Avatar's Dr. Seuss Easter Egg Is Incredibly Fitting
It's not unusual for filmmakers to sneak cameos and Easter eggs into their projects. It can serve as a way to offer a fun nod to audience members who pay attention or to bring a theme full circle. And throughout James Cameron's many movies, he has included many such shoutouts, a habit readily on display with his most recent cinematic offering, "Avatar: The Way of Water." When looking at multiple shots from the blockbuster sequel, it's clear Cameron is paying homage to his previous work — just look at how the Sky People return to Pandora in the opening of the film. It's an apocalyptic sequence not unlike something out of a "Terminator" movie. Plus, later in the movie, everyone has to survive a sinking ship, even going so far as to locate air pockets in the downed vessel — a sequence that certainly calls to mind some of the most tearful moments of "Titanic."
Of course, similarly sly references can also be found in the original "Avatar." In fact, Cameron hid a fun little Easter egg, all too easy to overlook, that helps drive home the environmental themes of the film.
The Lorax is also a heavy-handed tale of ecological preservation
At its core, "Avatar" is all about the importance of protecting the environment and not allowing capitalism to annihilate every ounce of nature for profit. It has this theme in common with many other properties, and the movie actually contains one of those stories directly in the film — or, well, to be accurate, an extended cut of the film, rather than the original theatrical cut — when Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) teaches the Na'vi children in her Avatar form at the school. She has many books she teaches them, and in one scene, viewers will find a copy of "The Lorax" on a table.
Naturally, as many adults have noticed, "The Lorax" is one of Seuss' most political books, with a story (like "Avatar") about how destroying nature and driving off native inhabitants for corporate profit will lead to ruin. This little detail was pointed out on Reddit by u/to_the_tenth_power. Plenty of other users were quick to note how the inclusion of the book seemed realistic, like u/bringbacksherman, who wrote, "This seems like typical human behavior, as it would involve us going to a planet to defenestrate it while simultaneously lecturing the locals about conservation."
On a more amusing note, there were also many users who were simply taken aback by how large the books must be, seeing how the Na'vi are larger than your average human. But with the care and attention that went into rendering the VFX, it's nice to see an equal amount of attention went to some of the more minor props.