Have Yourself A Merry Little Grinch-mas

  With the holidays around the corner, one of the most popular movies to watch is “The Grinch”. A remastered animated version joined the previous two this year. Although, the question on everyone’s mind is: does the new movie live up to the original?                                                                                                                                                                                                       

  “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” was a children’s book published October 12, 1957. Nine years later, in 1966  the first Grinch movie came out. Then, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, starring Jim Carrey came out in 2000 and lastly, the newest version was released on November 9, 2018. The first and third movies are animated, the second movie is with real actors dressed as the characters.

   The 2000 release of the movie featured a Grinch that some saw as some as a monster, but in the new movie, the writer’s portray the Grinch as someone everyone knew and treated well. The new movie features a character that falsely assumes he is the Grinch’s best friend, even though the Grinch ignores him most of the time. The Grinch and Max also seem to have more of a relationship in the new movie. They go places together and even plan on stealing Christmas from Whoville as if they were best buds.

 The new movie also does not focus on the relationship between Cindy Lou and the Grinch as much as it did in the Jim Carrey version.  It seemed as if Cindy Lou and the Grinch didn’t notice each other until the end of the movie while in the Jim Carrey movie, it seemed as if the Grinch cared more for her. In the Jim Carrey movie, Cindy Lou was also the youngest and had two older twin brothers, but in this new one she was the oldest and had two younger twin brothers and her mother was a single mom working all the time.

 The plot is a little different in the newer movie as Cindy Lou wants to “capture” Santa to ask him to help out her mother who seems to be stressed. In each Grinch movie, the message was the same: Christmas is not all about the presents, but the people who are in your life.    

 Rotten Tomatoes gave the new Grinch movie a 58% compared to the 2000 version which received a 52%, saying “suitable for younger viewers without adding substantially to the story’s legacy”.

 The first and newest Grinch movies are more of for kids, while the Jim Carrey movie was meant for adults or teen viewers. Jim Carrey brought laughter and peculiarities to the older movie, which seemed to be the reason why many enjoyed this version the best. However, this newer version provides a sense of innocence with a more childlike movie. While the movie does seem to appeal more towards younger kids with things like a screeching goat and the unruly antics of the Whoville kids, teens might enjoy Pharrell Williams as the narrator and the interesting song choices, like a rap version of “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” by Tyler, the Creator. So if you are going to the theaters this holiday season, take a younger sibling or family member with you to see “The Grinch”.