Review: Wagon Ho! (2012)

Directed by: Kyle Balda | 3:06 minutes | animation, short film, comedy, family | Original voice cast: Ed Helms, Chris Renaud

The Lorax is a charming creation by Dr. Seuss. Fans of the book were quite disappointed when it turned out that its film adaptation, in the hands of production company Illumination Entertainment (known for the much more popular “Despicable Me” films), was somewhat disappointing. Visually it all looked beautiful, but the subtlety from the original story was hard to find in the film. “The Lorax” thus became a nice children’s film, but not much more than that.

As befits a little animation studio, short films are also made. ‘Wagon Ho’, was already on the blu-ray release of the cinema film, but is now also released on a special Mini-Movie collection, along with films featuring the Minions from ‘Despicable Me’ and chick Phil from ‘Hop’, Illuminations other blockbuster.

From a narrative point of view, “Wagon Ho” is not much: the Once-ler leaves his mule Melvin and carriage to the care of two Barbaloots: Lou and little Pipsqueak with the warning not to touch anything. That is of course asking for trouble … and the viewer can enjoy the not disastrous consequences. Predictability trumps, not really funny, but nice to watch. However, the animators have put a lot of effort into it and deserve praise.