Hailey Diehl, Sophomore
“The Grinch” is a lively and cheery film based off the classic book, How the Grinch Stole
Christmas, by Doctor Seuss. The animated movie is produced by the film company, Illumination Entertainment. The grumpy Grinch made his debut on the big screens again
this year on November 9th, 2018. The screenplay was written by Tommy Swerdlow and Michael LeSieur, and the directors are Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier. The characters are voiced by many famed celebrities, as The Grinch is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, Cindy-Lou Who is voiced by Cameron Seely, Rashida Jones voices Danna Who, and Pharrell Williams is the Narrator.
It's safe to say that you probably already know the basic plot of “The Grinch” in some form. Either way, a little refresher can’t hurt. The Grinch himself is a grumpy green character that is covered in hair. He lives in Whoville, where they celebrate Christmas with as much joy and glee as possible by a Who. The Grinch finds this very annoying and when he has finally had enough, he decides he wants to steal Christmas away from the Whos. During his mischief, he has the help of his lovable dog Max. This movie also has lovable Who characters that make the audience root for the Grinch to fail in his plans as they see the Whos get ready and be excited for Christmas.
This Grinch movie is not just an animated version of the older version with Jim Carrey, which I appreciated. They changed up and added different elements in this new movie, which is good as a viewer because it makes it feel like you are watching a refreshed story. Illumination Entertainment is always good at adding in lovable and funny characters into their movies, and they didn’t let us down for with this one. They added in a stubborn little goat, which became my favorite character, that made the Grinch's plans go a little less smoothly. Also, in this version the Grinch tries to catch reindeer to pull his sleigh, and that left us with a precious reindeer obsessed with whipped-cream named Fred. The Jim Carrey version focused on Cindy-Lou Who’s dad more, where this one focuses on her mom. They show the mom to be overworked and always busy, and also give her twins she must handle, possibly changing it to be more relatable to the audience. I liked Donna Who. Also, they changed a few minor scenes, such as the Grinch only goes to Whoville when he needs food because he stress ate all of his. Personally, I didn’t really mind the changes. I thought it just made the film feel more unique, rather than a repeated story.
The soundtrack to “The Grinch” didn’t end up being my favorite, but it wasn’t bad. Most of the songs in the movie weren’t related to the plot, but rather just popular songs. I much prefer the soundtrack from the Jim Carrey version. However, they did have a new “You're a Mean One” tune. It was sung by Tyler, the Creator, which I personally find as an interesting choice considering he was banned from the UK for controversial lyrics. The new song is really catchy, and will get stuck in your head. However, the original “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” is so established I was really hoping it would be played at some point in this new movie. I understand why they created a more fresh version to catch kids attention, but I almost wish if even for just the end credits or a small scene, they played a bit of the original. Also on the soundtrack are “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by Pentatonix, and “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.
I would recommend this movie to people that like animated comedies, especially those previously made by Illumination, and also to people that like the Grinch story. I would watch the movie again, and overall really enjoyed it. There are lots of jokes that would go over little kids heads and are definitely directed towards the teens and adults, and I personally found that to be really funny. Some examples are how the Grinch has a slight coffee addiction, and how he was working out in shorts that said “Go Time” across the back.
Comments