Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Grinch (2018)

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » Film Handlers' Movie Reviews » The Grinch (2018)

Author

Topic: The Grinch (2018)

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 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.

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.