| “ | Then MAKE them care! Plant this seed in the middle of the city, where everyone can see! Change the way things are. | „ |
| ~ The Once-Ler convincing Ted to make up for his mistakes. |
| “ | And ever since The Lorax left I’ve spent all this time looking at this word… Unless. I’ve learnt that it means Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not… | „ |
| ~ The Once-Ler meditating on his past one last time, before giving Ted the seed. |
The Once-Ler is the deuteragonist of Illumination's 2012 animated film Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, based on Dr. Seuss's book of same name.
He was an ambitious young man who became rich when he kickstarted his business company of Thneeds, fabric objects that could potentially be used for anything. However, in the process, he ended up destroying the ecosystem, against the advice of a mystical orange creature called the Lorax. Isolated away from the artificial city that his empire had become, he gained a chance to redeem himself when a kid named Ted appears and asks to hear about the story from so long ago, of how the trees were extinct.
He is voiced by Ed Helms.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Good?[]
- At the beginning of the movie, he was just a young entrepreuneur aiming to make a product that would help people and change the world for the better.
- It is shown that he was the nicest member of his greedy family.
- He became remorseful once he let the full impact of his actions sink in, with no trees left and the animals and the Lorax going away, homeless.
- He got himself away from what his company ended up becoming, Thneedville, living in an old house, thinking about what he did. Him thinking about the word "unless" show that he still harbored remorse over his actions and thought about them constantly.
- He, after some convincing, told the story of himself, the Lorax and the Trees to a boy named Ted, from Thneedville.
- Once Ted was told the story, he gave him the last Truffula seed, and even when he tried to argue no one cared about trees anymore, he still encouraged him to go and plant the seed to restore things as they once were.
- He broke the window of his house and tearfully thanked Ted upon hearing "Let It Grow".
- He became happy when a bird flaw past him, showing nature slowly coming back, as well as having a tree of his own.
- When the Lorax came back, he hugged him, owning up for his mistakes for good.
What Prevents Him From Being Pure Good?[]
- He was rude to Ted when they first met, by outright hurting him by kicking him with a boot and lifting him up dangerously high, and saying that if he kept interrupting the story he would never be heard from again. Even though he became a much better person, this is left completely unsubverted.
Trivia[]
- His book version doesn't count as, while virtually the same, due to the nature of the book, his character as well as the impact of giving a seed to the little boy, aren't as explored as much as they are in the movie, leaving him more in the grey zone.
- In the original script of the Lorax, the Once-ler was going to be played much more seriously as his chopping down of the Truffula Trees would've actually endangered the environment and he would not have cared about it in the slightest. He would've also had a different, darker villain song titled "Biggering" as opposed to the much more light-hearted "How bad can I be". However, this version was scrapped for unknown reasons, and thus, the Once-ler is portrayed as more of an egotistical jerk instead of a malicious businessman. Had the original version been kept, the Once-ler may not have qualified as Near Pure Good.
External Links[]
- The Once-Ler on the Heroes Wiki
- The Once-Ler on the Villains Wiki
- The Once-Ler on the Dr. Seuss Wiki
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 Near Pure Goods
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