While I understand a lot had to be added in order to turn a
children’s picture book into a full-length film, I felt that most of the
additions really didn’t work. My biggest problem came with turning the citizens
of Whoville into are not only obsessed with Christmas, but they are also rather
materialistic. As a viewer, I almost found myself cheering when The Grinch
ruined their celebration. Outside of
Cindy Lou, who questions Whoville’s celebration of Christmas, I found the other
citizens to be unsympathetic characters.
Another element that was added was explaining why The Grinch
hates Christmas and lives alone outside of Whoville. Back when he was 8 years
old, he had a crush on one of the most popular girls in school. When The Grinch
was teased during his class’ Christmas celebration, he declared he hated
Christmas and left Whoville. Supposedly, this girl liked The Grinch but never
told him, and still carries a thing for him. I ultimately found The Grinch’s
love interest to be really shallow, and I never found myself rooting for The
Grinch and this character to get together. Not only did I find the love
interest character to be annoying, I thought this angle felt rather forced into
the story.
Another disappointment I had was with the version of the
song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Jim Carrey just couldn’t do this song
justice. Thurl Ravenscroft owns this song, and Carrey’s performance just
sounded rather weak in comparison.
How the Grinch Stole
Christmas is ultimately a simple story, which was conveyed perfectly in the
original animated special. The elements added to this live-action adaptation
ultimately hurt the original story instead of enhancing it. This is not a film
I’m going to be in any rush to watch again during the holiday season in the
future.
When it comes to the actual DVD, there were a number of
bonus features included on the disc. “Spotlight on Location” is a seven-minute
long documentary about making the film. There’s nine minutes worth of footage
in the deleted scenes feature, and I can understand why these scenes were
deleted; they didn’t truly add anything to the film, and would have only
contributed to dragging out a story that already feels dragged out.
There’s three minutes in the outtakes feature, and it’s
billed as a “gag reel.” WhoSchool is a roughly six-minute documentary about the
stunts that appear in the film. Makeup Application and Design is a roughly
seven-minute documentary about the makeup used for the film. Seussian Set
Decoration is a five-minute documentary about the sets. Visual Effects is a
roughly 11-minute documentary about the visual effects used in the film.
A music video for Faith Hill’s version of the song “Where
Are You Christmas?” is available for viewing in the “Extras” menu. This disc
also includes DVS (Descriptive Video Service), which provides narrative
description of key visual elements for the blind and visually impaired; a
screen explaining this feature is also in this menu. In the menu for the
extras, there are also trailers, production notes, and other things to explore.
There’s also a “Max’s Playhouse” section of the disc that’s
aimed at kids. Here, kids can play games or sing along with the two songs
included in the film. The navigation in this menu was a little frustrating for
me as an adult, so I’m not sure how user-friendly it would be for kids.
While I may have been disappointed with the film, I have to
give Universal a lot of credit for this DVD release for the effort that was put
into the bonus material that was included. If you’re a fan on this film, or are
interested in learning more about what goes on behind-the-scenes when films are
produced, there are a lot of bonus features included that should be of interest
to you.
I wrote this review after watching a copy of this DVD
release for Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch
Stole Christmas that my family was given as a Christmas gift several years
ago.
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