Yarrow Cheney
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Plus, while The Grinch must compete with both Seuss's bright rhyming couplets and the magnificent 1966 TV special directed by Chuck Jones, the most immediate point of comparison is actually the 2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas .
The Grinch is the third screen adaptation of Dr Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (after the Boris Karloff-voiced animated version in 1966 and the Jim Carrey vehicle in 2000) and easily the most satisfying.
From the studio that produced the Despicable Me movies and 2012’s terrible The Lorax, The Grinch is the second film the highly profitable family animation studio has made based on Dr. Seuss’s adored text, and it’s the second time the story of the holiday-hating green grouch comes to the silver screen after 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
At a meager 86 minutes, this 2018 adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s iconic storybook “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” nonetheless adds a menagerie of new material, including a subplot about Cindy Lou Who scheming to ensnare Santa and a handful of new characters including a chubby reindeer named Fred, offering an admittedly adorable – if definitely not superior – update to the classic holiday mainstay.
I was skeptical that the short story by Dr. Seuss, already immortalized in the 26-minute Boris Karloff-starring 1966 animated TV special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” could be stretched into an 86-minute movie.
You’re a Mean One: Okay, more specifically, this latest adaption of the iconic Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Who woulda thunk that Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier, the latest filmmakers to big-screen Dr. Seuss’s Yuletide classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, would find equal if unspoken inspiration from another holiday perennial, A Charlie Brown Christmas?
The Grinch is such an uninvolving bore that it made me long for the wacky weirdness of 2003’s The Cat in the Hat .
Yet taken on its own terms (i.e., pretend that you’ve never encountered this story before, as countless children who see this movie won’t have), “The Grinch” is a buoyant and agreeable entertainment, with a lead vocal performance, by Benedict Cumberbatch, that doesn’t try to bend the story, the way Carrey’s performance did (or Mike Myers’ in the 2003 live-action “The Cat in the Hat”), toward some misbegotten goal of hellzapoppin’ dump-truck anarchy.
It neither detracts from Dr. Seuss’ legacy (remember “The Cat in the Hat” ?) nor enhances it, being instead a serviceable expansion of a simple, redemptive story that didn’t need to be expanded but isn’t necessarily damaged by it.
The Lorax featured a soft, cuddly Danny DeVito-voiced version of the title character.
From the studio that produced the Despicable Me movies and 2012’s terrible The Lorax , The Grinch is the second film the highly profitable family animation studio has made based on Dr. Seuss’s adored text, and it’s the second time the story of the holiday-hating green grouch comes to the silver screen after 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas .
It follows two prior Seuss-based animated films: 2008’s Horton Hears A Who and 2012’s The Lorax.
Marking the third Seuss adaptation by Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Entertainment after 2008’s Horton Hears a Who! and 2012’s The Lorax , the Universal release should generate plenty of family-friendly, pre-holiday cheer when it opens this weekend.
Like the 2012 adaptation of Seuss’ The Lorax, this iteration of The Grinch comes to us via Illumination Entertainment, those purveyors of the insufferable yellow creatures known as Minions.
Co-directed by Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier, this is the second Illumination filming of a Seuss tale after The Lorax , and it probably won’t be the last either given that Seuss died in 1991 and his surviving family have been making big money licensing his books for films and lucrative merchandise ever since.
This animated update from the makers of the Despicable Me series is out to make up for all that.
The heart and soul of the original Despicable Me was the three sisters.
Last year it was Ben Whishaw in Paddington 2, and now it’s the turn of Benedict Cumberbatch as the eponymous hero of this animated heart-warmer from the makers of Despicable Me.
From the studio that produced the Despicable Me movies and 2012’s terrible The Lorax , The Grinch is the second film the highly profitable family animation studio has made based on Dr. Seuss’s adored text, and it’s the second time the story of the holiday-hating green grouch comes to the silver screen after 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas .
This latest incarnation of Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch has been produced by Illumination, the studio responsible for the Despicable Me franchise, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing and directed by Yarrow Cheney (who worked on The Lorax as an animator) and Scott Mosier (who’s probably better known as the producer of much of Kevin Smith’s early work).
That about sums up Illumination’s (the Despicable Me franchise and creator of the universally popular minions) rather faithful retelling of Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, where the eponymous green creature’s (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, who works for the angrier dialogue lines but feels miscast elsewhere) mischievous deeds are assisted by gadgets and devices that would not feel out of place in the hands of Gru, the protagonist of those animated features.
Actual jokes are few and far between, though kids will surely get a kick out of all the comic violence the Grinch is forced to endure (the degree of suffering on display is somewhere between “Home Alone” and “The Passion of the Christ”).
Although it’s hard to forget Boris Karloff’s authoritative narration, Pharrell Williams, whose song “Happy” earned Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 an Oscar nomination, lends the storytelling an appropriately soulful vibe as he relays the Grinch’s dastardly plan for the Whos’ holidays.
Meledandri worked on two previous Seuss adaptations, Horton Hears A Who! and The Lorax, and The Grinch suggests a house style that stresses timidity, hyperactivity and a lowest-common-denominator approach to these classic children’s books.
Marking the third Seuss adaptation by Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Entertainment after 2008’s Horton Hears a Who! and 2012’s The Lorax , the Universal release should generate plenty of family-friendly, pre-holiday cheer when it opens this weekend.
Here, it’s to see animators behind those feature versions of “Horton Hears a Who!” (2008) and “The Lorax” (2012) put another contemporary spin on Dr. Seuss — but this time, their sharp adaptation instincts fail them.
Granted, the other options weren’t hard to surpass (“The Grinch,” “Cat in the Hat”), but there’s an askew pop sensibility that rings throughout the picture, making it disposable, but not without ample charm.
After two truly unbearable live-action big-screen Dr. Seuss adaptations ( The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat ), this unlikely computer-animated entry is a surprising success.
Jim Carrey, who achieved dubious success doing a live action version of The Grinch a few years ago, voices Horton.
The Secret Life of Pets took pets and somehow made them cuter.
The Christmas curmudgeon here is almost cuddly, more Oscar the Grouch than truly Grinchy, and his dog, Max, isn’t the mangy cur of Seuss but a happy, well-cared-for canine companion, perhaps a refugee from The Secret Life of Pets .
This latest incarnation of Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch has been produced by Illumination, the studio responsible for the Despicable Me franchise, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing and directed by Yarrow Cheney (who worked on The Lorax as an animator) and Scott Mosier (who’s probably better known as the producer of much of Kevin Smith’s early work).
Producer Chris Meledandri, responsible for the Despicable Me films and The Secret Life Of Pets, has birthed yet another family entertainment loaded with sugar-rush slapstick and treacly overkill.
Illumination has had incredible success with the Despicable Me series, Minions , and The Secret Life of Pets .
Directors Yarrow Cheney (“The Secret Life of Pets”) and Scott Mosier (a Kevin Smith producer co-directing for the first time) have fun with the parallel stories of the Grinch preparing to imitate Santa and steal the Whos’ presents while Cindy-Lou and her friends prepare for their own Christmas Eve mission, and Kenan Thompson brings ho-ho-hos as Whoville’s most enthusiastic Christmas decorator.
Actual jokes are few and far between, though kids will surely get a kick out of all the comic violence the Grinch is forced to endure (the degree of suffering on display is somewhere between “Home Alone” and “The Passion of the Christ”).
The flick is from first-time director Scott Mosier, who has worked on "Clerks" and "Good Will Hunting," and Yarrow Cheney, who has worked on other Illumination movies in the art department, including "The Lorax" and "Despicable Me," and co-directed "The Secret Life of Pets."
Last year it was Ben Whishaw in Paddington 2, and now it’s the turn of Benedict Cumberbatch as the eponymous hero of this animated heart-warmer from the makers of Despicable Me.
These types of bad guy origin stories can either work ("Joker") or fall flat ("The Grinch") depending on the complexities of their characterizations, but "Cruella" strikes the right tone, even if it is a little too dark for children and a little too soft for adults.
That said, maybe I'm a sucker for cute miniature characters since "Guardians of the Galaxy" gifted us with Baby Groot, but I am here for tiny flashback Grinch.