The Grinch (film)

All you want to know about The Grinch (film)

This article is about the feature film. You may be looking for either the book or the animated TV special.
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Grinch movie poster
Directed by Ron Howard
Produced by Brian Grazer
Ron Howard
Written by Screenplay:
Jeffrey Price
Peter S. Seaman
Book:
Dr. Seuss
Narrated by Anthony Hopkins
Starring Jim Carrey
Jeffrey Tambor
Christine Baranski
Molly Shannon
Bill Irwin
Clint Howard
Taylor Momsen
Music by James Horner
Cinematography Don Peterman
Editing by Dan Hanley
Mike Hill
Distributed by Universal Studios
Release date(s) November 17, 2000 (US)
December 1, 2000 (UK)
Running time 104 minutes
Language English
Budget $123 million
Gross revenue $345,141,403
Followed by The Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (also known as The Grinch) is a 2000 live-action film from Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, based on the 1957 book by Dr. Seuss. Due to additions made to the storyline so that it could be brought up to feature-length, it was considerably less faithful to the original book and subsequent animated short, creating a new back-story to explain the Grinch's motivations and reasons behind his hatred of the Christmas season and its cheerful nature. The film was directed by Ron Howard, produced by Brian Grazer, and starred Jim Carrey in the title role of the Grinch. Taylor Momsen starred as Cindy Lou Who, who in this version seems to be about eight years old, where the character in the book and TV special was "no more than two". While this version is often referred to as simply The Grinch, the on-screen title is How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with the words "The Grinch" written in much larger letters than the rest of the title, and the "!" isn't seen like it was in the book and TV special. The movie received mixed critical reaction but spent four weeks as the #1 film in the U.S. and eventually earning $260 million at the US box office. It has since been aired annually on ABC Family as part of The 25 Days of Christmas.

Other cast members include the late Josh Ryan Evans as the young Grinch, Bill Irwin as Lou Lou Who, Frank Welker as Max the Dog, Jeffrey Tambor as Mayor Augustus May Who, and Christine Baranski as Martha May Whovier.

Contents

Plot

Jim Carrey as The Grinch

Christmas is coming, and all of Whoville is rushing to get ready. In the middle of it all is Cindy Lou Who, a young Who who thinks that due to the Christmas rush and the hubbub, the true meaning of Christmas may have gotten lost. When she goes to the post office with her dad, she runs into the Grinch, who's come down from his cave on Mount Crumpit along with his dog, Max, to stir up some trouble. Spooked by his appearance, Cindy Lou falls into the mail-sorting machine. To her surprise, the Grinch rescues her, albeit under the influence of Max, but he won't admit that he was "saving" her, instead noting that she was "improperly packaged." He wraps her up in wrapping paper, complete with stamps and a bow, and leaves.

Cindy Lou begins to doubt the frightening rumors that she's heard about the Grinch. She does some research and discovers that the Grinch is an outcast, who was adopted by two old lady Whos. Growing up, Grinch was known for his bizarre, mischievous behavior and devilish personality, but he was never actually malicious. However, he was constantly bullied by Augustus May-Who, the future mayor of Whoville, and almost all his other classmates in the 3rd grade. One Christmas, to impress his crush, Martha May Whovier (the only classmate of his who was ever nice to him), the Grinch made her an angel ornament out of an old trumpet, and some pilfered silverware and jewelry. He also decided to shave, after May-Who taunts about how the Grinch has a beard at his age When he came to school the next day, the whole class (except for Martha) laughed at his gift and his many shaving cuts. The Grinch went berserk, smashing the gift and destroying all the Christmas decorations in the room. As he threw the tree across the room, he screamed about how he then hated Christmas.

After that, he ran away, making his way up Mount Crumpit, and has lived there ever since. His amazing engineering skills helped him turn a cave in the side of the mountain into a comfortable home; however, the Grinch falls into a depression due to the events of his school days, and he begins to hate the Whos who were so cruel to him (listed in a phone book).

Feeling sorry for the Grinch, and realizing that she may be the only one who understands his problem, Cindy Lou invites the Grinch to the one-thousandth Who-Bilation, to be the "Holiday Cheermeister" (a variation of Master of the Ceremony). Grinch grudgingly agrees to come, wins the title of Cheermeister to the dismay of the Mayor, and even begins to have fun. But the bitter Mayor May-Who finally manages to humiliate Grinch by giving him a razor "The Gift of a Christmas Shave", reminding him of when he shaved his beard so many years ago, while at the same time proposes to Martha May, offering her a brand-new car and a very large diamond ring. The Grinch finally makes his reasons for hating Christmas clear, stating that it's only about presents. He is also upset with the fact that during the Christmas season, all their unwanted Christmas gifts are thrown away and dumped on his mountain home. He denounces the Whos and their Christmas spirit, takes a piece of mistletoe from Martha's ring, and waggles it behind his rear. What results is an uproar of panic. In the chaos, the Grinch sets fire to the Whos' Christmas tree (luckily, they had a spare) and escapes the chaos of the ensuing riot by driving through the streets and escaping a small car which explodes. Embarrassed, he dives into a garbage chute back up to Mt. Crumpit. The Mayor then scolds Cindy for inviting him and takes the Cheermeister crown for himself. Once he returns to Mount Crumpit, Grinch plots to steal Christmas. He makes himself a Santa suit and builds a rocket sled using Max as a reindeer. He flies over Whoville, stealing anything that has to do with Christmas (and also goes into the Mayor's bedroom while he sleeps and rigs a trap to retaliate against his rival). Once he's finished, he takes his goods back up the mountain to dump it off the side.

Back in Whoville, the Whos are just waking up and seeing what the Grinch has been doing all night. The Mayor finally dismisses the Grinch as a selfish criminal in stating that the Grinch has destroyed Christmas. He proceeds to meanly berate Cindy Lou, but her father speaks up and says they've realized that the Grinch hasn't stolen the most important part of Christmas; the Christmas Spirit, the one thing that doesn't come from a store. The whole town begins to sing. Meanwhile, Cindy Lou sneaks away to see the Grinch.

Up on Mount Crumpet, the Grinch hears the Whos singing and realizes the true meaning of Christmas. He has a change of heart (plus three sizes, to be precise), and seeing the sleigh full of "Christmas stuff" about to go off the cliff, tries to save it. When he finds himself falling, he considers just letting it all go since they're nothing but toys. But when he sees Cindy Lou hiding on the back of the sleigh, and hearing that she wanted to visit him because she feels he shouldn't be sad and alone on Christmas. Touched by her kindness, he uses his vast, untapped, strength to save her and the presents. They sled back to Whoville, where the Grinch returns all the Christmas items to the Whos and both get a warm reception from everyone, except the Mayor, who attempts to have the Grinch arrested (and sprayed with pepper spray), but the Grinch's modest apology beforehand proves enough to spare him from the police. Martha May digs into the sleigh to find the ring the Mayor proposed to her with, and she gives it back, saying her heart truly belongs to the Grinch. The whole town goes back to Grinch's cave on Mount Crumpit for Christmas dinner, where the Grinch himself carves the Roast Beast.

Reaction and criticism

The Grinch was a hit at the box office, opening at #1 with a weekend gross of $55,082,230, for an average of $17,615 from 3,127 theaters. It closed on March 1, 2001 after 15 weeks with a final domestic gross of $260,044,825 and an additional overseas gross of $85,096,578 for a total worldwide gross of $345,141,403.

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film with a 53% rating, classifying it as "Rotten", and Metacritic listed the film with a 46% rating, indicating "mixed or average reviews". For its shortcomings, it was nominated for 2 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Screenplay and Worst Remake or Sequel, but it did not "win" either. On the other hand, the film also garnered three Academy Award nominations, including Best Costume Design and Best Set Decoration, and won the award for Best Makeup. At the Golden Globes, Carrey was nominated for the Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy, losing the award to George Clooney of O Brother, Where Art Thou?

ABC Family Cut

This cut has added most of the deleted scenes from the movie. Strangely, some of these deleted scenes never made it onto the DVD releases.

Cast

Trivia

  • The Whoville set was built mostly on the backlot of Universal Studios behind the still-standing Bates Motel. 11 sound stages were used in total, 2,000,000 feet (610,000 m) of styrofoam was used for the houses and statues, and on the busiest days, 45 make-up artists spent hours on preparing the look for the characters before each take.
  • Anthony Hopkins recorded all the narration for the movie in one day.
  • The prosthetic make-up Jim Carrey wore took 3 hours to apply. Carrey felt so horribly confined and uncomfortable in the latex skin he needed counseling from a Navy SEAL who taught him torture-resistance techniques. Reportedly, Ron Howard appeared one day in full Grinch make-up and Jim Carrey was initially upset that they had a double hired without consulting him, until he learned who the "double" was.
  • The line "6:30 - Dinner with me. I can't cancel that again." was improvised by Jim Carrey.
  • Many Cirque du Soleil performers were used for the more acrobatic tricks and stunts in the movie. They can be spotted in the beginning as some of the Whos in the parade.
  • Actor Don Knotts reportedly visited the set one day as a surprise from Ron Howard to cheer up Carrey. Carrey was a big Knotts fan and reportedly did a little routine.
  • The dog (Kelly) featured in the movie, would go on to play the family dog on Complete Savages.
  • The production of the movie lead Jim Carrey to begin reading all of Dr. Seuss's books.
  • This motion picture was Q'Orianka Kilcher's screen debut. She was casted as a Little Choir Member.

See also

External links


Preceded by
Little Nicky		 Box office number-one films of 2000 (USA)
November 19, 2000 – December 10, 2000		 Succeeded by
What Women Want
v • d • e
Works by Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
Selected
bibliography
Television
adaptations
Film adaptations
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000) · The Cat in the Hat (2003) · Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
Other adaptations
Seussical (musical) · Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (musical) · The Grinch (video game)
Other work
Related articles
v • d • e
Films directed by Ron Howard

Grand Theft Auto (1977) • Night Shift (1982) • Splash (1984) • Cocoon (1985) • Gung Ho (1986) • Willow (1988) • Parenthood (1989) • Backdraft (1991) • Far and Away (1992) • The Paper (1994) • Apollo 13 (1995) • Ransom (1996) • EDtv (1999) • How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000) • A Beautiful Mind (2001) • The Missing (2003) • Cinderella Man (2005) • The Da Vinci Code (2006) • Frost/Nixon (2008) • Angels & Demons (2009)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Grinch_Stole_Christmas_(film)"

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