Santa Palooza Day 5 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

I always liked the cartoon version of this movie. The adnimation is hand drawn and rough. The characters are easy to love (except the Grinch at the beginning, of course) and the colors are soft. I liked to think about the people who got to draw the characters every day and make the cartoon. It seemed like a work of love and true caring about the story.

Growing up, this movie would come on at a random time one night during December and my family would stop everything and watch it. It was a short movie, filled with plenty of commercials so we could fill up out hot chocolate and cookies. On a few rare occasions it would come on while we were decorating the house, or shortly after. On those nights we considered ourselves double lucky. We never planned on watching it, but every year we were able to catch it. I love the basic story of how deep down, all people are actually good. Even Grinches.
When they came out with the live action version in 2000 I was really excited. I like Ron Howard a lot and am a Jim Carrey fan. The previews were fun and I loved the vivid colors of Whoville. The supporting characters are fun and are each given a little time in the spot light. It was fun to watch for the first time and try to decipher who was each Who! I like how The Grinch has a back story and full emotions. We get to see how he became who he is, and can see how we are all one bad holiday away from throwing in the towel.

When you watch this movie, you are already forced into Dr. Seuss’ imaginary and exciting world so you have to be ready for everything it throws at you. Be ready for the prat falls and the over the top comedy of Carrey. Be ready for the heart tugging puppy-dog eyes of Cindy Lou. Be ready for the tear drop that will inevitably fall when the snow comes down and you suddenly realize that sometimes you’re a Grinch too. And maybe you need to rethink how you look at the holiday and the people you share it with. We all want to be a Who- true, good, honest and pure of heart. This movie always makes me cringe at the mean-hearted-ness of The Grinch and vow to treat people with more patience and care.

I hope you enjoy this movie! Faith Hill sings one of the classics of the 21st Century holiday seasons. This movie is worth the time.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!