What’s my favorite kind of animated movie? The kind that has a larger message – a meaning that relates to its entire audience, not just to kids. With its conservation-related moral and classic Dr. Seuss style, Universal’s The Lorax is definitely one I can sit through a thousand times! Lucky for me, I have the newly released DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack!

The pack includes the movie in HD, three adorable mini-movies, an Ultraviolet digital copy that can be streamed on a tablet or smartphone, and some mind-blowing extras. There are even games, such as Truffula Run, which my four-year-old is obsessed with. For the older viewers, there is a fun tutorial on how to draw the characters. Parents can even find a coupon for GE Energy Smart lightbulbs inside the box. This is so much better than enjoying the film in theaters…it’s a way to keep your kids interested in the adventures of Ted and the worthy cause of the Lorax himself with all kinds of supplemental activities.

Here’s a sneak peek at the mini-movies:

Don’t forget to switch the language to Spanish and hear Danny Devito’s voice instead of an awkwardly dubbed version of The Lorax!

If you haven’t seen The Lorax yet, visit the official website, Facebook, or Twitter.

Then, check out details below and enter to win your copy!

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The legendary Dr. Seuss has been inspiring a love of reading in children for generations. Many of us are share fond memories of reading his books as kids. As many of you know Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax has been animated into a 3D movie that comes out in theaters today!

In honor of his birthday we want to celebrate by sharing with you what some of the actors and crew from the new Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax movie revealed to us about their Dr. Seuss memories and the new movie when I got the chance to interview them in L.A. some weeks ago.

Danny Devito on reading Dr. Seuss books with his kids:

“We started moving into the picture books with words, and that natural progression took us right to Dr. Seuss because especially when you come home at night and you’ve been working and you want to read the kids to sleep and give them that book in the bed, and you can sit there and go da-da-da-da-da-ba-ba-ba-da-da-da-boom-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dum you know?  But, Dr. Seuss always gave you a really cool story. And so, we did all of the normal Green Eggs and Ham and the this and the that.  We also loved Horton Hears a Who and then, of course, when we got hip to The Lorax, it was really cool.”~Danny Devito (Voice of the Lorax)

“Overall, the beautiful colors and celebrating the environment and caring about the environment, which is one of my big, big, big things, and the fact of looking for trees and wanting to find trees. Dr. Seuss has a way of doing, you could get into it. I hope everybody else loves it as much as those of us involved in it.”~Betty White (Voice of Grammy Norma)

“I think probably at the end, watching everybody realize, after he knocks the wall down and see what the world has become outside of their perfect little city, and the fact that this young boy can open up the eyes of the entire town. Also when The Lorax comes back, it’s beautiful.  I almost started crying, almost, almost.”~Zac Efron (Voice of Ted)

“Dr. Seuss had a really prominent sort of section on my childhood bookshelf, which is one of those decisions that your parents had to make.  But, we-my brother and sister and I-all just were totally enthralled with Dr. Seuss.  And The Lorax in particular, for some reason, I loved this book.”~Ed Helms (Voice of the Once-ler)

“I love Dr. Seuss.  I’ve always loved Dr. Seuss.  Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax, even Brown Shoe, I think is one of them?”~Rob Riggle (Voice of Mr. O’Hare)

Ken Duario on getting involved and on his history with Dr. Seuss books.

“Well, I actually wrote [the screenplay for] Horton Hears a Who!, which was the other animated movie. And we did that with Chris Melandandri [Producer].  And that was the first thing we did with Chris Melandandri.  That actually was my favorite book of all time, not just kids book, I’m sad to admit – my favorite book.  And actually, when we first got the job, Cinco had called me up, I was in my car, and he said, Ken, if we could adapt any book into a movie, what would you want to do?  And I said ‘not Horton?!’.  And he said, yes, Horton. I was just so excited to do that.”~Ken Duario (Screenplay/Executive Producer)

“Yes, that [The Lorax] is my favorite Dr. Seuss book since I was a little kid, and I loved it.  And we were over at Audrey Geisel’s [Dr. Seuss’ wife] house talking to her about Horton Hears a Who!, and she took us on a tour.  And in the back yard, there’s a little statue of The Lorax. And we went back there and got a picture.  I think I was posing next to it or something like that.  And I mentioned to Chris, that’s my favorite book.”~Cinco Paul (Screenplay by/Executive Producer/ Songs by)

Christopher Melandandri on the animation style of the film and staying true to Dr. Seuss.

“I think in this case, what I was always fascinated with is probably the most relevant part of your question, and as a producer really was, okay, yes, we’ve had this experience, kind of my former life on Horton [Horton Hears a Who!], but here’s this book that was a departure for Ted Geisel [Dr. Seuss], and here are characters that he draws with very simple lines, a color palette that was different from his past books, and could Chris and his team of designers and artists translate these very simple line drawings into dimensional characters and dimensional immersive worlds that wasn’t just captivating but was really true to the spirit of what was on those pages. Which I think that he’s done.  And how he did it is one of the most exciting things about being part of this process.”~Christopher Melandandri (Producer)

Don’t forget to check out the two awesome Dr. Seuss giveaways we have going on right now with The Lorax and The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to be part of a group of bloggers who got the change to screen Dr Seuss’ The Lorax and then sit in roundtable interviews with several cast members and crew. Meaning, I got to meet icons like Betty White and Danny DeVito, who plays the Lorax and, as such, “speaks for the trees.”

Danny DeVito was dead on as the Lorax. So much so, that the producers at Universal couldn´t imagine anyone else playing his part so well in the Spanish, Italian, German and Russian versions. They decided that not only should DeVito speak for the trees as the Lorax, but also for those of who watch the dubbed versions. Universal asked him if he would do those versions-knowing fully well he wasn´t fluent in any of those languages!-and DeVito graciously agreed to take the multilingual plunge! He actually had to do five versions (not including the English one!) because he did both the Castillian and the Mexican Spanish ones!

We asked him all about this experience and why he would even go through the trouble of doing it. Watch this video where you can see him with the Spanish voice coach and hear his español; then read on for an entertaining excerpt of our interview.

How long did it take you to learn the four languages?

Danny DeVito: Oh, well, here’s the thing about that. I didn’t learn the languages. I’m the guy in school who went and took Latin forever and just couldn’t even say open the door. I speak very little Italian from just the home slang. And it wouldn’t ever, ever fly as a dub job for Italy.

So, the way I did it was I had two translator expert people who know the language and all the inflections and the proper way to say the words. And then, I had another person from the country in the booth. We had the picture in English with my voice. And what I wanted to do was make sure I got the performance big time, and also, they were there to police the pronunciation so that the inflections were right.

So, I did Spanish twice because one of them, you speak with it. They don’t even say Thneed. They say something else because Thneed, it would be some word you don’t want to say probably.

And then, the Italian was really fun. And the German turned out to be one of the most challenging right away.

Imagine you’re climbing Mt. Everest, right, and you’re at this certain place where it’s a flat spot and you can still see the peak up there. That was Russian. I said, are you crazy? And it was some points in time where I did the dubbing stage for days and you get up to go get a coffee or a tea or a something and ask yourself, “What do you do?”

But they’re going to appreciate it. And it wound up sounding really good. I’ve heard a lot of it. I play it back a lot. I’m very, I don’t know what you call it – I guess a perfectionist. But, you really want to make sure you’re doing it.

And I had these two poor people on the other side of me repeating it and saying the lines over and over again and me looking at the phonetic spelling.

Why did you decide to go through the trouble?

Danny DeVito: First of all, I like to do different things. I like to challenge myself. And I knew it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.

Once I got it in my head that I was going to do it, I said, I’m not going back out now. I’m going to just go.

You’ve taken your clothes off and you’re ready to dive in the river. You’re not going to back off.

My whole family was saying, boy, that’s really great. Imagine going to dinner one night and thinking, I’ve got cold feet, I don’t really want to do it, it’s going to take too long.

But, I had great people with me and I stuck to it, and it worked out good. And I’m going to see it in Russia and in March I’m going to go see it in Russia and Spain and Germany and Italy.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (El Lórax) hits theaters this Friday, March 2nd. You won´t want to miss this one, trust me. Watch and share The Lorax trailer on Facebook, plus watch clips, play games, get free mobile downloads and download printables.

Check out our giveaway for a chance to win a prize bundle which includes a copy of Dr. Seuss’  The Lorax book in Spanish, plus other fabulous goodies.