Day 315 of the challenge! You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch…*cue hip hop.
The new Grinch is pretty much what you would expect from a modern day, non-Disney animated kid flick. It’s beautifully animated, has enough silly humor for the kids (who were absolutely LOVING it in the showing I was in), and enough quirky cleverness to win over most of the adults in the theater too. You know, assuming they’re not being a grinch themselves about it not being exactly like the Boris Karloff original or even the Jim Carrey one (which I personally adore. Fight me). Benedict Cumberbatch does a fun job with his interpretation of the character, so it’s great to include him in the ranks.
That’s not to say The Grinch isn’t incredibly wonky. There’s some painfully obvious narrative padding to make the story reach feature length, including a side plot involving a fat reindeer and a short flashback explaining why the Grinch is such a grinch (because apparently that’s really important to explain and he just can’t be bad for the sake of it). The Grinch himself also comes off as more annoyed and sad about things than actually being bad or small hearted (which might be another sore spot for some). Plus, all the hip hop beats get old fast. What is it with animated kid flicks needing to feature hip hop lately? Maybe I’m just getting old or something, but damn it’s grating.
Regardless, The Grinch is a fun and harmless retelling of the Dr. Seuss classic, and anything that makes the kids laugh as much as they were at my local theater can’t be all bad, right?