Zac Efron, Betty White, Ed Helms, Rob Riggle and Danny DeVito will star in Illumination Entertainment's 3D animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax," with the latter actor voicing the title character, reports USA Today.
The beloved 1971 children's story chronicles the plight of the environment, as The Lorax stands on a tree stump deploring the destruction of the Truffula Tree-lined forest he once called home.
Helms ("The Office," "The Hangover") will play The Once-ler, a short-sighted, greedy creature who chops down every tree he can find to make his Thneeds, things that everyone needs.
Efron will voice the role of a young boy named Ted (named after Dr. Seuss himself — aka Theodore 'Ted' Geisel) who goes in search of the Once-ler to find out how the world became so ugly.
White will play Ted's grandmother, a new character who tells him how colorful the world used to be.
The movie will introduce another new character, Audrey (named after Seuss' wife) — the girl Ted loves who dreams of one day seeing a real forest, not just the fake plastic trees that dot their devastated landscape.
Helms' "Hangover" co-star Riggle will play a new character as well. This one is named O'Hare, described as an industrialist who sells cans of fresh air to the polluted world the Once-ler creates, and wants to keep it that way.
Illumination's Chris Meledandri ("Despicable Me") compared DeVito to Walter Matthau because of his "wonderful ability to be acerbic and grouchy, but at the same time absolutely lovable."
