Based on the 1957 fictional children’s tale, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by American author and illustrator Dr. Suess, this 2001 live action version directed by Ron Howard and written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman is definitely worth a watch! In this movie there are Who’s and there are What’s and all the Who’s live in the fictional town of Whoville, and this takes place during the Christmas time. The scary green onion eating What named the Grinch (Jim Carrey) lives in a dark trashy cave of Mount Crumpit with his dog Max. The Who’s in Whoville are human/kangaroo type creatures, such as young Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) and they are all Christmas-obsessed with welcoming warm hearts full of Christmas spirit. They are very happy and filled with love as they run around town filling the shops trying to find perfect Christmas presents all season. Unlike the Who’s, the Grinch is grouchy and dirty with no interest in the Christmas spirit as everybody in Whoville is terrified by his existence, even though they never saw him since he never comes out of his cave. After a not so small encounter at the post office, Cindy Lou Who runs into the Grinch and that’s where the film takes off. You learn about all of the Grinch’s background and why he is the way he is as well as if the Who’s can convince the Grinch to join the Christmas spirit! Or if he decides to completely sabotage the Who’s holiday celebrations.
This film had a budget of 123 million dollars and it is definitely noticeable. The way the town of Whoville is so detailed and looks like a perfect joyful town of the Christmas season. It’s hard to find the right words but watching how Whoville looks and runs is so aesthetically pleasing. It definitely has a Dr. Seuss type of feel due to the Who citizens facial structures, the Grinches appearance, the typical fictional “a problem needs to be solved” plot, it’s perfect and it’s a really great film. All of the makeup effects such as making all of the Who’s look how they appeared in the movie must have taken so much time as well as how the Grinch looks too, I know that was a struggle for Jim Carrey to go through hours of makeup each day for filming. This film is the 2nd highest grossing holiday film of the 2000s, followed up by “Home Alone” and is the 1st highest grossing film throughout all of the 2000s domestically. Fun fact: Mainly all of the Whoville town scenes were filmed right behind where the infamous Bates Motel scene from the 1960 movie “Physco” was filmed, which is quite ironic considering a joyful Christmas film was shot right behind where a horror movie was made 40 years before. As you may wonder, the makeup artist who transformed Jim Carrey was Rick Baker, who is no longer a makeup artist but he was the one who made the werewolf creature that Michael Jackson turns into in his 1983 music video for his song “Thriller”. Anywho, the original thought of the Grinch was to just make Jim Carrey green. No fur, no weird face, just green paint. But after getting some inspiration, they decided to put furry green hair onto a spandex suit as well as prosthetic nose, which Carrey said was torturing but after almost 100 days of getting used to the uncomfortable costume, he became okay with it. This wasn’t the first time Carrey had to be green for a movie since in the 1994 movie “The Mask” he had a green face and creepy visual makeup effects. In “The Grinch” many visual effects were used on set to make the houses and shops look the way they did and other makeup processes were used to make the Who appear the way they did. Cindy Lou Who’s iconic sticking up braided hair in Christmas accessories is one of my favorite things about the movie because I like how the Who’s are different from what you may see in a regular Christmas movie and it creates a different joyful type of atmosphere.
Overall, I really enjoyed watching the movie for the first time when I was around 8 years old. I found it so interesting because I never saw a Christmas movie like that since most don’t really have a grouchy green monster who despises Christmas with his whole heart, if he even has one. To this day it is still one of my favorite movies ever due to all of the visual effects and the outfits and the plot too. Seeing how the Grinch became the way he did is intriguing to see because you may wonder why? Why is he such a grouchy creature? There are many different types of movies about the Grinch such as the animated “The Grinch” (2018), “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (1966) “The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat” (1982), and “Halloween is Grinch Night” (1977). These movies are for any age, gender, or race. It is the perfect movie to watch with your family or even alone and it’s friendly for everybody but it may be more appealing to younger audiences. I give this movie a 5 out of 5 stars due to the extraordinary acting, appearances, plot, and literally everything! The acting is really well and Jim Carrey did a magnificent job at playing the Grinch. He is known for his more goofy roles and playing the Grinch definitely fits along with that. I love how the town of Whoville appears since it gives a very Christmassy-type of feel with all the snow and red and green colors as well as all of the Christmas lights. I love this film so much and I definitely recommend it to anybody!