Every Dr Seuss property that has been turned into a movie has never recaptured the spirit of the original source and more often than not comes out feeling like an insult. While the worst patch was during the live-action era with both Jim Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the Mike Myers’ the Cat in the Hat being actively disgusting movies, the animated stunt wasn’t too much strong with Illumination’s rendition of The Lorax in 2012 continuing to miss the mark with what these stories represent (even though it was much better than its two previous). With this build-up in mind, it didn’t sound promising when a Grinch movie was announced under the Illumination banner, but for could’ve been delivered, this 2018 CG animated movie isn’t the worst offender and is easily the least offensive. Set in the Christmas-loving town of Whoville which is populated by humanoid creatures known as the Whos, the only one who seems to hate the Christmas cheer is The Grinch (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch), who loathes Christmas with all his heart and wants nothing to do with it or the Whos themselves. As the biggest Christmas of all is planned for this year, the Grinch along with his dog Max, plan to steal Christmas away by dressing up as Santa and stealing their presents in the night. While this is going on, a young who named Cindy Lou (voiced by Cameron Seely) tries to find a way to talk to Santa, so that she can wish for her mother to not be so overworked looking after her and her two brothers, and these two might unknowingly bump into each other and assist the other with their problems. While the film received a mixed reception, The Grinch did decently at the box office and has become a staple Christmas movie for kids to watch around the holidays, and it isn’t too hard to see why. While the film is definitely flawed and still not a good replication of the story with some stupid changes to the original story, forced jokes, and bizarrely not enough ”grinchy” attitude throughout, it contains some pleasant scenes, colorful imagery and a bland but harmless rendition of the expected beats.

One of the major struggles that would come with adaptation this into a film is that it doesn’t have enough meat to fill a feature length project. Considering the most successful and authentic delivery of the story was within a 1966 tv special that lasted roughly 25 mins, it should be an indication that the only way to make it work as a film is to pad out the running time with needless extension and forced plot lines. The film can feel a little padded in moments with extra scenes and inclusions that don’t add much or don’t receive much of a resolution by the end, so you can feel the screenwriters (Michael LeSieur and Tommy Swerdlow) inserting in whatever cliched kid’s movie element in an attempt to fit a proper movie length, but these aspects don’t ruin the film in any way. In many ways, this film does contain more of a heart than the previous film adaptation and while doing nothing new or creative with the message, it doesn’t destroy it through needless commentary so there isn’t a fear of things being overtly ruined. However, while the Jim Carey film is ugly in almost every sense and far worse than this film, no one can deny that it took chances and tried to be its own thing (its own hideous little thing). This film is so mind-numbingly inoffensive that whether a scene is good or bad, it barely leaves an impression, with writing, characters, and atmosphere so familiar among other kids’ films at the time that its honestly hard to remember much of it after the first viewing. The original book had Seuss’s unique lyrical writing style and creative flair that always made his creations entirely original, abstract in many ways and delightful for a child and admirable to an adult, whereas this film feels very standard and doesn’t contain much of a unique identity.

In a story that really only has three characters of focus (that being The Grinch, Max the Dog and Cindy Lou), it’s bizarre to see just how badly they screw them up while portraying them in this movie. Again, it isn’t to the say extent to the live-action film, but these characters not only lack much of a unique identity but seem to be very unlike the way they are portrayed in the story. The Grinch looks really great with the animation, Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice is a great choice and the film is innocent enough that the transition from mean to happy is nice enough to see, but it doesn’t feel as earned because this Grinch is barely even that bad of a person. For portraying one of the most despicably enjoyable cynics in Christmas stories, he does very little in terms of bad stuff, essentially neutering the role so that parents won’t be offended that the lead character is being mean to other people and his pet even if that’s what he’s supposed to do. Illumination was responsible for doing Despicable Me, a film about a man doing evil at nicest jerky things to other people just for the sake of it, only to turn good by the end, so it’s not like they couldn’t have pulled it off, so it just seems strange that for such a crucial element of the character, it barely even plays a factor. When he is mean during the opening act of the film, it done okay and even in a way that hasn’t been seen yet, so that is appreciated and even during his plan to steal Christmas, the attitude, ingenuity and energy of that scene is very well executed, but the writing for him is never strong, Cumberbatch voices him with this weird nasally American accent, so none of his natural cool voice comes out (even though that would’ve been perfect) and even his hatred for Christmas feels confusing and not warranted in any way (even the Jim Carrey one got that part right). Max seems to contain a lot of ”Illumination-ism” with his expressive design and overly cheery attitude making the relationship between him and the Grinch a lot different in this, but he’s perfectly fine. Cindy Lou is given a much more active role in this film with her own side story, but it barely leaves an impression because of how bland of a character she is. The writing is generic, she has no identity outside of generic catchphrases given to spunky children in movies, and her purpose in the original story is ruined by how her character pans out in this film. By ironically making her supposedly witty and clever in this film, she looks very stupid when comforting someone she has seen several times yet can’t put together its him dressed up. From a voice acting standpoint, it doesn’t feel like nobody isn’t trying and there are plenty of talented actors involved with this film like Kenan Thompson, Rashinda Jones and Angela Lansbury, but it just feels like are given nothing to work with. Kenan Thompson is a naturally funny person who could make even dull material entertaining, but it’s almost like the script isn’t writing jokes and is just hoping that if he says anything, that will be enough, and it isn’t.

Being an Illumination production, the animation in this film is very good. While they have been very messy in regard to how they handled their stories, characters, and humor, they also have a wonderfully colorful, vibrant, and cartoonish visual style, and it worked nicely within The Lorax, and it equally works very well in this movie. One of the directors for this movie is Yarrow Cheney, who worked as an animator for movies like The Iron Giant, Quest for Camelot and Cat’s Don’t Dance, so he knows how to work with animation and make it colorful and cartoony. The landscapes look incredible, the textures on all the characters are very smooth and clear, and the film does give off a strong winter vibe that really gets people in the Christmas mood. The lighting and Christmas colors coupled with the clear blue sky and pristine white snow creates some beautiful environments and something that feels like a Seuss project. Though nothing aside from a few cool gadgets and gizmos looks distinctly bizarre for a Seuss story thanks to the previously mentioned lack of identity, it still has great expressions, good character design for the most part (Cindy Lou looks a little odd) and creates for a visually pleasing experience when it lets its animation breath. The film unfortunately has several jokes that fall flat because of its need to feel cool and have current hip humor, which is sadly also a common component of a traditional Illumination film also backed by the other co-director, Scott Mosier, originally working in a lot of Kevin Smith movies, where this modern yet childish sense of humor might have come from.  Several online memes and forced pop songs are especially painful and feel completely alien to the tone of what this story should feature, and while there isn’t a ton, there are enough that it starts to pile up and become a little grating. The slapstick is also hit or miss; it has good timing and movement behind it to the point that it feels impactful, but the way every character moves in this overly cartoony manner means that nothing about it stands out or feelings particularly interesting. The score by Danny Elfman feels relatively unremarkable and more like left-over scraps from his other work, but it’s much better than any of the pop songs included in the film (a rap version of the Grinch’s song performed by Pharrell Williams will make you throw up a little in your mouth).

For all its failings, The Grinch is much better than other Seuss projects before it. Considering Dr Seuss’s widow, Audrey Geisel, acted as executive producer for this film whilst she downright despised the live-action iterations, it showed this one had more in line with what the brand of Seuss would be comfortable with. It deserves credit for at least putting in more effort to stick to what the source represents and at least attempting to convey it well, it’s just that it couldn’t and produced a generic bad move instead of soiling a great work of art. The low points like the poor script, unneeded or confusing additions, and characters within personalities are definitely annoyances, but aren’t enough to result in any hard groans or painful reactions (for the most part). The visuals are pleasant, the voice actors say nothing funny, but are talented people regardless, and while it misses the mark on its message, it does at least contain a sense of heart that is more welcoming and pleasant than the previous film version. It’s more a ”middle of the road” picture rather than anything overwhelmingly positive or negative, but it does skew a bit lower for the pros not being strong enough and the cons not being awful, but not completely forgettable either. It has the elements of a good starting point for better Seuss films, but if you’re looking for something that perfectly captures the simplicity and the heart-warming joy of the original story, you’re going to need to wish for something a little bit more.

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