You can soon get lost in the maze of Dr. Seuss’ ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’

Dr. Seuss is hitting the road this fall with a large interactive exhibit that will immerse visitors in some of the most iconic books by the beloved children’s writer.

The exhibit is centered on a maze based on “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” the Dr. Seuss book that urges children to explore the world and move mountains despite the pitfalls and challenges. Children and adults will be able to explore rooms based on “The Cat in the Hat,” ″The Lorax,” “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?” and other works.

The 15,000-square-foot exhibition announced publicly Wednesday is scheduled to open in Toronto in October. There are plans to take it to Boston, Seattle, Houston and several other North American cities.

1/1

By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times

Not only do Dr. Seuss’ more than 40 books have crazy rhyme structures and illustrations that are uniquely Seussian (many of the plants apparently were inspired by succulents at the San Diego Zoo), but Theodor Seuss Geisel also had a political agenda that he worked into some of his silliest-sounding books. And so, despite writing for kids, he voiced his opinion on dictatorships, nuclear proliferation and participatory democracy.

Friday marks the opening of the latest Dr. Seuss adaptation, “The Lorax,” and it’s a great opportunity to revisit our chat with Kansas State University’s Philip Nel, an English professor and children’s literature expert. He’s the author of “Dr. Seuss: American Icon” and is a fabulous source of of Seuss knowledge.

Photo: The 1954 Dr. Seuss book “Horton Hears a Who!” became a film of the same name in 2008.  (20th Century Fox / Associated Press)

“I wanted to explore the books and bring the characters to life in a new and engaging way,” said Susan Brandt, president of San Diego-based Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company founded by Audrey Geisel, the late widow of Theodor Seuss Geisel, who under the pen name Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated dozens of children’s books.

Because the exhibit is based on Geisel’s children’s books, there are no references to his earlier and more controversial political cartoons.

The maze inspired by “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” features thousands of suspended balloons.

Visitors entering “The Lorax” room can wander through a forest of truffula trees. The “If I Ran the Circus” room features a working carousel, while “Horton Hears a Who!” consists of a field of waist-high pink clover.

A rendering of a field of clovers from Seuss’ book “Horton Hears a Who” that will be incorporated in the Dr. Seuss exhibition.

(Kilburn Experiences, LLC /Dr. Seuss Enterprises / Associated Press)

The exhibit is a partnership between Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Kilburn Live, a division of Los Angeles-based entertainment company Kilburn Media.

The Dr. Seuss Experience, more than two years in the making, is unlike anything the company has been involved in before, and that’s what attracted Kilburn to the project.

The exhibit is not just about promoting literacy but about the pro-social messages in Dr. Seuss’ books, Kilburn founder and CEO Mark Manuel said.

“The Lorax” teaches environmental stewardship, while “The Sneetches and Other Stories” teaches tolerance and individuality, he said.

The exhibit will change in every city. Some rooms will be flipped out to be replaced by rooms based on other Seuss classics. The rooms will even change based on the time of year, with a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” room planned for the holiday season.

“Our goal is to have children shriek with joy,” Manuel said.