After the extremely suspect climax of yesterday's movie, a film with a much holly jollier ending is 2018’s The Grinch, a winning animation from Illumination Entertainment. Benedict Cumberbatc is the grumpy green Christmas-hater with a heart three sizes too small who decides, with the help of his dog Max, to ruin the festive spirit of the happy town of Whoville by ‘stealing’ Christmas.
This is one fantastic looking film, with co-directors Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier pulling out all the stops to create a dazzling, candy-striped world of wonder. Dr Seuss’ classic story is a perfect fit for the studio that brought us Despicable Me, with the jaw-dropping fairground scenes in that earlier film only hinting at the visual thrill-ride in store here. There are numerous chase sequences that really pack a thrilling punch and it’s all rather exhilarating.
Though Ron Howard told a pretty comprehensive version of this tale in 2000’s live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this one takes total advantage of the power of animation, including lots of extra cutesy animal fun. Doggie sidekick Max gets more to do here and has bundles of personality, while the Grinch recruits a cute little reindeer ‘minion’ in a fun subplot that teaches a lovely lesson about the joy of sharing Christmas with family.
Well-spoken Oscar-troubling British thesp Cumberbatch might seem like a weird choice to play bad-as-a-bad-banana Grinch, but the Sherlock actor delivers a fantastic multi-faceted performance, full of funny voices and scathing asides.
Of course, he turns out to be not all that diabolical once we get to know him – he’s just a guy who got picked on and didn’t handle it very well. He’s not a monster, he’s just like that one guy we all know who can’t really be bothered with the holidays. Grinch takes it a bit far though, breaking into folk’s houses and hoovering up all the gifts. Not cool.
Pharrell Williams provides music and also narrates, dropping some dope rhymes and adding a novel, modern twist to Dr Seuss’ poetic prose.
The film carries the timeless message about Christmas being about a whole lot more than just getting presents and I challenge you to watch it and not have your heart grow a size or two. However, it is pretty funny that an anti-consumerism message is being pushed by a studio who have relentlessly merchandised the hell out of those little yellow Minions for well over a decade.
I loved Ron Howard’s Jim Carrey-starring version and so avoided this when it came out – I couldn’t see why we needed this film. However, I’m chuffed to say I thoroughly enjoy it. It feels like its own beast and it’s hard to deny that kids will surely be transfixed by its jaw-dropping visuals and heart-warming story. Now that my heart has grown a few sizes, there’s more than enough room in there for another Grinch.
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