still enlightens them to new concepts. I watched this when I was a kid and it is still good!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great tool for any environmental teacher
Review: My teacher of Environmental Economics at the University of South Florida has been showing this video in his classes for a while and asks HW problems and test questions about the economic significance of the movie. It is short enough not to take up an entire class period, plus it was a great break in the usual 2 hour lecture routine. It was also a lot of fun to analyze (and a very useful learning tool)!

From an economic perspective, it shows three kinds of possible market failures (common access, externalities, and monopoly power) and the signifance of problems associated with them. I highly recommed this story (in movie or book form).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just as charming as I remember
Review: The environmentally conscious Lorax appears here in an expanded version of the Dr. Seuss book, where we see more about how the profit-minded Once-Ler destroyed the truffula trees. My kindergartener loved the book, and I happened across this tape at Wal-Mart in a bargain bin. Having seen it as a kid myself, it was a natural purchase. She's watched it eight times in three days, so it must have stood the test of time! The music is a bit dated, sure, but she won't care about that for a few years yet, and it's pure nostalgia for my wife and me. The story even strikes the correct balance between commercial interests and environmentalism: Just take care of nature while you're creating jobs, and all will be well. But if you don't.....yikes.

The forgotten story included here is about Pontoffel Pock, a loser of a young man who can't get his simple two-step job right and gets fired. He is given a magic piano so he can "get away from it all," and of course he fouls that up too, but eventually figures out how to rescue a damsel in distress. My little girl doesn't quite get the romance aspect of this story, but we both enjoy the fantasy. Not in the league of "The Lorax," but cute.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better interpretation
Review: The last reviewer's interpretation of the book involves a narrow understanding of profit motive as "greed" and no understanding of property rights. (The same is a problem for the environmental movement today.) ... Someone truly driven by profit (Once-ler) motive would not cut down all of his Truffula trees, but rather would replant and manage his truffula forests in order to continue his biggering (growth) into the future. At the same time, habitat for the forest creatures is continuously renewed (dispelling this apparent dichotomy). In the Lorax, there are no clearly assigned property rights. Thus, the Once-ler's has no incentive to protect his own property. Indeed, since no one owns the surrounding property either, the Once-ler is also allowed to pollute, as well. They have no recourse to sue him or exact compensation, so the Once-ler is allowed to spread the cost of his activities onto everyone else. This is known by economists and social theorists as the Tragedy of the Commons... The lesson I'll teach my kids from this book is respect for other's property, for nature, and that "common property" ends in disaster.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better interpretation
Review: The last reviewer's interpretation of the book involves a narrow understanding of profit motive as "greed" and no understanding of property rights. (The same is a problem for the environmental movement today.) ... Someone truly driven by profit (Once-ler) motive would not cut down all of his Truffula trees, but rather would replant and manage his truffula forests in order to continue his biggering (growth) into the future. At the same time, habitat for the forest creatures is continuously renewed (dispelling this apparent dichotomy). In the Lorax, there are no clearly assigned property rights. Thus, the Once-ler's has no incentive to protect his own property. Indeed, since no one owns the surrounding property either, the Once-ler is also allowed to pollute, as well. They have no recourse to sue him or exact compensation, so the Once-ler is allowed to spread the cost of his activities onto everyone else. This is known by economists and social theorists as the Tragedy of the Commons... The lesson I'll teach my kids from this book is respect for other's property, for nature, and that "common property" ends in disaster.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: dr seuss is still the coolest!
Review: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is one of the best books I have ever read. Never mind that it is somewhat a childrens book. The story deals with environmental issues, ethical dilemmas and just plain "do unto others..." philisophy. I read it to my son when he was five (he's now 15) and still I rate it as one of my favorites - for any age! END


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