In honor of the holidays, it was decided roughly a month ago that we review one of the greatest Christmas movies that doesn’t involve terrorists occupying nakotomi. How the grinch stole Christmas, but not just any version, the one with Jim Carey! Before the general information about this particular piece of art, one fun fact about this movie is that the costume for the grinch was so uncomfortable that Jim Carey had to learn how to endure torture in order to wear it while filming.

How the grinch stole christmas is originally a story by Dr Seuss. The original story focuses on The Grinch, whom hates christmas, and how he essentially stole all the presents from the town of whoville. But that is where he changes for the better only to realize that the true meaning of christmas isn’t about presents. That’s the story written by Dr Seuss though, the one we are reviewing has Jim Carey playing the grinch…

Fun fact about that picture (left): its not special effects, thats all Jim Carey. He just has that much control of his face.

Summary (according to IMDB)

Inside a snowflake exists the magical land of Whoville, wherein live the Whos, an almost-mutated sort of Munchkin-like people who all love Christmas. Just outside of their beloved town lives the Grinch (Jim Carrey), a nasty creature that hates Christmas and plans to steal it from the Whos, which he equally abhors. Little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) decides to befriend the Grinch.

My thoughts

In the original story of the grinch, it tells the story of a scrooge-like character who tries to ruin christmas. However, being a Dr. Seuss book, it had a moral where after the grinch is done stealing christmas he realizes that christmas isn’t about presents and its about being together. He does a full 180 degree shift where he turns good and returns the presents he stole.

To talk about the casting of the grinch, they fully fleshed out the grinch’s character and might I say they casted him perfectly with Jim Carey. The comedy and acting and insanity shown by his acting is pretty much perfect for the grinch character. When given this movie and the more recent adaptation, 10 out of 10 times I will prefer this version simply because Jim Carey is in it.

The beginning of the movie was also pretty amazing despite the lack of grinch. This was because it shows the aspects of who society and how much they LOVE christmas. It adds character to those in whoville and charecterizes them as more than simply the victims of the grinch or the reasons for his hatred of christmas.

This 2000s adaptation, does an amazing job remastering the original. Any good adaptation should build upon the original story and add something to it, not available in the original. The Grinch is an amazing example of this because it puts the original in live action but also adds more character to those in whoville and the grinch. Providing a sense of empathy for the grinch and repainting his character, which in the end adds more to the way in which he turns good. In this movie, he isn’t just another scrooge, he is a mislead person who grew to hate christmas due to childhood trauma.

To further elaborate on how this movie is truly amazing in my opinion, I would just like to reiterate how they establish empathy to the grinch. There’s a flashback that’s used to tell the story of the grinch and to not spoil anything for those who haven’t seen this movie before, let me just say that it adds so much to the character as I said before and further adds to established characters.

Conclusion

In conclusion, how the grinch stole christmas is a great piece of cinema that builds upon the original piece of work that was made by Dr Seuss. I truly loved this movie and I tear up for my own reasons at the flashback and that’s why I felt the need to emphasize how amazing that part alone is.