Zac Effron joins Betty White in Dr. Seuss’ story, The Lorax

[HMG Celebrity News] – Many Hollywood inmates are big fans of the environment, and now a group including Danny DeVito, Zac Effron, Bettty White, Ed Helms and Rob Riggle are making what may be the first Earth-friendly movie – ‘The Lorax.’

Published as a children’s book in 1971 by Dr. Seuss, ‘The Lorax’ tells of two greedy industrialists who spoil the Earth to make money, and the lone voice of reason who fights back: The Lorax.

Made by the same team that brought you ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘Horton Hears a Who,’ the new 3D animated movie will feature Ed Helms (The Office) as “The Once-ler,” who chops down every tree he can find to make a product he calls “Thneeds” – as in “A thing everyone needs.”

And Rob Riggle (‘The Hangover’) will be the voice of ‘O’Hare,’ another greedy capitalist who sells cans of fresh air to the poor souls who suffer the world he and the Once-Ler have ruined — and he plans to keep it that way.

But fighting this plague is our hero — The Lorax. A short, funny-looking creature with a spacious mustache who stands on tree stumps and tries to stop the pair causing total destruction. And that’s Danny DeVito.

“Danny has this wonderful ability to be acerbic and grouchy, but absolutely lovable at the same time,” Illumination Entertainment’s chief Chris Meledandri tells EW. “It’s like Walter Matthau; His comedic edge was very sharp, but he always had warmth.”

Zac Effron will join in as ‘Ted’ – a boy who searches for the Once-ler to learn how everything got so ugly. And Betty White will be his Granny, who tells Ted colorful stories of the old days when the world had real forests — not the plastic trees that now smother the land.

“They live in an outrageously artificial world, where all things natural have been replaced by plastic and steel….Like Las Vegas!” Meledandri, joked to the reporters.

And Danny’s really fired up about the film’s message;

“I don’t want to be gruff about it, but we’ve got to wake up and smell the oil burning,” he tells the scribes. “I feel the only way to get things done is to shake people up a bit, and the Lorax is not a guy who uses kid gloves.”

The studio backing the film, Universal say their new movie will open in theaters on March 2, 2012 — which would also have been the 108th birthday of the late Dr. Seuss…