The Once-ler is the main protagonist of Dr. Seuss's 1971 book The Lorax and its TV adaptation. He was a greedy industrialist who cut down all of the multicolored Truffula Trees to make a multipurpose garment known as a Thneed, a "Fine-Thing-That-All-People-Need." He is currently a recluse who lives in his Lerkim, plagued by the guilt of what he had done to the forest. His actions appear to be as bad as those done by his 2012 movie counterpart.