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Barking Mad About Films

One man and his dog; both barking mad about films

BMAF Get ‘Grinchy’ Ahead of the Festive Season

November 16, 2018 by Bill Leave a Comment

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We at BMAF would say our favourite book by the incredibly talented Dr.Seuss has to be How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

From book to screen, we at the BMAF are big Grinch fans and we look back at his 3 tellings of his story so far

Luckily for us, when adapted it has done rather well, we shall not mention the horror that was the live-action Cat in the Hat movie with Mike Myers!

The Ron Howard directed version of The Grinch, with Jim Carrey as the grumpy old green creature,  is probably our favourite Christmas movie, but we also really enjoy the Chuck Jones animated classic version with Boris Karloff as narrator and voice to the Grinch.

So with this in mind, we decided to give the new animated version a go from the creators of Despicable Me with singer Pharrell Williams as the new narrator  and Benedict Cumberbatch giving the Grinch his voice.

Having seen it, we decided to revisit the previous 2 attempts and here are our reviews:

Our Third Favourite is The Grinch (2018)

This version is colourful and likeable and like the live action version, gives us more of a Grinch back story, whereas the animated version follows the book. In the short story, the Grinch just doesn’t like the excess and loud noise associated with Christmas

In this case, the backstory is Cindy Lou wants her mum to be happy and to find someone special. Although we do find The Grinch was raised in an orphanage, so never really celebrated or felt loved at Christmas too and like the 2000 movie, this does make you feel for the unwanted green grump!

In this version, the highlight is the extremely cute sidekick, Max the dog, but we also now get an oversized reindeer sidekick called Fred, what we don’t get is a performance of ‘You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch’ other than some modern rap version as part of the soundtrack

3 Star Review of The Grinch (2018)
A colourful and likable telling of the Dr. Seuss story but only for fans of the book who did not like the Jim Carrey or Boris Karloff performances, as this Grinch is a much softer one. Max the Dog is a real highlight, however – 3 Popcorns

In Second Place, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

Boris Karloff does a superb job as Narrator and Voice to the Grinch and we get introduced to the classic song ‘You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch’ which is just reduced to a soundtrack song in the 2018 version.

This, of course, being under 30 minutes has no filler so most faithful to the book, however, our only reservation with this version is The Grinch seems particularly mean to Max the dog

4 Star Review of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
This version is most faithful to the book, however, some may find the Grinch just to mean in this version, especially to Max. However, he comes good in the end and the animation of Chuck Jones & the performance of Boris Karloff make this a treat – 4 Popcorns

 

And our favourite is How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Quite frankly Jim Carrey is incredible as the Grinch! The make up work and special effects on this film are great, we love Max the dog in this one and in the backstory we do have genuine sympathy for The Grinch, as we learn that at school he was bullied for being different and felt he didn’t fit in. His revenge on the Mayor are great moments of comedy and Cindy Lou is great too!

Our only negative would be, we really don’t’ like the break for the Where are you Christmas?’ Song, whilst short and sweet, we feel slows the film down, but when the same film gives you Carrey singing ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch’ we can’t complain too much.

5 Star Review of The Grinch (2000)
Possibly Jim Carrey’s finest performance as he gives us a Grinch with a genuine backstory to make us not dislike him, the makeup by Rick Baker and the sets, plus director by Ron Howard make this our go-to festive film – 5 Popcorns

So which is your favourite Grinch? We would love to hear from you

 

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Filed Under: 3-D, 3-D if done right, 3D, 5 stars, Actor, Adaptation, Blockbuster, Blockbuster movies, Book, Book Adaptation, Book to film, Box Office, Casting, Character Drama, Characters, Chat, Childrens, Childrens book, Childrens film, Choice, Christmas, Christmas film, Christmas viewing, classics, Cult Classic, date movie, Debate, Decisions, Different, Discussion, Dog, Dog Films, DVD, Family, Family film, fantasy, Fantasy Adventure, Fantasy Film, Favourite, Film, Film review, Film reviews, Films, Five Star review, Five Stars, Four Star Review, Four stars, fun, Kids film, Make Up, Movie Discussion, Movie Review, Movie stars, review, rewatch, soundtrack, Three Star Review, Three Stars Tagged With: Animated, Benedict Cumberbatch, Book, Book Adaptation, Book to Film, Boris Karloff, Christmas, Christmas film, Christmas Movie, Chuck Jones, Despicable Me, Dr Seuss, Film Blog, Film Review, Grinch, How the Grinch stole Christmas, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Movie Blog, Movie review, Pharrell Williams, Rick Baker, Ron Howard, The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch

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