Ed's Review Dot Com

Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, Molly Shannon, Clint Howard, Josh Ryan Evans, Mindy Sterling, Anthony Hopkins

Based on the book by Dr. Seuss, we start by looking into a snowflake, and way deep inside exists a magical land call Whoville. The tiny people who live in Whoville love Christmas. Cindy Lou Who though, who’s the smallest, is looking for the real meaning of Christmas. She decides to nominate the Grinch, a foul evil-smelling beast who lives on Mount Clumpett outside the town as the official “Cheermaster” as he needs Christmas spirit the most. But that doesn’t go well as the Grinch makes a mess of things, and ends up stealing everything, trees, decorations, presents, food and all. Cindy Lou is disappointed, but insists there must be a spark of hope for the Grinch and she’s not about to give up.

I know a lot of people hated this film. I was kind of shocked by this, as I was blown away when I saw this in the theater in 2000. Then furthermore, when I visited Universal Studios in Hollywood for their very first Grinchmas, I got to see the Grinch’s cave and the buildings that were put up for the set right below the Psycho house where the Bates Motel used to stand. It was a fantastic vision of Dr. Seuss. I think Ron Howard and Brian Grazer did an excellent job in creating the Whoville, and the make-up artist outdid themselves with the amazing costumes and make up to make them look just right. The vehicles of Whoville and the decorations were out of this world! So I couldn’t figure out why anyone didn’t like the film.

The idea of taking the 30 minute cartoon special from our childhood (one that is particularly well loved) and expanding it to a 104 minute feature film means a lot of back story must be added to the story. Well, it was. We learn about the events of the Grinch’s youth where he developed his hatred for Christmas. Characters are added and this causes a lot of people to stress out. But it seems to me that the filler only adds understanding to the Grinch’s personality. Other people of put off by Jim Carey’s antics. Well, it’s Jim Carey, for heaven’s sake, so he’s going to go over the top, but I can’t imagine anyone else who could handle the role. It’s perfectly Carey!