Film Review: ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch’
Dr. Seuss’ famous doggerel has been replaced by a lot of imitation-Seuss doggerel, which works well enough, though there’s no great reason for it apart from the fact that the film has to offer something original or it wouldn’t have a reason for existing. That’s the eternal paradox of remake culture. We want a movie like “The Grinch” to push our nostalgia buttons, yet in a way that’s just fresh enough to delight and satisfy anew. The Jim Carrey version didn’t do that, and as popular as it was at the time, I seriously wonder how much it’s watched now. For anyone who grew up with “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “The Grinch” won’t replace it, yet it’s nimble and affectionate in a way that can hook today’s children, and more than a few adults, by conjuring a feeling that comes close enough. By the end, your own heart will swell, though maybe just one or two sizes.
'Dr. Seuss' The Grinch': Film Review
Much closer in spirit to the beloved book and the evergreen 1966 TV special than the soulless lump of coal that was the 2000 Ron Howard-Jim Carrey collaboration, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch is a vibrant, amusing CG animated feature that gives the big mean, green guy a kinder, gentler makeover.
The production’s biggest upgrade is Whoville itself, which has been transformed into a luminous, twinkling spectacle of a mini-metropolis, complete with its own Who Foods market and a meticulous attention to detail that extends to the tiniest of Christmas tree decorations and most innocuous of snowflakes. If that, along with Danny Elfman’s fanciful score and Tyler the Creator’s spin on “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” fail to do the trick in these spiritually trying times, then maybe the green dude's not the one whose heart is full of unwashed socks.