Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Grinch (2018)

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-10-2018, 11:02 PM:

When the 2000 version of this story with Jim Carrey came out, it was (like the book) titled "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." These days, maybe due to shorter-being-catchier, or maybe due to the ever-popular "War on Christmas," we're left with simply "The Grinch." But other than that change, and even at a quick 88 minutes, it's still an over-stuffed version of the half-hour cartoon story from the '60s, except not as good. Too bad Chuck Jones is deceased when we really need him. This movie is quite bad, maybe not "Dr. Seuss throwing up in his grave" bad, but still fairly bad.

I mean, they took out the iconic "You're a Mean One" song, and replaced it with some tuneless, 2018 sort-of rap type thing. Worse, they replaced a lot of Dr. Seuss' perfectly good rhyming narration with new stuff that isn't nearly as catchy, and is often cringe-worthy, to wit:

quote:
1966: "And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say... that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day."

2018: "And the luscious sound swelled, reaching up to the skies, and the Grinch heard with his heart, and it tripled in size."

Take gems like that, remove most of the Grinch's funny mean-ness (especially at the end, where he does such a quick 180 that it's lucky he didn't break his neck), and you're left with...well, probably the most unnecessary remake of the year, if not the decade.

It's not all bad. The voice cast does a credible job, considering the material they're given to work with. The animation, as expected, is top-notch (although somehow Jim Carrey's live-action Grinch seemed to be more animated than this animated Grinch). At least they gave it a bright Christmassy color palette. And, despite the presence of some crappy songs, there are a few traditional Christmas songs sprinkled in -- I was borderline shocked to hear "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in a terrific version by the acapella group Pentatonix, which accompanies one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

This is the kind of movie that I wish would have gone to Disney. At least when they do a remake, they do it with some style...see "Beauty and the Beast," "Cinderella," and, most likely, the upcoming "Dumbo" and "The Lion King."

1.5 stars out of 5 from me.