3.5 stars. Rated PG, for no particular reason
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 11.9.18
Dr. Seuss purists who still shudder at the memory of 2000’s live-action Jim Carrey fiasco can rest easy.
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| Once the Grinch decides to ruin Whoville's Christmas once and for all, he realizes that stealth infiltration will be most successful if he's disguised as Santa Claus. Cue a furious sewing session on an elaborate machine powered by his dog, Max. |
Illumination — the animation studio that brought us the Minions — has done well by its 21st century revival of the modest 1957 picture book, which took a savvy poke at Christmas over-commercialization … eight years before Charlie Brown and his little tree.
The Grinch retains most of what was important about both that 69-page children’s classic, and the 1966 Chuck Jones adaptation that remains must-see TV every December. It’s evident from this film’s opening montage: a swooping camera shot that descends — accompanied by a gentle instrumental cover of the familiar “Fahoo Foraze” — from snow-covered mountains into the heart of Whoville.
The little town bustles with the expectation of Christmas, only a few days away. Decorations spring up on homes and in streets, thanks to elaborate, marvelously crazed, physics-challenged Seussian gadgets, doohickeys, widgets, doodads, gizmos, thingamajigs and thingamabobs: everything from wobbly garland hangers and improbable candy cane twirlers, to a Zamboni-esque contraption that scoops up snow drifts and excretes neatly stacked pyramids of perfectly formed snowballs, for young Whovians to throw at each other.
By which point, we viewers can’t help smiling.
Our appreciation redoubles as the narration begins, with scripters Michael LeSieur and Tommy Swerdlow retaining and expanding upon the original book’s text, the new material capturing the same Seussian rhyming scheme.
Such enhancements feel reasonably organic: Little Cindy Lou Who (voiced by Cameron Seely) now is the daughter of a hard-working single mother, Donna Lou (Rashida Jones), who also rides herd over rambunctious infant twins; and the scowly-growly Grinch (Benedict Cumberbatch) must contend with his nearest neighbor, Bricklebaum (Kenan Thompson), an ebullient, joyous, irrepressible fellow who — insufferably! — believes that they’re good friends.
In so many ways, producer (and Illumination founder) Chris Meledandri, directors Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney, and their massive animation team have done their best to honor the source material. No surprise, since Illumination also delivered 2012’s delightful adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.
Cindy Lou is adorably spunky here: a little girl not content to simply send a letter to Santa Claus, but determined to meet him, in order to add heartfelt emphasis to the most deeply personal wish on her Christmas list. So determined, in fact, that she and her friends devise a devious, cookie-triggered “Santa trap,” in order to delay the Big Guy long enough for a face-to-face chat. Seely gives her just the right blend of little-kid excitement and vulnerability.
Thompson brings plenty of jovial benevolence to Bricklebaum, a guy so good-natured that he’s wholly oblivious to the Grinch’s snide asides. Dedicated seasonal decorators are guaranteed to chuckle over the wretched excess with which Bricklebaum festoons hishome.
Jones has fun as Donna Lou Who, making her a wise, perceptive and loving parent who encourages Cindy Lou’s intended hike to the North Pole … while cautioning that, since the trek likely will take a month, she’ll probably miss Christmas.
You’ll also recognize no less than Angela Lansbury, briefly voicing the Mayor of Whoville.
The Grinch’s deep-mountain lair also is a stitch, laden with all manner of gadgets and a full-size pipe organ, on which — at one point — he dolefully, thunderously plays “All By Myself.” (Aardman fans are likely to raise an eyebrow, however, over the degree to which this Grinch/Max relationship resembles that of Wallace and Gromit.)
The use of music also is admirable (with one exception, noted below): a blend of 1966 Grinch themes and holiday classics by Nat King Cole (“The Christmas Song”), The Supremes (“My Favorite Things”) and Brian Setzer (“Jingle Bells”).
And yet … and yet …
In what I can only assume is an ill-advised nod to modern political correctness, Meledandri & Co. have made their Grinch more sympathetic.
Oh, he’s still a sourpuss with a cantankerous loathing for All Things Holiday. But he’s kind to his faithful dog, Max. And he has a soft spot for the impressively podgy reindeer — Fred — initially drafted to haul the sleigh with which ol’ Grinchy intends to steal Christmas.
And — gaaah! — this Grinch is wistful and philosophical, frequently given to lamentations about precisely why he lacks seasonal spirit. This is a Grinch who obviously sees an analyst three times a week: who waxes thoughtfully in Cumberbatch’s all but unrecognized tone. Much as I admire Cumberbatch, he simply isn’t Grinchy enough.
This telling has been flensed of all the snark and bile that made Jones’ 1966 version so outrageous … and, yes, so hilarious. The humor here is safer, less threatening. This is most decidedly not a Grinch whose brain is full of spiders, whose heart’s a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots, and whose soul is an appalling dung heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable.
(The preceding lyrics courtesy of Dr. Seuss and Albert Hague, from “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”: the one song unforgivably mangled here by the rapper immodestly dubbed Tyler, the Creator.)
This Grinch is merely misunderstood (as a brief flashback to his childhood clarifies).
At the risk of stating the obvious, Ebenezer Scrooge’s climactic transformation doesn’t resonate nearly as much, if he isn’t incorrigibly malicious to begin with. The same is true here, which is ironic: Remember that Illumination gave us the cheerfully mean-spirited Gru, in 2010’s Despicable Me. He displayed more gleeful bad behavior during his first song, than this Grinch does during an entire film.
Gru was the perfect model for Illumination’s updated Grinch. Where’s that snark?
And, it must be stated, Pharrell Williams’ happy-happy cadence — as narrator — is a pale, pale shadow of Boris Karloff’s slyly portentous delivery, back in 1966. Just as Tyler, the Creator isn’t a patch on Thurl Ravenscroft.
This film is simply too nice. It’s a Grinch stripped of his garlic-laden soul. And the protracted, kumbaya conclusion feels preachy.
OK, yes; This fantasy is colorful, fun and funny in the manner of today’s best animated efforts. Max, Fred and a feisty mountain goat deliver plenty of great sight gags. The visual opulence is never less than captivating — particularly when the Grinch and Max begin their gravity-defying Christmas Eve assault — and the inclusionary finale delivers an important message in these perilous times.
This Grinch is — in many respects — a delightful, holiday-themed, family-friendly charmer.
But I’m not sure Theodor Geisel would have approved.
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