Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018)

Suess Cheese
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♫ You're a Not-Altogether Embarrassing One, This Year's Grinch ♫

Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" is as much a staple of the Holiday season as Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." There have been all sorts of versions of that, so my heart would be three sizes too small if I were to complain there have been too many adaptations of Ted Geisel's slim little classic. 

There is, of course, your grandfather's "Grinch," directed by my hero, Chuck Jones—and which runs on television umpteen times, to this day, every Christmas season. Then, there's Ron Howard's elephantine, rude little live-action version of it (without the exclamation mark in the title, to which I heartily agree!) starring—and dominated by— Jim Carrey. The less said, the better—which should have been the first thing the producers told the writers before they started the script, as it was encumbered with an extended origin story and an awful lot of Who-oey in Whoville, when audiences probably wanted to see more of Carrey in his hairy Grinch costume. My memory of it was that it was interminable, loud, and had way too much padding in just about every aspect of production...including the costuming. The prospect of another "Grinch" movie—even an animated one, as they've been doing lately to more of the Suess-series—and to better effect than the live-action versions—did not exactly make my heart grow a size.

Well, Illumination Studios, which has done the Despicable Me series and the last Seuss adaptation, The Lorax, decided to tackle Seuss' "Big Gun," simplifying the title to simply Dr. Seuss' The Grinch, but retaining the plot, adding more prose (spoken by Pharrell this time), and keeping The Grinch's back-story to a minimum, and adding an interesting little sub-plot (which is rather ingeniously sneaky, although it will hardly be noticed) and adding a couple of amusing side-characters. 

As per job-title, the Grinch (voiced this time by Benedict Cumberbatch—yes, he CAN do an American accent, Black Mass notwithstanding) is an un-diagnosed depressive, three bumper-stickers shy of being a postal bomber, living in his multi-level town-house of a mountain, overlooking the metropolis of Whoville, which is not the socialist collective as it's usually depicted, but a city with its share of desperation. We see this is as Mrs. Who (Rashida Jones) nearly has a breakdown trying to catch a bus home from working her night-shift to get home to tend to her kids—Cindy Lou Who (Cameron Seely), who is no longer "no older than two" but is in elementary school, and is far more scrappy than in Geisel's version.

It is three weeks before Christmas and all the alarm clock plays to wake up the Grinch is Christmas songs—starting with the Jackson 5 screeching "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" then "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano (I was ready to throw a book at the screen, myself), going through his wake-up routine—his dog Max does all the work—before finding out that his cupboard is bare "How much emotional eating have I been doing?" he laments. Apparently, a lot. And he and Max decide to go into Whoville to stock up.

It's never a pleasant prospect for the Grinch, but this trip, being so close to Christmas, is particularly galling, especially since the Mayor of Whoville (Angela Lansbury) has decided that this year's decorations and festivities are going to be three times bigger than last year's. The Grinch and Max barely survive a Christmas choir that starts coming after them like the Jets in West Side Story, before they run into Cindy Lou Who, in the midst of sending a letter to Santa Claus with a special request. He dashes any hope that he'll respond to her "list of demands," and then passes the house of the most enthusiastic Christmas decorator, Mr. Bricklebaum (Kenan Thompson), who has such a positive attitude that he even sees the Grinch as a friend.

After some therapy time playing his appropriately, Seussian pipe-organ—the song made me laugh out loud—the Grinch comes up with a plan—a wonderful, awful plan—to steal Christmas from under the noses of the Who's in a terrible midnight run diametrically opposed to Santa Claus'—rather than delivering presents in a single night, he's going to rob Who-ville of any sign of Christmas, right down to the last can of Who-hash.

So, he makes himself a Santa suit, steals a sleigh from Mr. Bricklebaum's elaborate Christmas decorations, then goes off a-hunting for reindeer to drive the sled. Unfortunately, Nature being Nature, he is only able to secure the slowest reindeer of the bunch—Fred, the reindeer—and takes him back to his mountain lair to coordinate how he's going to accomplish such a dastardly, grinchian heist.

You know the story (at least I hope you do). It plays out very much like the book and the previous versions did. And the line "maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store" is replaced in sentiment by the line—"He didn't steal Christmas! He just stole stuff!" It's a subtle distinction, maybe, but my Grinch-like withered heart tells me they didn't want to discourage consumerism and undermine the purveyors of it (after all, they ARE merchandising the heck out of this thing), so much as give the impression that said "stuff" is less important and should be held in less regard than the concept of togetherness and glad tidings (besides, The Lorax got enough backlash over a perceived anti-capitalist spirit). But, there's a couple other differences...

There's a parallel plot running throughout the movie alongside the Grinch's and it comes from a very unlikely source. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Cindy-Lou Who is an unindicted co-conspirator. Heavens! Geisel is either turning in his grave or cackling over this turn of events. It seems sweet little Cindy-Lou has a special request of Santa and it's very important that he gets the message. It's too late to send a letter, trudging to the North Pole is too far, so she and some school-chums decide that they are going to Claus-nap Santa on Christmas. Oh, the delicious irony of the Grinch being nabbed in a Home Alone type kid-trap.

The other thing is a slight softening of the Grinchiness of the Grinch. There are hints that he's not quite as hard-hearted as, say, Jones' television version, which was ferociouslessly mean and revelled in his dirty work—it helped that he was voiced by Boris Karloff—whereas this version of the Grinch actually displays an act of kindness a bit earlier in the movie than in other versions of the story, that sort of undercuts his ultimate un-Scrooging at the film's climax. It makes the story a bit less heartening in the overall scheme, certainly less of a Christmas Miracle as was the intent. It makes him less of a Grinch than just a Grump.

Still, it's not a bad effort, helped immeasurably by Danny Elfman's music, with its combination of cooing innocence and bombastic deviltry—sort of a slam-dunk for Elfman, really, nobody else should have done it—just the right tone of Christmas Nightmare (which he's done before). He also did the music for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, contributing the best parts to it, and managing to bring something new to the piece without the ghost of the previous version crowding it out. Those Ghosts of Grinch's past (good and bad) can't help but haunt this one and makes it, no matter which of the others you may prefer, at least a middling effort.

*—so much so that there should by an additional day added to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that includes "Thirteen showings of Chuck Jones' version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!...."