The Grinch

RATING: B

Here we are with our third adaption of the story of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"--this one being the second film adaptation. Which one you are most partial to may depend. Many people (myself included) like the original cartoon from the 60's with Boris Karloff. Some people like the 2000 live-action version with Jim Carrey. I am definitely not one of those people. Carrey himself was fine, but that film was still a horribly misguided vision; turning the people of Whoville into such jerks that it gets to the point where you actually start rooting for the Grinch to actually steal their Christmas. 

That's one of the first good things about The Grinch--this feels like a much nicer version of Whoville that is more faithful to the original cartoon. The next good thing is that this isn't live-action. Some stories just do not translate well to live-action; How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of them. 

In this version we get Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch, although you wouldn't know this if you watched the film without knowing a thing about it. Because it does not sound like Cumberbatch--it sounds a little more nasally, and we also have Cumberbatch doing an American accent here. It takes some getting used to, and it's just kind of bizarre--you bring in Benedict Cumberbatch, why would you not have him sound like his normal self? (It's worth noting that it was actually Cumberbatch's idea, but that doesn't altogether excuse it.) 

We all (presumably) know the story of the Grinch. Everyone in Whoville liked Christmas... but the Grinch did not. So he plotted to steal Christmas. And so on and so forth. Not much of that changes here. However, to make the film long enough, you still have to add more stuff. The Carrey version took this a little too far; in that movie the Grinch didn't even start *planning* to steal Christmas until halfway through. But one interesting thing it did was introduce a backstory for him--to explain why he is the way he is. 

This new version does that as well, only to a lesser degree. It's more simplistic, and thankfully it doesn't rely on the Whos of Whoville being horrible... uh... Whos. Actually, this one finds the people of Whoville co-existing fairly peacefully with the Grinch in general. 

That brings me to one of the few things this movie doesn't get quite right. This is not fully the same Grinch from the cartoon or even the 2000 version. This is still a Grinch that is antisocial and generally a mean one. But he also shows actual concern for his dog Max on a couple occasions. And when faced with a situation where he could force a reindeer into servitude or let it go with its family... he lets it go. This is something that Boris Karloff's Grinch would never have dreamed of doing. 

Is this really an actual flaw? Difficult to say. On one hand, it's definitely not faithful to the source material. On the other hand, it's perhaps not a bad thing altogether to have the Grinch show *some* glimpses of decency--from a realism standpoint, it can help make his eventual redemption make more sense. (Yeah, yeah, spoiler alert. But it's not like we haven't seen at least one version of this tale at some point in our lives--and if you haven't, then you probably weren't super interested in this one either.) 

But what *does* help set more of that in motion is the Grinch's encounter with Cindy Lou in this version. This is one of the points that is actually an improvement over the source material--it acts as more of a proper catalyst that does help make the Grinch's change of heart make more sense. It's not something we ever really questioned with the original cartoon, but it's a quite welcome addition anyway. 

The truly biggest mistake to be found here is within the musical soundtrack that crops up a few times, which is more hip-hop/rap oriented. Depending upon your musical tastes, that may or may not be a good thing. But the big, big mistake is making a rap rendition of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." That is just wrong--and given some of the actual improvements that are made here, it's an incredibly bizarre ill-advised error on the part of the filmmakers. 

But on the whole, this movie is quite enjoyable. It gives a far less cringe-worthy feature-length adaptation of the Grinch's story--and actually tells a genuinely good tale. It also includes some cartoonish slapstick humor, which is quite fun. It just gets a lot more right of what the 2000 version got wrong; and that in of itself is a great thing. 

Some might argue that we still didn't really need a feature-length version of the old cartoon anyway. And that's a fair argument. But I think this at least acts as a good complement to the original. And this is also easily one of the best Dr. Seuss film adaptations we've ever gotten--although that's really not saying much. Regardless, I just hope that people will look back on this Grinch movie with more fondness than the previous attempt.