The Lorax - Textual Analysis

The Lorax is an animated comedy-musical for children based on Dr Seuss' novel of the same name, and it's essentially about a boy named Ted who is in love with a girl named Aubrey, who is in love with trees. Aubrey has never seen a tree before, so Ted goes on the hunt to find a tree to impress her.

Visual Codes

• Very colourful start, animation
• Cute animated flowers popping up, represents happiness and instantly tells us it's a happy film
• Young boy playing with toy aeroplane - denotation: toy plane, connotation: fun, typical of a young boy
• Pretty girl, obvious love interest
• The Lorax is bright orange, short and harmless - appealing to young children

Audio Codes

• Dreamy music at the start (soft guitar), already tells us it's a light hearted film
• Music (keyboards) builds up slightly when we see Aubrey, Ted's love interest
• American voices - American animation
• Music stops when tree gets knocked down - tells you it's a serious matter, but The Lorax's cute, small appearance softens it down
• Same song throughout - slowly builds up with more voices towards the end, shows it's an upbeat film

Technical Codes

• Many close ups of the character's faces - it's a comedy so facial expressions are important to show because the audience wants to see reactions
• Aerial shot on Aubrey and Ted lying down on the grass together - makes the scene romantic/dreamy
• Camera shakes when Ted drives past, which makes the animation seem more realistic/authentic
• The camera pans on the landscape of the trees, makes the audience feel overwhelmed by the masses of trees and how beautiful they were 
• The trailer mostly consists of medium shots and close ups

The visual, audio and technical codes all work together to make a really good animation. The visual codes of the colourful animation straight away at the start of the trailer instantly tells us the film is lighthearted and fun. The audio code of the soft music also tells us that the film is upbeat and not serious. The technical codes of the often used close ups and medium shots tells us that the film doesn't get too experimental with the shots - they want to keep it simple for the audience it's aimed at - young children.