Do you think we need another Grinch?
The Grinch is my mom’s favorite Holiday special. After my son was born, she insisted that we get The Grinch on DVD and watch it with him. I hadn’t watched it commercial free, ever. And I was shocked by how short it was.
I watched the live-action Jim Carrey film when it came out. I didn’t hate it, but it just never really felt like the real Grinch to me.
What makes a cartoon fun is the ability to really play with the characters. And poor Jim Carrey endured hours of makeup as did all the rest of the Who cast too, just to try and capture that flexibility. To me, that was a waste of time and money. And apparently Carrey had to sit with a CIA agent who trained him how to endure torture just to make it through the days.
They should have just made it a cartoon. After the success of The Lorax, it appears Illumination got the message.
Starring fan favorite Benedict Cumberbatch as the green grouchy grump, The Grinch will take a slightly different path to get to the timeless message of the Christmas spirit that resonates throughout Who-ville.
From the synopsis:
Each year at Christmas the Whos disrupt the Grinch’s tranquil solitude with their increasingly bigger, brighter and louder celebrations. When the Whos declare they are going to make Christmas three times bigger this year, the Grinch realizes there is only one way for him to gain some peace and quiet: he must steal Christmas. To do so, he decides he will pose as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, even going so far as to trap a lackadaisical misfit reindeer to pull his sleigh.
Ok, that hasn’t changed much. But then they did this!
Down in Who-ville, Cindy-Lou Who—a young girl overflowing with holiday cheer—plots with her gang of friends to trap Santa Claus as he makes his Christmas Eve rounds so that she can thank him for help for her overworked single mother. As Christmas approaches, however, her good-natured scheme threatens to collide with the Grinch’s more nefarious one.
Swift take: Here is where I am already rolling my grouchy eyes in disgust. The trailer looks funny, showing how he malevolently interacts with the Whos throughout the year, but when I hear that Cindy-Lou-Who will be raised by an overworked single mother, I have to ask . . . WHY? Some things just shouldn’t be messed with, Hollywood. I guess Who-ville isn’t Utopia after all. So, where’s Cindy-Lou-Who’s dad in all this?
Strike one, Michael LeSieur!
