Ben Grunow
Staff Writer
The Grinch(2018) is an animated film and adaptation of the original Grinch movie. The Grinch has many notable actors such as, Benedict Cumberbatch, Pharrell Williams, Kenan Thompson and Rashida Jones. With a cast like this many people were quite excited, children and adults alike, to see the new Grinch adaptation and experience the top level skills from the actors.
Despite the extensive list of A & B list actors and a relatively high budget of $75 million, the movie seemed too safe and failed to capitalize on all the resources they had available in front of them. Instead of trying to add outlandish yet enjoyable scenes, for an obvious older audience who have come to see the comparison from the classic, Illumination, reserved the scenes to maintain the PG rating. Yes, it is a family movie and the scenes should be fitting to that, but things should be added or altered where older audience members could have a connection to it
Another big issue was making the same characters from different versions of the movie have almost completely different personalities. For example from How The Grinch Stole Christmas, the Grinch was truly a heartless, narcissistic, and cruel individual, while in the most recent adaptation, it seemed as the Grinch was a whole different person. Instead of being this truly evil character who makes a dramatic change to enjoying christmas and helping others, it just seemed he was a cranky old man, who feels regret and changes the way he acts. One student, Mike Young strongly pointed this out, saying, “ The interpretation of the Grinch in this film seemed off. I understand its a kids film and the personality of the Grinch should sort of fit that, but it just seemed liked it was nothing like the actual version making it hard for me to understand and enjoy.”
Finally, this movie was forgettable. By this, there was no stand out voice acting performances, emotional scenes, or anything to differentiate this cartoon movie from the rest of the herd. Unlike the past Grinch movies where scenes were action packed, interesting and were the audience couldn’t wait for the next part. This movie was and will always be enjoyable for a little kid, as most cartoons are, but from an older standpoint as well as movie comparability, it was uneventful and not interesting. Liz donger, a sophomore at Foran believes, “the movie was pretty boring and lowkey disappointing but i liked the soundtrack.” A remake for a classic will always be hyped up, as the old ones bring so many good memories, but The Grinch, fails to capitalize on this.
Overall this movie was entertaining and best fit for a younger audience. Watching it at an older age was quite disappointing with extreme character development changes and slightly above average scenes. For high schoolers and above this movie will not be enjoyable unless people are going with family and friends. Out of 10 this movie is a 5.
