Future Dr. Seuss Films

[minor muppetz]

There's one Dr. Seuss book I only read once but thought was interesting, it was called The Kings Stilts. I think that could make a good live-action movie, if it had a dark look and feel as opposed to being too cartoony. Maybe I just liked the black and white artwork too much (in fact quite a few Dr. Seuss books had that kind of look, even How the Grinch Stole Christmas).

I may get some hate for this but I'd like to see a movie based on The Butter Battle Book, with an ending.

It seems all the best-known books have either been made into TV specials or were featured in the "Beginner Book Video" series (while Horton Hatches the Egg was made into a Warner Bros. short).

 

[Drtooth]

I may get some hate for this but I'd like to see a movie based on The Butter Battle Book, with an ending.

Any remake of Butter Battle Book would ruin the actual message, especially if it has an ending. Sure, the book could still work as an anti-war sentiment (though virtually everyone's anti-war now)... but the book was a love letter to Reagan era Cold War arms race (which was the real reason the Communist USSR regime collapsed, blowing a fortune on weaponry). It could work, but like the Lorax, I'd be afraid that even that message would come off plastic, and insincere.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

Oh the Places You'll Go *shot*

How I hate that book

 

[Drtooth]

Oh the Places You'll Go

More like "Oh the Concepts They'll Screw Up!"

 

[Sgt Floyd]

That was a joke I was thinking that since the stupid book is read to like every high school graduating class it would become the movie viewed by every high school graduating class...

I think that's why I hate it

 

[Drtooth]

That was a joke I was thinking that since the stupid book is read to like every high school graduating class it would become the movie viewed by every high school graduating class...

But you gotta admit, that's the easiest title to make a joke like that out of.

You know... now that I think about it, who says it has to be a book?

It would be high time to dust off his earliest work, Hejji.

Now, I'd LOVE to see someone make a movie out of that.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

-Yertle the Turtle: I almost hesitate to option this one due to Seuss openly admitting he based the book on the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler. However, with THE DICTATOR coming out soon (considering it does well), I think the right director could do great things with it, providing he/she knows to do successfully bring satire to the screen

I used to participate in a game on the now-closed Box Office Mojo forums called "Create a Year of Movies" where we would write movie plots, give the movies release dates and see how they did at the box office, leading up to a Oscar "ceremony". I had an animation studio that had plans to make a (never ending up being written) Yertle the Turtle adaptation. My ideas for it were to basically expanded the story to include more characters (Horton the Elephant, Mayzie from Horton Hatches the Egg and the Wickersham Brothers from Horton Hears a Who were all prominent characters) and retooled to not be a "rise and fall of Adolf Hitler" commentary.

The plot was basically The Emperor's New Groove with a bit of What About Bob? and The Lion King to be honest. Yertle is a bratty, egotistical, self-proclaimed "king of the jungle". Mayzie is his long-suffering assistant who has had enough of Yertle and his bad attitude. Discovering a rule that if anything were to happen to the king if he has no direct family (which Yertle doesn't), the assistant (her) would take over his duties. So, she with the help of her hench-monkeys plans a plot to kill Yertle and make it look like an accident. Leading to her pitching Yertle on the "having turtles stack themselves beneath him so that he can see further and expand his kingdom" (something Yertle shows interest in doing). Mayzie gets one of the turtles to burp making the tower of turtles fall and Yertle fall high and hard enough to supposedly kill him. Thinking she has succeed, she has one of the hench-monkeys finish the job and throw his body deep in the jungle. Turns out he was only knocked out for a little bit and eventually Horton meets up with him in the jungle and agrees to help him get home. From there, Yertle progresses from being a jerk to a fairly nice guy while Mayzie becomes madder with power, especially once she finds out Yertle is still alive.

Looking back, I'm kind of glad I never got around to writing that for the game. I can't imagine it would go over well on CAYOM, especially being a blatant Emperor's New Groove knock-off. Even if it were a real movie, I don't think Seuss' widow would approve of the whole "murdering the king" plot.

And by the way, if you actually read all this, I'm very impressed.

 

[D'Snowth]

I could see them doing that one. It's fairly obscure, but it does have a meaty enough plot to be stretched to a full 90 minutes. Especially the Neefa Feefa rescue sequence. That could have some depth added to it

That's pretty much what I was thinking, I wouldn't mind even seeing some kind of backstory to the whole Good Fairy organization, The-Good-Fairy-In-Chief wasn't even involved in the plot until the end when the fairies couldn't find Pontoffel... or was there supposed to be some kind of mystique involved with him?

Either way, like I said, if it could be done right, if it could really be done right, I think that's one Seuss story I would most like to see turned into a movie.

It's just going to be tough to top Joe Raposo's wonderful score and songs from that one.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

The Zax.

 

[Yorick]

Ten Apples Up On Top! Dr. Suess wrote it under the name Theo LeSieg and it was illustrated by Roy McKie.