Review by Ian Delia
The amazing and heart touching story “The Grinch†or known as “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas†was and is a wonderful and timeless story written by Dr. Seuss. If you watch basically any family channel in the prime time of the year, Christmas, you may have seen the original story of the Grinch and there have been 2 movies of the classic Grinch. But it’s great to relive story with a heartwarming plot on the big screen with new voices and animation.
As you know, the Grinch does not like Christmas. He despises the jolliness of the holiday and he tries to take it all away. In the original movie, the Grinch was not liked at all. He wasn’t able to show his face without people running and hiding from “the nasty Mr. Grinchâ€. But in this story, the towns people are very welcoming and polite even though his evil manner of popping balloons and rude snarls towards the people of Whoville. Not only does he take down Christmas lights, but steals a sleigh from the top of a house that was put there for decoration.
As a child, the Grinch spent many years of his life sitting in an orphanage watching everyone in the spirit of the season. Sitting alone he watched it all pass by through his window. He was tired of being alone, so as a young boy he left Whoville and the orphanage to move to the top of a mountain where he made his home. He was all alone from everyone except his loyal dog “Max†that he treated as a servant doing all that he is told.
Little Miss Cindy Lou Who had one great wish to send to Santa, but sadly it never made it in time. She did not want any presents, but that wish was to help her mother. Cindy Lou has been very unhappy that she never sees her mother happy because all her mom does is 24/7 tasks. She goes to work all day them comes home to tend to her two young sons. Cindy Lou does whatever she can to help however, but she feels it’s not enough. As the Grinch comes posing as Santa, while he’s on his mission to steal presents, Cindy gives her wish to the jolly ole man.
All the gifts and all the presents he gone and the Grinch thinks he has won. But the town’s people do not worry about the presents. Of course when you hear the word Christmas you may think of presents. For all to know however, Christmas is not a season for taking and getting things that you want, but it is a time for all to come together to be grateful and share happiness for all the people here in Whoville. The sight of the happy Towns people changes the Grinch’s heart “as his heart grows 2 sizes†he finds the new meaning of Christmas it’s right in his back yard. As he opens his eyes to his jolly spirit that was deep down, grass has begun to grow as he finds the real meaning to his once hated season and become one of the Who’s.
Audience perspective: Teen 1 “I didn’t feel like there were any plot holes or things that weren’t left without a fix for it. It was neatly wrapped up as a Christmas gift you could say. I genuinely laughed a few times and thought some of the comedy was good especially at the demographic the movie was targeted. Some of the moments made me smile like when the little girl was talking about how her mom worked so hard and actually recognizing it at such a young age.†Teen 2 “It honestly related a little bit because I want people to be happy. Throughout the movie you get little snips of the Grinch being a good person and I think they portrayed that well. Speaking of portraying well, I like how most of the animals could easily express their emotions without talking and just facial expressions.†Teen 3 “As for the bad, the pacing was a little off. I saw that there were two stories in the beginning and by the end it felt like one of the stories or plots had to suffer to wrap it up.†Teen 4 “I was interested in the plot of the little girl wanting to see Santa and making plans with her friends, but we never really get to see those friends a lot and I wanted to see some character development in them or to understand their personalities better.â€
This movie has been rated PG for brief rude humor by motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
As a teen, I give it (3 out of 5 Stars) and kids should love it a lot more. Check out the trailer above.