The HD-DVD features a decent picture that suffers from being a bit soft but is wondrously colored.
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I remember my excitement of hearing that "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" was being fashioned into a live action feature. My anticipation grew one or two sizes when it was announced that Jim Carrey was attached to star as my beloved green character. There are some who consider me to be somewhat of a Grinch, and I guess I've grown fond of the grinchy one as I grew up watching the classic animated holiday special. About the only disappointment I had with the news about the film was that Ron Howard was attached to direct. Ron has become a very good director since his departure from acting. He did great with "Apollo 13," but I couldn't see Opie pulling off the visual feast that would be necessary to successfully bring "The Grinch" to life. I wanted Tim Burton.
When the trailer was finally released, my leeriness of Howard helming this picture began to subside. The picture looked very good. The site of Carrey as the Grinch was awesome. Seeing him slither across the floor will forever be burned into my conscience. There was still some though that Burton would have done better, especially with a character as dark and twisted as the Grinch. Finally, the film was released and I was off to the local multiplex to see if the Ron Howard directed film was everything I had hoped it would be or if I was correct in thinking that Tim Burton was the only person who could have brought Dr. Seuss's story to life in a live action film.
After initially watching Howard's vision of "The Grinch," I realized how he may have been a better choice to direct the film. I had seen the film in a crowded theater with a number of young children. "The Grinch" was intended to appeal to everybody. Sure, Burton could have beaten him out in the visual sense, and the Grinch would not have been comic relief, but closer in character to the Grinch that was voiced by Boris Karloff so many years ago. However, Burton's Grinch would have frightened the pants off young viewers. It would have been frighteningly wonderful, but not a film for all to enjoy as I have enjoyed the classic animated "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." Adults would have preferred the Burton vision, but Universal wanted a family film and Ron Howard was a better director for this direction.
Almost everybody is familiar with the story of the Grinch. He is an outcast of Whoville, who looks over the town with hatred and disdain. The time of year that kinks the green fur of the Grinch the most is Christmas. The Whos sing, celebrate and reach their highest levels of happiness during this overly joyous holiday. One day, the Grinch decides that he has had enough of Christmas and he decides to steal Christmas from the Whos and do away with their biggest source of joy and happiness. On Christmas Eve, he sneaks down into Whoville and steals all of their presents, including the Who Beast. However, the next morning, he finds the Whos are still happy and joyous. His heart grows a few sizes and he learns to appreciate Christmas and happiness.
The mayor of Whoville is the main adversary of the Grinch. He will do anything to keep the Grinch out of Whoville and ridicule and slander the green one. A backstory of how the Grinch became disgruntled and miserable was added, and the character of Betty Lou Who receives some much needed fleshing out. After all, this is a feature length film and not a half hour holiday special. A potential love interest is poorly added to the story for the Grinch. Many other changes are made, such as the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who meet much earlier than Christmas Eve, as was depicted in the holiday special. Ron Howard worked with Seuss' widow to deliver a story that would be considered a legitimate extension of the holiday classic, though the feature-length film is definitely its own story.
The additions to the story are not all done badly, but some of them seem a bit out of place. The love interest for the Grinch is used to create tension between the Grinch (Jim Carrey) and the Mayor (Jeffrey Tambor). She is a Who named Martha May Whovier (Christine Baranski). Sure, some comedic moments are achieved with the inclusion of this character in the story, but it comes off as a poor attempt to add a romantic element to the film and a poor side explanation of why the Grinch's heart grew a few sizes. Christmas and the ideas behind it were responsible for the Grinch's change, not a scantily clad, sex pot of a Who.
Carrey is brilliant as the Grinch. The stories of the hours and hours he had to spend every day in the torturous makeup give appreciation to the job he has done here. Not many actors have the ability to physically act out the part of the slinky and mischievous Grinch. Carrey does utilize more modern humor that borders on bathroom humor and relies on some minor pop culture references. This is not bad, and for the most part, this new adaptation of the Grinch should hold its own for a good many more years to come and much of this is credited to Carrey's physical comedy and genius.
This is a film intended for family audiences. If I were to rate the film based entirely upon my tastes, I would have been a bit harsher towards it. When I saw this release theatrically, I had taken my nephew who was only six at the time. He loved it and really enjoyed himself. That alone reward the film with a point or two more. Jim Carrey carries the weight of the story on his shoulders and suffers through the ill-fated love story and a few other changes to the original formula that doesn't quite work as well as one would have hoped. This will never be as classic as the animated special, but all of the best Christmas specials and stories are from the late Sixties and early Seventies. Still, Ron Howard's "The Grinch" should find plenty of viewing in the next decade and one day, it may find itself a classic in its own right. Kids seem to dig it and isn't that what matters?
Video :
One of the primary reasons I wanted to see "The Grinch" was for its visuals. The visuals did impress me and Ron Howard has done a great job of brining the world of "The Grinch" to the big screen, though I would have still wanted to see what Tim Burton could have brought to the production. He did an amazing job with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Dr. Seuss had an interesting visual sense. It was twisted and it was unique. Look at many of the imagery and shapes of the world of the original animated Whoville and then think of graveyard in "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" and you can see some similarities. Part of the draw of Dr. Seuss was his unique and peculiar vision and I still believe that although Ron Howard did a pretty good job, he would be a student to Tim Burton's mastery.
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[release]19974[/release]