How Bad Can I Be - The Lorax

"What's the difference between a Villain and a Super Villain?" " P R E S E N T A T I O N "

"Just look at my petting this puppy" rubs teeth of a small bear

The Onceler will always be one of the greatest Dr. Seuss villains ever

I love the gradual changing of meaning in the phrase “ how ban can I be?” And it becoming messed up as The Onceler does worse and worse things. It goes from “ Am I actually bad?” To “ I kinda know I’m bad” to “ just how much worse should I make things?”

"Who cares if a FEW trees are dying?!" proceeds to chop down ALL the trees

"and a portion of proceeds goes to charity" gives a whopping 25 cents to a guy that just so happens to be his dad

Evolution of the meaning behind each "How bad can I be" 0:34 - 0:51 "How bad can I be?" -->basically how can i be bad, rhetorical to self, truly believes himself to be good . 0:52 "How bad can I possibly be?" --> decides to push the boundaries of what "good" is. 1:19 - 1:38 "How bad can I be?" --> "good" and "bad" start to blur, believes he is just doing "what comes naturally"/"(he) is just following his destiny", redirects blame to (human)nature. The lorax protects nature, so he's using this argument against the lorax saying that what he is doing is natural/meant to be, still somewhat cares about persuading the lorax, although this sentiment quickly fades. 2:13 -2:22 "Come on how bad can I possibly be?" --> Now he claims that all he's doing is following the "principles of business," tries to strengthen his argument supporting his destructive business even more, nature/the lorax's will is irrelevant to him now. He also starts to develop a bit of a superiority complex and is shown to have become very greedy. 2:23 - 2:31 "How bad can I be?" --> rhetorical to the public who don't perceive him as bad and he knows it. 2:32 "How bad could I possibly be, let's s ee," --> has begun to question how much he could potentially get away with, acknowledges that he is "bad" 2:37 - 2:46 "How bad can he be?" --> public echoing his question to them, he sees how his "money is multiplying" and is excited to earn more, decides to protect himself from the repercussions of his actions so he can go further and earn more money. 2:48 - 3:05 "How bad can he be?" --> He is protected from the repercussions of his actions, he knows there are no consequences whatsoever, feels very powerful, fully embraces being "bad". 3:08 "How bad, how bad can this possibly be?" -->basically how bad can I get, a challenge to self, and the song ends right there. After the song ends, we see that the last tree is chopped down, implying that he never got to see "how bad it could possibly be" as his business was shut down immediately as a result. All his power was stripped away not long after he acquired it.

4:49 Somehow, they managed to make a tree falling so dramatic. Like, that literally made me gasp

He may be bad but he’s stylish as hell

I personally blamed the Once-ler's family for tempting and pressuring him, but ultimately it was the Once-ler's decision

I've never watched this movie but I am already rooting for this guy

No matter how old this movie gets this song will never die

"How bad can i be?" proceeds to demolish the entire forest

The moment he realizes he just fucked himself over when the last tree goes down is absolutely magical, i struggle to decide if he puts that face because he feels bad he killed them all... or just because he doomed his empire

I literally can listen to this all day

This is random, but in the L.A. version of "how bad can I be" there's such a good line. Instead of "Who cares if a few trees are dying" they say "Que importa la muerte de un arbol" which I can't do justice by just translating it but it is essentially questioning if anything would change by the death of a single insignificant tree. This line is trying to downplay everything that's happening because a single tree's death does not matter. This sentiment is meant to be repeated over and over for every tree that falls, but at that point it's not a single tree, its a whole forest, but you don't need to acknowledge that if you don't lump them together. I'm such a nerd analyzing the meaning of words, but it's such a powerful line.

Lorax: "Stop making your Thneed! Trees are dying!" Onceler: "I miss the part where that's my problem."

When you enslave Minecraft villagers for trading

Prince zuko justifying burning down towns to find a child:

“Who cares if a few trees are dying” I don’t know why but that line always hits hard