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This article is for a character that is approved as a Silly Near Pure Evil example, meaning they are a character that fits the criteria while being consistently played for laughs. |
| “ | Once-ler's Mother: *gasp* Oncie, is that you? Once-ler: Mom! Once-ler's Mother: There he is! There's my big suddenly successful son! We always knew you'd make it, Oncie! Right? Uncle Ubb: Hey! I love this Guy! Oh ho hoh! Once-ler: *to his mother* But you always said that I wouldn't amount to anything, remember? Once-ler's Mother: Oh, hush your mouth! I was just trying to motivate you! Once-ler: I'm really glad that you clarified that because it actually hurt my feelings for a really long time. |
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| ~ The first conversation that The Once-ler's Mother had with her youngest son. |
| “ | Son, You have let me down. Brett. You are now my favorite child. | „ |
| ~ The Once-Ler's Mother's last line before abandoning The Once-Ler, showing that she has no genuine care for her younger son, the Once-ler. |
The Once-ler's Mother is the overarching antagonist of Illumination's 3rd feature film Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, an adaptation of the 1971 book of the same name.
She is a greedy businesswoman who has been pressuring her lumberjack son into running a business like she does. This, in turn, makes her a catalyst for the Once-ler's descent into villainy, where it has him extracting as much resources in the Truffula Forest, resulting in an environmental damage.
She was voiced by Nasim Pedrad, who also played Gigi Caldwell in the first season of Scream Queens.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- She is a greedy and failure-intolerant woman who only cares for money and success and is somewhat manipulative and abusive, especially to her youngest son, the Once-Ler.
- It's also implied that she subjected her older sons Brett and Chet to abusive treatment as well, and there is no indication that she sees them as anything more than workers or tools.
- She bullies the Once-Ler with the rest of the family when he leaves home to start a Truffla making business.
- She is wearing a coat made from the carcass of a fox. While it is possible that she bought it instead of killing it, this shows her lack of care for nature.
- While she did start acting proud of the Once-Ler after riding over when his business ended up being successful, this was only because she had finally something to gain rather than genuine care for him.
- She brushes off the Once-Ler taunting her about his success as a businessmen and claims that she was only motivating him to create his business.
- She manipulates the Once-Ler into chopping down the Truffla Trees and ends up succeeding, all so she can remain well kept and profit with the success of her son's Truffla business; which results in him going down the path of villainy and starting the forest demolition with the help of the family.
- The Once-Ler's actions of destroying the Truffla Forest result in the thriving ecosystem becoming severely harmed and polluted, with the animals being forced to leave and find a new environment to live in due to their home now rendered uninhabitable; making his mother responsible for her son's villainous deeds since she was the one who manipulated him into carrying them out.
- After the last Truffla Tree is cut down, she blames the Once-Ler by saying that he let her down (even though she was the one to really blame due to kickstarting everything that had transpired) and disowns him, naming Brett as her new favorite child. She then rides off with the rest of her family and abandons the Once-Ler in the bleak forest, never to be seen again.
- Although she does end up leaving without the Once-Ler's money due to the Once-Ler constantly biggering and possibly because he tried to make his family fail and him to succeed, this was well-deserved and karmic for playing a significant role in the destruction of the Truffla Forest by taking advantage of her youngest son and making him turn evil.
- Despite her indirect involvement in her son's crimes and the damage done to the environment, she passes the heinous standards due to nevertheless playing a huge role in the devastation of the Truffla Forest by convincing him to chop down more trees to the point that he takes her words and subsequently leaves the entire ecosystem in utter ruin, and in turn this would eventually lead to Mayor Aloysius O'Hare releasing smog into the air (while keeping the otherwise polluted air fresh with a machine that he ran) just so that the people of Thneedville could continue purchasing more bottled oxygen from him.
- Despite getting along relatively well with most of her family and naming Brett her new favorite, there is nothing to show that she really cares about them, only sharing her greed with them. She may as well drop him as her favorite as well when she finds no use for him eventually, as shown with Brett and Chett's horrified faces.
- Although she does have some comedic moments, they only make her much more abusive and hatable, which rather is meant to show how much of an uncaring psychopath she is. Because of that, it doesn’t detract from her heinousness.
- Overall, she has no actual redeeming qualities in the slightest and is portrayed as an abusive parent who only likes her children whenever she could get benefit out of them and otherwise shows no genuine care for them at all.
What Prevents Her from Being Pure Evil?[]
- She partially suffers from Fridge Horror, because it is unknown if any deaths were caused when the Once-Ler tore down the trees and polluted the ecosystem in the process. Although, this is a minor prevention as the forest was still shown to be uninhabitable due to its awful pollution and she wasn't concerned about the potential deaths of the animals at all.
Trivia[]
- She is so far the only Illumination villain to be Near Pure Evil, since every other villain the company featured in their movies has too many redeeming qualities, occasionally has heroic roles, is extremely bog-standard, or a combination of these factors, while the Once-Ler's mother hardly displays any of these qualities. However, there is a chance that Bowser from The Super Mario Bros. movies may qualify again as well once The Super Mario Galaxy Movie releases unless there will be another villain that is far more heinous than Bowser or he gains redeeming qualities.
- She is also the only Dr. Seuss villain to be Near Pure Evil.
- Ironically, her son is Near Pure Good.
External Links[]
- The Once-Ler's Mother on the Villains Wiki
- The Once-Ler's Mother on the Hate Sink Wiki
- The Once-Ler's Mother on the Dr. Seuss Wiki
