The makers of this 3D animated spectacular add only a splash of romance and a few musical numbers to the classic Seuss fable about an impish ultra-capitalist who leverages pollution to bolster his bottom line. If that sounds a bit like Despicable Me, it should, since co-helmers Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda churned out that flick as well. Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism. The city of Thneed — treeless, choked by smog, and run by a megalomaniac (Rob Riggle) shilling fresh air — epitomizes those excesses. Young Thneed resident Ted (Zac Efron), on a quest for a tree to impress a girl (Taylor Swift), seeks out the hermitic Once-ler (Ed Helms), who recounts the origin of the environmental catastrophe and the role of the orange, mustachioed forest spirit (Danny DeVito) of the title. It's not WALL-E, but it does bear the same cross.
