Review of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) by Ben L — 29 Jul 2012

It's a challenge to take a much beloved children's book and turn it into a full-length feature film. Add in the fact that it had already been translated once into a popular cartoon special made for TV, and you really have your work cut out for you. Surprisingly, they did a pretty good job with the Grinch. They kept basically every single word of the book, they even held onto a couple of the songs that had become well-known from the cartoon. This way they managed to keep the fans happy. However the next challenge was padding the story so that it would fill out more than just 30 minutes. This is where the creativity of the writers came into play. The focus of the book was completely on the Grinch discovering the "true meaning of Christmas." But for the movie they created a protagonist out of Cindy Lou Who and she shares this journey of discovery with the Grinch.

Along the way there are a lot of laughs. Most of these come from the brilliant performance of Jim Carrey. If it was any other actor it might sound odd to say that he was born to play a green hairy villain with an undiscovered heart of gold, but somehow for Carrey it seems to fit. He brings the Grinch to life with his humorous banter, and loads of physical comedy. You can see moments where he clearly improvises and these just add to the character. He really got in touch with the Grinch and made him a hilarious villain, although he was sadly not all that menacing. A number of the gags are a little over-the-top and far-fetched, but it's a kids film after all, so it works. Most of the Whos are pretty well-cast, although Cindy Lou can get a little tedious at times. They also have a few flashback scenes to create back-story, and all of those child actors match their adult counterparts perfectly. But I'm not so sure I like having this new back-story for the Grinch...

It's a matter of taste I suppose, but I don't particularly enjoy the way the Whos are turned into the villains of the story. It creates a convenient way of making the audience sympathize with the Grinch early, thereby making him a character you want to see reformed, but it feels cheap. In the book the Grinch had no justification for his actions, he was just a mean-spirited guy because he didn't understand what Christmas was about. Now it is the Whos that don't know what Christmas is about, and because of their ignorance they almost give justification to the Grinch being bad. It becomes a tale about the Whos learning from the Grinch's actions (with the help of Cindy Lou) instead of the Grinch learning from the Whos' example. Frankly, this particular tale has already been told, much more effectively in Charlie Brown's Christmas special and they even tell the TRUE meaning of Christmas in that one. Charlie Brown goes on the exact same journey as Cindy Lou when faced with people who think Christmas is about decorations, gifts, and other commercial things. For my money I just prefer Linus explaining about the birth of Christ over Lou saying his family is all he needs for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is still a fun film, and is definitely worth watching (especially for young kids.) I just wish the story weren't adapted so dramatically.