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The grinch narrator4/11/2023 ![]() There’s also a subplot about the Grinch’s attempts to shanghai a real reindeer to pull his sled during his mission to steal Christmas from the Whos, which has a couple of chuckleworthy bits but is mostly a distraction on the way to the important stuff. This time, he’s given a backstory spelling out why he’s so down on Christmas, which is likely to have you less nodding in understanding than wondering why it’s necessary. The gleaming snow and glittering decorations of Whoville are rendered in loving fashion, the better to give the Grinch (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) plenty of cheer to rebel against and snarl about. To be fair, directors Yarrow Cheney (who co-helmed Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets) and Scott Mosier (Kevin Smith’s longtime producer) have overseen a sparkling visual production. In that sense, it’s a little disingenuous for the narration to explicitly tell us that the brightly wrapped gifts the Grinch pilfers represent greed, when the movie itself is an attempt to cash in on a well-known property-and, in one high-speed hurtle through Whoville, an apparent setup for a future theme-park ride. It works perfectly at 60 illustrated pages or a half hour of cartoon time, and the new film proves once again that the only reasons to retell it at (in this case) 86 minutes are commercial ones. To wit: the Grinch’s story doesn’t need a feature expansion. If you don’t recall the Grinch going on a shopping trip in the Seuss or Jones versions…well, that’s the other problem with both feature expansions of the Grinch’s story. The Grinch briefly gets at that during an early sequence in which our green, furry antihero walks into Whoville on a shopping trip, and is pursued by a gang of aggressive carolers trying too hard to get him into the holiday spirit. Part of what makes him a classic character is that he represents that Scrooge that exists in all of us-a little in some, a lot in others-who wants to say “Bah, humbug!” to the enforced joy and/or overcommercialization of the Christmas season. Seuss’ classic book and Chuck Jones’ gold-standard TV special, when his meanness is simply a given. Once again, the new Grinch attempts to explain and rationalize a character who really doesn’t need it. ![]() That calamitously overproduced misfire gave the Grinch a change-of-heart moment in the first 15 minutes that left the story with nowhere to go, and was a byproduct of the approach that undercuts both features. One of the best things you can say about Illumination Entertainment’s animated take on The Grinch is that it’s somewhat of an improvement on the live-action version from 18 years ago.
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