Theodore A. Geisel, or what many people
may know as Dr. Seuss, was one of the most ingenious creative minds in history.
A person who not only made reading interesting for kids with such imagination,
but also was ahead of his time creating stories that are much more profound
thematically than one would initially expect from a children’s book.
Unfortunately, many do not understand the subtly and reflective motifs of Dr.
Seuss’ stories and just create current movies that are nothing more than basic
children movies with nothing too much special to offer. The case continues with
Illumination’s adaptation of The Grinch,
a movie that is so bland and unremarkable that there is barely anything worth
noting even compared to some of Seuss’ other adaptations.
Grinch’s
story follows mostly how the original story does with the Grinch being a person
who hates Christmas and the joy it brings so much that he feels the needs to
take away everyone’s fun by stealing Christmas. The original story itself is
tightly told and many would argue to extend a story like this would be
excessive, which this new Grinch
movie does that exactly. Instead of adding worth of substance to an already
great story, the Grinch just adds
nothing but filler and not just filler, but filler and subplots that have been
done time and time again. Clichés that we’ve seen so many times in every other
Christmas related movies, and this movie has no moment that doesn’t rely on a cliché.
It doesn’t really focus on what made the Grinch so iconic and instead make it a
typical Christmas movie with nothing new to offer. Outside of a few small
moments in the end that are cute and do add a bit of substance to the original
story, there’s nothing that makes this hour and a half long movie worth being
as long as it is. It plays it too safe and does nothing original, which
although not quite as cringe worthy as other Dr. Seuss movies, like many other
Illumination movies, it just ends up being another bland animated film with
nothing special to offer.
What is a Grinch movie without the Grinch himself being an entertaining
personality to come by, which unfortunately, this movie failed to make the
Grinch being the least bit interesting The character himself doesn’t come
across as a person who is truly filled with hate to the point of never finding
joy in anything, but instead a character that just seems more annoyed with the
people around him. It doesn’t make for an interesting new interpretation of the
Grinch because he doesn’t even feel like the Grinch and instead feels like an
average annoyed character like Squidward from Spongebob. Not only is he written
in a generic fashion with not much development but surprisingly isn’t even
portrayed that well by the actor. Benedict Cumberbatch is honestly an excellent
choice to play the Grinch as he has proven himself to play a variety of
characters including ones with a slimy evil edge to them like the Grinch, but
the way the character is portrayed he sounds way too casual to be the Grinch we
all know and love. It’s a shame that someone thought it was a good idea to take
such a talented actor with so much range like Benedict Cumberbatch and have him
not used that potential for a character like the Grinch by making him give the
most casual and uninteresting performance in his entire career. As for the rest
of the cast, there’s nothing much to them either outside of being forgettable
generic characters that are either there to be comedic relief or to add to the
film’s overly cutesy nature. Characters needed to make this film memorable and
it’s just generic cutesy mediocrity in terms of how these characters are
written.
If there is any sort of positivity to be
said about this movie, it is a very appealing movie to look at. Out of all the
films to come from Illumination entertainment, this is probably their best
looking film with so many bright colors and visually awesome background. The
character animation is incredibly expressive and fun to watch as well. The
movie might be the best looking Dr. Seuss movie giving into a lot of great
color that Seuss is known for and also some very expressive characters. The
only downside to the look is that there could have been more work done on the
character designs. The Grinch barely has that threatening edge to him and looks
way more comedic than he needs to be in this. The character from his fluffy
texture to his perfect teeth look too clean cut and casual to be the Grinch,
even with the animators doing a decent job making him an expressive character.
Even despite some of the downfalls with the character designs, The Grinch is an overall appealing film
to look at.
The
Grinch from Illumination is nothing more than a generic and mediocre at
best film with very little substance or character to it. It’s far from the
worst movie even by Dr. Seuss films standards, but it is so lifeless and
generic that it almost makes it worse than some of the other Seuss films. It’s
not even so bad it’s entertaining and unless if you’re a kid who are
interested, isn’t really worth your time. This movie can be described in three
words and I quote, “Stink, Stank, Meh”.
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