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The Once-Ler has been hunted down for the soul to be collected for the following reason(s): "How b-a-a-a-a-d can I be?" not enough to pass the baseline sorry." too much fridge horror. Please discuss it on the talk page for this article. |
| “ | How bad can I be? | „ |
| ~ The Once-Ler's catchphrase. |
| “ | Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. | „ |
| ~ The Once-Ler to Ted and his most famous quote. |
The Once-ler is the deuteragonist of Illumination's 3rd full length animated feature film Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, loosely based on Dr. Seuss's book of the 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 became, 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 in the English dub, who also voiced Mr. Krupp in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, and by Tortoise Matsumoto in the Japanese dub.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- Before turning into a regretful recluse, he was an enigmatic business magnate who sought to expand his Thneed empire against the Lorax’s grave protests.
- He seeks to make his own invention, the Thneed, despite his family's belief that it would amount to nothing.
- He eventually arrives at the Truffula forest and decides that it is the perfect place to make his Thneeds. However, after chopping his first Truffula tree, the Lorax arrives and warns him to stop, but the Once-Ler dismisses him.
- He was not only rude to Ted when they first met, but outright hurt him by kicking him with a boot and lifting him up dangerously high, and despite becoming a much better person, this is left completely unsubverted.
- During his song "How Bad Can I Be?", he is shown cutting down numerous trees and horribly affecting the environment by polluting the place and endangering the wildlife. This implies that he was going to cause hundreds of deaths if no one took action against his crimes.
- Initially, he merely harvests the Truffula leaves to make his Thneeds, which eventually become popular and grow into a high demand. To fulfill this demand, the Once-Ler hires his family to help make the Thneeds. His mother recommends that he cut down the trees to accelerate production, and under pressure, he does so, eventually causing the Lorax to call him out on his broken promise.
- After the Once-Ler cuts down the last Truffula tree, the fauna all flee, and the Lorax lifts himself into the sky, leaving one last message: "UNLESS." This also leaves the Lorax and the fauna all homeless.
- His thirst for industry ultimately causes the near extinction of the Truffula trees and the destruction of the environment, causing him to lose his factory and enter self-exile to atone for his mistake.
- Because he has less resources than Aloysius O'Hare, the Once-Ler manages to outclass him in terms of heinousness. being that the Once-ler was the one responsible for the deforestation of the Truffula Trees in the first place, thus causing the creation of Thneedville and the need to buy air for money instead of for free.
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- He suffers from Fridge Horror, as it is unknown if his effect on the environment caused any deaths, with the rest of his crimes amounting to standard greedy businessman villainy and mere jerk behaviour, preventing him from meeting the baseline.
- He has lots of comedic moments, such as his song "How Bad Can I Be?" and the scene with his bed floating down the river and almost falling over a waterfall. However, most of these moments happened before he became a villain and his song clearly cements of how wrong his actions are, so it is a minor prevention.
- He is overall a good-natured person who never meant any real harm. He was, in fact, going to keep his promises not to cut down more trees, and when his attempts at selling the needs failed, he tried to settle down a simple life with the Lorax and his friends. He only rised to villainy because his family, mainly his mother, made him become one.
- He genuinely cares for the Lorax, the animals and Ted Wiggins. He was also the one who gave Ted the idea to fix his town's problems and protect the environment by giving him the last Trufulla seed, and thanks to the Once-Ler, Ted was able to restore the world to its former glory.
- 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, implying he may not even have grasped at how bad his actions were in the first place (though he was still reckless and careless).
- He ultimately redeemed himself when 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" shows that he still had remorse over his actions and thought about them constantly.
Trivia[]
- In an unfinished demo version of the film, the Once-Ler is significantly more heinous due to actually endangering several animals and affecting the environment badly, all while being aware of it and not caring in the slightest. However, the original draft of the movie (which has an unused/deleted song named "Biggering") was scrapped for unknown reasons, leading to the creation of the final draft for the movie where the Once-Ler is a bog-standard jerk whose crimes rely on too much Fridge Horror. If the original demo was completed and the Once-Ler underwent his redemption like in the final film, he likely would have been Inconsistently Heinous.
External Links[]
- The Once-Ler on the Heroes Wiki
- The Once-Ler on the Villains Wiki
- The Once-Ler on the Near Pure Good Wiki
- The Once-Ler on the Dr. Seuss Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television Live-Action Television Literature Video Games Shorts See Also | ||
 Villainous Benchmarks
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Animated Features Mike Vicious 6 (Belle Bottom, Jean-Clawed, Svengeance, Stronghold, Nun-Chuck & Wild Knuckles) | Kamek | | ||
 Villainous Benchmarks
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Stories Movie | ||