Movie Review - The Grinch

MegaSoulhero I was gonna review Nutcracker and the Four Realms this week, but I decided to save that for Christmas. Instead, I’ll another Christmas movie that came out this year in early November. That movie is Illumination’s The Grinch. I’m not a fan of Illumination. Other than Despicable Me, their films range from mediocre to straight up awful. I wasn’t excited for this one because it just looked like the other films they made. I decided to check it out anyway. So let’s talk about it.

Kinda redundant to tell you what the plot is since it’s pretty much the same plot as the original adaptations. Grinch hates Christmas and he tries to take it away from the Who’s. See how short that was? It’s such a simple concept that it shouldn’t be turned into an hour and a half movie. The original animated special was just the right length to tell this story. The live action film and this one pretty much have a bunch of stupid filler in between so they can make it the length of a feature film. Let me start with the best thing about this movie. The animation. This is a visually beautiful movie. Especially Whoville. The amount of detail that went into making it look like a town that loves to celebrate Christmas with all of those decorations is just incredible. There’s also some very creative moments like when the Grinch is stealing Christmas. The different ways he steals the decorations must have taken a lot of planning out. That entire scene I thought was visually entertaining. Unfortunately, as good as the animation is, I didn’t care for this movie very much. My biggest problem would have to be the Grinch himself. When I heard he was gonna be voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, I was really happy. Cumberbatch has shown that he is able to do an excellent deep and somewhat menacing voice. However, that wasn’t what they decided to have him do. They had him speak in a nasally type of voice that makes it hard to believe that he is a grumpy character. It also doesn’t help that they give him a backstory in which he was an orphan and had no one to celebrate Christmas with which is why he hates it. This is also something that bothered me about the live action film. The Grinch doesn’t need a backstory. He’s just a grumpy character who hates happiness and noise who later realizes what Christmas is all about which causes him to have a change of heart.

Not only that, but there are also multiple moments that show he is a nice guy deep down. Like when he’s interacting with Max. Again, he’s supposed to be THE GRINCH! He’s supposed to be a mean character! He’s supposed to be the kind of guy we want to hate! They make it so hard! Speaking of Max, I thought he was okay. But there’s not really much to say about him. However, they introduced this new reindeer character that had absolutely no purpose in the film other than to serve as a deus ex machina in the climax. He’s basically the Hei Hei of the movie but with less screen time. If I had to choose a favorite character, it would have to be Cindy Lou Who. Even though she reminds me too much of Agnes from Despicable Me, I thought she was a charming and fleshed our character. However, her subplot is absolutely terrible. It’s only done to build up to her meeting Santa Grinch later on. She captures him and talks to him about how her mother is single and this doesn’t really lead into anything. It comes off as pointless. Also, her mother is hot. Just needed to point that out. The humor is also pretty bad. There are a few chuckles that came out of me, but most of the jokes didn’t really land. Also, why are there two animated movies this month that use the screaming goat meme? That meme isn’t even relevant anymore. Another thing that bothered me is that the Grinch in this movie is some sort of tech genius and can create inventions that he uses to steal Christmas and he also uses this stuff in his everyday life. Where does he get the money for this? He doesn’t have a job. Sure, it’s cool that he can invent things, but it also doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The Grinch didn’t manage to live up to the original special. However, it’s still far better than the live action film. It does have amazing animation and some of the Who’s are pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, I absolutely hated the way they portrayed the Grinch. They completely ruined what made him so great. This is not a good movie. Hopefully Ralph Breaks the Internet will be better. I doubt it though.

Score: 5/10

Comments

Illumination needs to stop with Dr Seuss - iliekpiez

They need to stop making unoriginal movies and sequels and try something original for once. - Drawbox

I want Illumination to make a more original film too - visitor

The only thing I ever enjoyed that came out of this movie was the IHOP promotion for it. - visitor