For the number of adaptations Mr Scrooge has amassed for his ill feelings about Christmas, Mr Grinch has actually been sitting quiet all these years. Except for a 1966 TV version featuring Boris Karloff’s menacing voice, and a whacky Jim Carrey starrer, the green meanie hasn’t sparked filmic imagination much, despite selling millions of books.
Since Illumination, the Minions makers have decided to adapt Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the 69-pager classic tale of the grumpy greenie has been embellished with all sorts of pop songs and pop-eyed visions of the world. Neither does the film offend nor does it go out of its way to delight.
A mélange of candy floss enthusiasm and lack of imagination has resulted into a film that services the growing appetite of average family entertainment. If you go in looking for originality to enhance a timeless tale, much disappointment is in store for you.
So as the tale goes, the cave-dwelling Grinch can’t stand the idea of Christmas, but the residents of Whoville are really big on celebrations. The little town is going three times bigger this time, and our protagonist comes up with the evil idea of stealing their Christmas. He has his loyal dog Max by his side, and he does pull off a big heist. But there is one little girl who’s going to change his heart. She is Cindy Lou (Cameron Seely), who wants to trap Santa and ask for a gift that’s not for her, but her mother Donna Lou (Rashida Jones), who toils day and night.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice does elevate the material, but he goes all American instead of the British droll swipe. The script by Michael LeSieur and Tommy Swerdlow stuffs it up by giving Grinch a back story, and making the little girl too cute, too righteous.
The animation is competent, but the visual gags don’t have enough fertility to grow inventive ideas. Directors Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney (The Secret Life of Pets) refuse to allow wit to take over the proceedings, making The Grinch oh-so-functional, oh-so-serviceable.
So finally a change of heart, and all is well in the festive season because Christmas is a spirit that you can’t steal. But at the end, all you can think is how sterile family entertainment has become nowadays!
(The writer is a journalist, a screenwriter, and a content developer who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise. He tweets @RanjibMazumder)
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