How the Grinch Stole Christmas (film)

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 2000 live-action film, based on the 1957 book by Dr. Seuss. Due to additions made to the storyline so that it could be brought up to feature-length, it was considerably less faithful to the original book, creating a new back-story to explain the Grinch's motivations and reasons behind his hatred of Christmas. The film was directed by Ron Howard, produced by Brian Grazer, and starred Jim Carrey in the title role of the Grinch. Taylor Momsen starred as Cindy Lou Who, who in this version seems to be about eight years old, where the character in the book was "no more than two". While this version is often referred to as simply The Grinch, the on-screen title is How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, with the words "The Grinch" written in much larger letters than the rest of the title. The movie received mixed critical reaction but became the highest-grossing film released in North America in the year 2000, earning $260 million at the box office.

Other cast members include the late Josh Ryan Evans as the young Grinch, Bill Irwin as Lou Lou Who, Jeffrey Tambor as Mayor Augustus May Who, and Christine Baranski as Martha May Whovier.

Summary

Christmas is coming, and all of Whoville is rushing to get ready. In the middle of it all is Cindy Lou Who, a young Who who thinks that due to the Christmas rush and the hubbub, the true meaning of Christmas may have gotten lost. When she goes to the post office with her dad, she runs into the Grinch, who's come down from his cave on Mount Crumpet along with his dog, Max, to stir up some trouble. Spooked by his appearance, Cindy Lou falls into the mail-sorting machine. To her surprise, the Grinch rescues her, but he won't admit that he was "saving" her, instead noting that she was "improperly packaged." He wraps her up in wrapping paper, complete with stamps and a bow, and leaves.

Cindy Lou begins to doubt the frightening rumors that she's heard about the Grinch. She does some research and discovers that the Grinch is an outcast, who was adopted by two old lady Whos. Growing up, Grinch was known for his bizarre, mischievous behavior and devilish personality, but he was never actually malicious. However, he was constantly bullied by Augustus May-Who, the future mayor of Whoville, and almost all his other classmates in the 1st grade. One Christmas, to impress his crush, Martha May Whovier (the only classmate of his who was ever nice to him), The Grinch made her an angel ornament out of an old trumpet, and some pilfered silverware and jewelry. He also decided to shave, after May-Who taunts "You're eight years old and you have a beard!" When he came to school the next day, the whole class (except for Martha) laughed at his gift and his many shaving cuts. The Grinch went berserk, smashing the gift and destroying all the Christmas decorations in the room. As he threw the tree across the room, he screamed, "I... HATE... CHRISTMAS!!!"

After that, he ran away, making his way up Mount Crumpet, and has lived there ever since. His amazing engineering skills helped him turn a cave in the side of the mountain into a comfortable home; however, the Grinch falls into a depression due to the events of his school days, and he begins to hate the Whos who were so cruel to him.

Feeling sorry for the Grinch, and realizing that she may be the only one who understands his problem, Cindy Lou invites the Grinch to the one-thousanth Who-Bilation, to be the "Holiday Cheermeister" (a variation of Master of the Ceremony). Grinch grudgingly agrees to come, wins the title of Cheermeister to the dismay of the Mayor, and even begins to have fun. But the bitter Mayor May-Who finally manages to humiliate Grinch by giving him a razor "The Gift of a Christmas Shave" while at the same time proposes to Martha May, offering her "along with a lifetime supply of happiness," a brand-new car and a very large diamond ring. The Grinch finally makes his reasons for hating Christmas clear, stating, "That's what it's always been about! Gifts! Gifts! GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS!" He goes berserk, setting fire to the Whos' Christmas tree (luckily, they had a spare) and escapes the chaos of the ensuing riot by diving into a garbage chute back up to Mt. Crumpet. The Mayor then scolds Cindy for inviting him and takes the Cheermeister crown for himself. Once he returns to Mount Crumpet, Grinch plots to steal Christmas. He makes himself a Santa suit and builds a rocket sled using Max as a reindeer. He flies over Whoville, stealing anything that has to do with Christmas (and also goes into the Mayor's bedroom while he sleeps and rigs a trap to retaliate against his rival). Once he's finished, he takes his goods back up the mountain to dump it off the side.

Back in Whoville, the Whos are just waking up and seeing what the Grinch has been doing all night. The Mayor leads a large group of people in stating that the Grinch has destroyed Christmas, but Cindy Lou's family speaks up and says they've realized that the Grinch hasn't stolen the most important part of Christmas; the Christmas Spirit, the one thing that doesn't come from a store. The whole town begins to sing. Meanwhile, Cindy Lou sneaks away to see the Grinch.

Up on Mount Crumpet, the Grinch hears the Whos singing and realizes the true meaning of Christmas. He has a change of heart (plus three sizes, to be precise), and seeing the sleigh full of "Christmas stuff" about go off the cliff, tries to save it. When he finds himself failing, he considers just letting it all go, saying "It's just toys, right?" But when he sees Cindy Lou hiding on the back of the sleigh, he uses his vast strength to save her and the presents. They sled back to Whoville, where the Grinch returns all the Christmas items to the Whos and both get a warm reception from everyone, except the Mayor. Martha May digs into the sleigh to find the ring the Mayor proposed to her with, and she gives it back, saying her heart truly belongs to the Grinch. The whole town goes back to Grinch's cave on Mount Crumpet for Christmas dinner, where the Grinch himself carves the Roast Beast.

Trivia

• Anthony Hopkins recorded all the narrations for the movie in one day.
• The photo of The Grinch in the Whoville newspaper has The Grinch in the same pose as the famous Patterson-Gimlin film that supposedly shows Bigfoot.
• Eddie Murphy and Jack Nicholson were both at one time considered to play The Grinch.
• The line "6:30 p.m. 'Dinner with me' I can't cancel that again." was improvised by Jim Carrey.
• When the Grinch is pretending to be a director, he is both imitating Ron Howard, the director of the film and famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
• The Onion expressed the sentiments of many Dr. Seuss fans with the satirical one-liner "Another Fond Chidhood Memory Destroyed". [1]

See also

The Grinch

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