The beginner's guide to The Lorax

IF you're new to The Lorax, here's the lowdown on Dr Seuss's original book and the film that will hit Australian big screens in April.

IF you're new to The Lorax, here's the lowdown on Dr Seuss's original book and the film that will hit Australian big screens in April.

THE LORAX

By Dr Seuss

FIRST PUBLISHED: 1971

INSPIRED BY: A trip to Africa, where Dr Seuss's writer's block disappeared after watching a herd of elephants walk across the Serengeti. It is said he wrote most of the book in one afternoon on the only piece of paper he had at hand: a laundry list.

DR SEUSS ON THE BOOK'S MESSAGE: "The Lorax doesn't say lumbering is immoral. I live in a house made of wood and write books printed on paper. It's a book about going easy on what we've got. It's anti-pollution and anti-greed."

AUDIO BOOKS: Rik Mayall, best known as snotty student Rik from The Young Ones, narrated an audio book of The Lorax for the British market. Ted Danson did one for the US market.

THE VOICE OF THE LORAX: Danny DeVito gives voice to The Lorax in the new movie - and not just in English-speaking markets, as is the norm. He also mastered the dialogue, and the comic timing, in Spanish, Italian, Russian and German.

READING RESURGENCE: After The Lorax debuted atop the US box office at the start of March, there was a rush on Dr Seuss's books, sending five of his titles back into the bestsellers' chart. Publisher Random House reports 60,000 copies of The Lorax have been sold this year in the US (matching its sales in all of last year).

OTHER SEUSS MOVIES: Mike Myers feline-suited-up for a roundly lambasted live-action version of The Cat in the Hat in 2003. Jim Carrey fared a little better as the titular character in 2000's The Grinch and returned as a voice in 2008's animated hit Horton Hears a Who!