The Grinch

The Grinch

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Cameron Seely, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson

Directed by Yarrow Cheney & Scott Mosier

The Story:
The Grinch (Benedict Cumberbatch) lives high in the mountain overlooking Whoville with his loyal dog Max, and no one else.  Choosing to live a solitary life after a tough childhood, the Grinch doesn't want to socialize with anyone, but is forced to enter Whoville to get groceries.  While there, he encounters all the happy people about to celebrate Christmas - his most hated season - and devises a plan to steal their Christmas: by stealing their gifts by disguising himself as Santa Claus.

Meanwhile, young Cindy Lou (Cameron Seely) devises a plan of her own to catch Santa so she can ask him a personal favor, and comes up with an idea to catch him on Christmas Day.  As the Grinch launches his plan, Cindy does the same, resulting in a surprising meeting and change of heart.

The Synopsis:
Back in 1958, Theodore Geisel - better known as Dr. Seuss - wrote the modern quintessential Christmas classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  The source material has been used for several big-screen films as well as television specials, the most famous being the Boris Karloff-voiced 1966 classic, along with a 2000 live-action re-telling featuring Jim Carrey as the Grinch.  Now Illumination Studios - the home of the Minions - has taken on the classic tale, and while the visuals are bright, illuminating, colorful, and vibrant - it doesn't really add anything new to the source material.

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch voices this animated Grinch, providing his own unique sarcastic style to the story, and it's a breath of fresh air.  He has a way of making anything classy, and he does so here.  Yet it's not just his voice that's changed, by the whole Grinch look has received an updated look as well - he's more polished, less scary, and seems less angry than in previous iterations.  He doesn't want to destroy the Whoville Christmas for nefarious purposes, but because he endured a very rough Christmas during his own childhood, and believes no one else should be happy.  So he sets out to destroy Christmas by stealing all the gifts, but eventually learns the true meaning of Christmas - this isn't so much a spoiler as it is the most obvious conclusion, plus the book has existed for over 60 years, and pretty much everyone knows the basic story.

While the film doesn't offer much new material, it's not really needed, as the source material is fine enough as it is.  Plus the film's true comedy comes as the Grinch concocts his plan to steal the presents, resulting in gut-rolling antics along the way: he truly epitomizes Murphy's Law of whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and it's a pure delight to see.  Whether he's trying to simply go grocery shopping, or steal a sled, or find a reindeer, you're sure to find troubling antics along the way.

As I said before, this Grinch is less mean, especially when it comes to his lovable companion Max.  While other films show him being relatively mean to the dog, here he treats him with love and respect even when his heart isn't three sizes bigger than it gets, and Max in return shows unrelenting loyalty and fidelity to his gruff yet lovable owner.  The pairing of these two is at the heart of the film, and proves that - even if you're a grinch - life is always better with a dog.

As the Grinch learns the true meaning of Christmas from the lovable Cindy Lou, it also opens our eyes once again to what really matters this time of year - it's not the presents, the lights, the decorations or the food, but rather it's the ones you spend the time with, and that's a lesson that never gets old.

The Summary:
Using lovely, lavish animations, "The Grinch" gets a more polished look and less grumpy attitude, but still maintains our lovable pseudo-bad guy who wants to steal Christmas from Whoville - but, like us, learn the true meaning of the holiday.

The Score: A