For their eighth fully animated feature, Illumination and Universal Pictures present The Grinch, based on Dr. Seuss' beloved holiday classic. The Grinch tells the story of a cynical grump who goes on a mission to steal Christmas, only to have his heart changed by a young girl's generous holiday spirit. Funny, heartwarming, and visually stunning, it's a universal story about the spirit of Christmas and the indomitable power of optimism. Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch lends his voice to the infamous Grinch, who lives a solitary life inside a cave on Mt. Crumpet with only his loyal dog, Max, for company. With a cave rigged with inventions and contraptions for his day-to-day needs, the Grinch only sees his neighbors in Whoville when he runs out of food. Each year at Christmas they disrupt his tranquil solitude with their increasingly bigger, brighter, and louder celebrations. When the Whos declare they are going to make Christmas three times bigger this year, the Grinch ...
Written by
Universal Pictures
Plot Synopsis:
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In the town of Whoville, the Whos are eagerly anticipating Christmas. However, just north of Whoville on top of Mount Crumpit, there lives The Grinch (voice of Benedict Cumberbatch), who hates Christmas and the thought of seeing the Whos so joyful. He lives alone with his faithful dog Max. The Grinch gets ready for breakfast, only to discover that he has completely run out of food due to excessive emotional eating. This forces him to make a trip down to Whoville for some groceries. As the narrator (voice of Pharrell Williams) notes, it's not quite known just why The Grinch is the way he is. It could be that his head wasn't screwed on just right, or that his shoes are too tight, but perhaps the biggest reason of all was that his heart was two sizes too small.

The Grinch takes Max into town where he acts mean toward the Whos, and then he runs away from a group of carolers. As he gets his food, elsewhere in town, we meet Donna Lou Who (voice of Rashida Jones), an overworked single mother to Cindy Lou (voice of Cameron Seely) and twin boys Buster and Bean. Cindy Lou heads out with a letter to Santa Claus for a big wish she has, but she ends up running into The Grinch. He is mean to her as well, implying that she is, like the rest of the Whos, greedy and demanding for stuff from Santa. After he leaves, she manages to retrieve her letter.

On his way back to his cave, The Grinch runs into Bricklebaum (voice of Kenan Thompson), the jolliest Who in Whoville, and a major thorn in The Grinch's side. Bricklebaum puts up his Christmas decorations, which The Grinch calls an eyesore. Bricklebaum explains that the Mayor (Angela Lansbury) wants Christmas in Whoville to be three times bigger this year, which only makes The Grinch feel worse. He returns to his cave and sits alone, feeling that it is better for him this way. Meanwhile, Cindy Lou plans to deliver her letter to Santa personally by walking to the North Pole until Donna tells her that it would take her a month to do so.

Later, a gigantic tree is flown into Whoville to be lit that night. Annoyed, The Grinch sets up a catapult to launch a massive snowball to knock the tree down. That night, the Whos gather in the town square as the Mayor is set to light up the three. Cindy Lou gets her friend Groopert (Tristan O'Hare) and tells him that her wish to Santa is that he send help to her mother because Cindy Lou can see just how tired Donna is from all the hours she works and caring for Cindy Lou and her brothers. As the Whos get ready for the lighting, The Grinch prepares his catapult for launch, only for it to roll down the hill and drop the snowball, then launch him toward Whoville. The Grinch inadvertently lights the tree and falls in the middle of the crowd. This triggers a painful memory in him where, as a child, he was always alone, especially around Christmastime, and that's why he hates the holiday so much. He retreats back to Mount Crumpit and hatches a plan with Max to steal Christmas from the Whos.

The Grinch's plan involves becoming Santa Claus and following his methods to a T so that he can get in and out of Whoville with ease. He takes Max to find reindeer to pull a sleigh, but when they reach a whole field of reindeer, they are scared away by a screaming goat. The only one left is a fat reindeer that The Grinch later names Fred. After Fred joins The Grinch and Max, The Grinch heads into Whoville to steal a sleigh from the roof of Bricklebaum's house, but not without dealing with his crazy guard dog first. He also uses a flying device to send Max into town to get a sense of how many houses he will hit, only for Max to get distracted by sausages and get sent flying back right into The Grinch.

Cindy Lou gathers Groopert, plus her other friends Axl (Ramone Hamilton), Izzy (Scarlett Estevez), and Ozzy (Sam Lavagnino), to discuss her plan to give her wish to Santa, and that is by staging a trap for him. She manages to convince her friends to help set up the trap and test it out with Groopert, but it just tears his Santa suit off and leaves him nude.

The Grinch teaches Fred how to pull the sleigh, but just as they are walking out in the field, they spot two other reindeer who turn out to be Fred's mate and child. The Grinch knows what's going on, and, without a fuss, he lets Fred go, lamenting that it's just him and Max again.

It is the night of Christmas Eve, and The Grinch tasks Max with pulling the sleigh. They wait until all the Whos are asleep before heading down to make their move. The Grinch hits all the houses using his gadgets, stealing trees, presents, decorations, lights, and food. The very last house he hits is none other than Cindy Lou's house. He sees a cookie and decides to take it, which triggers her trap that she set. Cindy Lou hears the trap going off and she rushes downstairs to meet the man she thinks is Santa. The Grinch manages to fool her and convince her that he is taking her tree to fix a light on it. Cindy Lou then asks him to grant her wish to help her mom, which touches The Grinch since he sees that Cindy Lou isn't selfish like the way he perceives the Whos. The Grinch leaves Whoville with Cindy Lou's words still ringing in his head.

As the sun rises on Christmas morning, The Grinch reaches the top of Mount Crumpit to watch as the Whos wake up and see that all of their Christmas things have been stolen. Cindy Lou tells Donna she feels this is her fault because she trapped Santa, but Donna assures her that's not true. Soon, the Whos all join hands and sing "Welcome Christmas", which perplexes The Grinch until he closes his eyes and takes in the joy that the Whos have despite all their stuff being gone. It makes The Grinch realize that they find happiness in each other and not their material items. It even makes The Grinch's heart grow bigger. Suddenly, the sleigh starts to slide off the edge of the mountain. The Grinch grabs onto it and tries to hang on using a grappling hook, but that only causes the cliff side to crack. Before The Grinch plummets to certain doom, he is saved by Fred and his family, who are helped by Max to pull The Grinch back up. He then rides the sleigh down the hill to return everything to the Whos. He reveals himself as the one who stole Christmas from them, and he apologizes for what he did before walking back home.

Later that day, Cindy Lou visits The Grinch and invites him to go to her house for dinner. Although a bit hesitant, The Grinch brings Max to town where they join Cindy Lou's family and other guests from town, including Bricklebaum. Everyone gathers for dinner, and Donna offers The Grinch the chance to carve the rare Who roast beast. The Grinch gives a small speech in which he admits that he never hated Christmas, but rather the feeling of being alone on the holiday. And so, The Grinch delivers a toast, to kindness and love, the things we need most.

The studio originally wanted Benedict Cumberbatch to voice the Grinch using his natural voice, but Benedict felt that, since the rest of the cast is American, the Grinch himself should have an American accent.
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In Despicable Me 3 (2017), the oldest of Gru's girls, Margo, is seen wearing a T-shirt with this version of the Grinch on the front. Being as both are from Ilumination Entertainment, this was clearly a nod to the upcoming film. In the first Despicable Me (2010) film, Margo had a Lorax shirt, teasing Illumination Entertainment's The Lorax (2012), a fellow Dr. Seuss film.
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Max is still the Grinch's morality pet, but instead of being a frightened, timid dog who reluctantly does the Grinch's bidding, Max is very much loving and loyal to the Grinch. While he is by no means a nicer guy, this version of the Grinch is shown to be marginally kinder to Max than the Chuck Jones or the Ron Howard version, generally by treating him more like a typical dog owner would and at one point playing with Max with a small, affectionate smile on his face. Overall, the Grinch is much less antisocial than his previous incarnations and it's implied his motive for stealing Christmas is partially more of a Freudian Excuse than out of sheer malice.
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When asked if the film was always the direction of the storybook, Cumberbatch stated: "You don't necessarily get the whole script. There's pitches all along the way and you know where it's going. But I did say quite early on I really want to know why he is the way he is. Maybe there is a reason behind that, that he's been hurt before. Why is he outside? Why is he green? Why does he live on his own in a mountain? What is all that about? The sort of motivational questions that a navel-gazing actor always asks. But you do need to make sense of characters. They can't just exist in a vacuum, even if they're animated characters in a family film.".
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There's a scene where Donna Who is late for her bus and chases after it yelling the bus driver's name "Sam!", who then stops and let's her on. This is a reference to the film Speed (1994), where Sandra Bullock's character Annie does the same thing.
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The film was originally scheduled for a 2017 November release but was moved to November 2018 presumably to avoid competition with Sony Animation's The Star (2017), another animated Christmas-related film. Had the film been released in its original scheduled release date, it would've been released approximately 60 years after the Dr. Suess book, in which this film is based on, was first published in 1957.
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When Cindy Lou and her friend go up into the treehouse the baseball bat they ride on as a platform has the name "Theodor" carved on it. This is a reference to author-creator Dr.Seuss aka Theodor Seuss Geisel.
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First Grinch movie in which he isn't mean to or mistreats his dog, Max in any way.
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The song that Grinch plays on his pipe organ is, "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen.
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When asked What is a holiday tradition or Christmas thing that makes him feel most like a Grinch, Cumberbatch stated: "Excess packaging, It's enough already. We're living [through] environmental disaster after environmental disaster. I don't get why it's not something that's actually fine-able now, to wrap toys and goods in plastic that's not needed. Toys are made of plastic as well. It's plastic on plastic. That is the thing that gets me Grinch-y. Everything else is just part of the season. Last minute Christmas shopping? Often you've only got yourself to blame. But I just can't stand all the excess that goes with consumer goods and packaging".
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The Grinch is still a mean one, but significantly less of a mean one than previous versions, as he is portrayed as a grouchy cynic who prefers to mind his own business than actively hurt other people, will still be social when he needs to be, treats his dog well, and who decides to steal Christmas to prove a point rather than out of pure hatred for the Whos and the holiday.
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Second voice acting of Benedict Cumberbatch, without the use of motion capture performance.
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The Grinch is less exaggerated-looking than previous versions, with softer facial features that look more like a furry green dog-man than a creepy old goblin, and normal eyes instead of his signature red and yellow pupils. He's also got much less of an exaggerated potbelly. Adaptation Expansion: The previous versions establish/imply that the Grinch lives in self-imposed exile away from the Whos. This film shows that the Grinch regularly visits Whoville to buy groceries. Presumably, as a result of him coming down to their town often, the Whos don't despise or fear him as much as the Whos do in Ron Howard's film or Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), where the Grinch's impending arrival is a big deal.
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This is Illumination Entertainment's second Dr. Seuss film, after The Lorax (2012).
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Brad Dourif was replaced by Pharrell Williams as The Narrator.
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The Grinch is said to have had to deal with Whoville and Christmas for 53 years. This film is set to be released approximately 53 years after the original animated adaptation from 1966. In addition, the film began its run in some theaters on November 8, 2018, eighteen years after the release of the 2000 live-action adaptation.
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This film marks the second time a British actor has voiced the character of the Grinch. The first was with Boris Karloff in the 1966 TV special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966).
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This was Benedict Cumberbatch's second animated film. The first being Penguins of Madagascar (2014), four years prior.
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When asked how prepping and going into record compared to motion capture, Benedict Cumberbatch stated: "it's far less mobile. It's a fixed point, you have to create a lot of energy, but it's around a really fixed access of microphone, whether you're being hauled around in a sleigh round a mountain or flung through a catapult or talking very quietly to your dog - all those levels have to come around a microphone. Your voice has to be supported by the action that makes it sound that way, but you have to stay on the mic whereas with motion capture you can really swing yourself about because you have a headset usually; you can throw your body around the landscape, except you're in isolation at the mic without Angela Lansbury or Kenan Thompson or any of the thousand people I did talk to".
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Angela Lansbury's third theatrically released animated film. Her previous two were Beauty and the Beast (1991) from Disney and Anastasia (1997) from 20th Century Fox, both released in the 1990s.
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Released a month before Mowgli (2018) also starring Benedict Cumberbatch voicing the main antagonist, Shere Khan.
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Like almost all of Illumination's other films, the animation was created entirely in France by Illumination Mac Guff.
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This is the second Grinch remake to be released by Universal, following the film of the same name in 2000 by Jim Carrey.
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The movie's animation was made using Autodesk Maya.
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On November 20, 2017, Danny Elfman was revealed to be composing the film's score. Tyler the Creator wrote a new song for the film titled, "I Am the Grinch". Tyler and Elfman collaborated on a new version of the song, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", for the film, which was featured in the final trailer.
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The first official footage of the film was released by Illumination Entertainment as a TV spot on February 9, 2018, to capitalize on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
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Benedict Cumberbatch was already a fan of the book, and the 1966 Chuck Jones animated version.
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This was the third Dr. Seuss animated film, after Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and The Lorax (2012).
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The Grinch in the 1966 cartoon and Jim Carrey version is paper thinned disguised as Santa Claus. In this film the Grinch plays a more convincing looking Santa including a beard and boots.
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This was Illumination Entertainment's ninth feature film.
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Cumberbatch stated his own tips or traditions for getting in the spirit: "It's just about family and friends and going off-grid for me. It's about decorating of course -- the tree, the house. I like getting out there and being with friends and family. I'll be like, "Wow, I feel like I've been out three nights in a row -- oh yeah, it's Christmas!" I really love that sense of it being a holiday. I just enjoy the effort that people go to everywhere with decorations. I like being in a metropolis for Christmas, and I really like getting away from it all around the actual days and being in nature."
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The Grinch is attacked by a ginger cat while he is stealing presents, just like how his live-action counterpart was attacked in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) by a Persian cat.
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Benedict Cumberbatch had been cast as the titular character in April 2016. By September 2018, Angela Lansbury had been cast as the Mayor of Whoville. Rashida Jones, Cameron Seely, and Kenan Thompson had also been cast in the film, while Pharrell Williams, who previously worked on Illumination's Despicable Me films, was revealed to be narrating the film.
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Similar to his previous incarnations, this Grinch has a massive intellect when it comes to concocting schemes and creating technological marvels, all for the purpose of stealing gifts.
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In Tyler the Creator's rendition of "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch", there are two lines in which the Grinch's teeth are described as yellow. However, in the film, the Grinch's teeth are clearly white. Whereas in the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), his teeth are yellow and extremely crooked. In the original book and the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), his teeth also appeared to be white, though also crooked. In this film, his teeth, aside from being white, are mostly straight.
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This is Illumination Entertainment's third musical film, after The Lorax (2012) and Sing (2016).
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In 2018, producer Scott Mosier took over from Peter Candeland as director.
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In Cindy-Lou Who's first scene she is chasing after a mailman to give him a letter to Santa. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Cindy-Lou's first scene was going to the Post Office to join her father at work.
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This is Illumination Entertainment's first holiday based film since Hop (2011).
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Illumination Entertainment's second film to feature no humans after Sing (2016), and the second animated Dr. Seuss film to feature the furry humanoids seen commonly in Dr. Seuss books, after Horton Hears a Who! (2008).
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This is Illumination's last original full-length animated feature film of the 2010s, and last original full-length feature for the next two years as the next films releasing in that time (The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019), Minions 2 (2020), and Sing 2 (2020)) are all sequels.
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This is the second Illumination Entertainment film to have a holiday season release, after Sing (2016).
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In the Latin American Spanish dub, the Grinch is voiced by Eugenio Derbez; in the Japanese dub, the titular Grinch is voiced by the movie actor Yo Oizumi, better known to videogame fans as the Japanese voice of the titular Professor Layton and also playing Kureo Mado in the Tokyo Ghoul live-action film; in the Brazilian dub, the Grinch is voiced by Lázaro Ramos.
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Pharrell Williams, who is the narrator of this film, and Tyler the Creator, who provided songs for the film's soundtrack, would go on to collaborate on the song, "The Mantra", which is on the Creed II (2018) soundtrack.
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Feature film non-documentary directorial debut of Scott Mosier, whose previous directing credits are the documentary 'Mae Day' and a short subject.
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This version of the Grinch insists on getting into character and actually dons a white beard, compared to the previous version who didn't even bother. That said he still does little else to hide his distinguishing green fur.
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The second Illumination film to be produced in 2.39:1, after Despicable Me 3 (2017).
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Since the Grinch has a very distinctive shape and look, the animators took inspiration from the book, Cumberbatch stated: "for certain performative strokes definitely,they film your performance while you're doing it, so it's not in isolation from that, they've managed to embody this voice in a character that's utterly unique, and i don't think looks too much like me,they record every session so they can see the performances as well as hear [it] but its not like facial capture, i never did anything of that nature."
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Cumberbatch compared the Grinch to his motion-capture performance of Smaug: "for this character, a little bit like Smaug, he lives in a mountain and he's quite angry and isolated and alone, so apart from talking to Max who doesn't verbalize, it helped for the character in this instance. It does get very weird if you're doing quick-fire dialogue and you're not in the room with the people you're acting with."
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This is Illumination first PG-rated animated film for thematic elements.
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In the Latin American Spanish dub: Ruben Cerda, who voiced the titular character's singing voice in the live-action film, will reprise the character in the dub, through the acting voice will be voiced by Eugenio Derbez instead, rather than Mario Castañeda.
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The eighth Universal animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA, of which all previous animated Universal films released after The Tale of Despereaux (2008) (Universal's only CGI film Rated G by the MPAA) were rated as such.
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The second theatrical Dr. Seuss animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA, after The Lorax (2012), and the fourth theatrical Dr. Seuss film to be rated PG by the MPAA.
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The second Illumination film with a dog named Max, first was The Secret Life of Pets (2016).
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Cindy-Lou Who has a stuffed animal that resembles Snowball from Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets (2016).
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Rashida Jones's second animated film, after Inside Out (2015), three years prior. Both of these movies had a Hotel Transylvania film in their respective years (2015 and 2018).
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Fourth 2018 animated film to have a non-verbal lead character (that being the Grinch's dog, Max) after Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (2018) (which has the titular Sgt. Stubby the Dog), Incredibles 2 (2018) (which has Baby Jack-Jack), and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) (which has Blobby the Blob Monster).
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The movie was from the creators of Despicable Me (2010), The Secret Life of Pets (2016), and Sing (2016).
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Cindy Lou Who's night gown that she wore when the Grinch steals a Christmas tree resembles the dresses worn by the female smurfs in "Smurfs: The Lost Village" (2017).
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In Spanish dub (Spain), the Grinch is voiced by Ernesto Alterio.
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The last Illumination film of the 2010s to be released in 2.39:1 aspect ratio.
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The third Universal's animated film to be produced in 2.39:1, after The Tale of Despereaux (2008) and Despicable Me 3 (2017).
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Benedict Cumberbatch was already a fan, of the book and 1966 Boris Karloffs cartoon version.
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This is the first Illumination film to not feature a main antagonist.
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This film marks the second time that The Grinch is shown as a child. The first film to show him as a child is How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).
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The Grinch is originally rated G.
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Released two weeks before Black Friday.
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Singer Kaitlyn Maher was originally considered for the role of Cindy Lou Who.
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Near the end of the film, the Grinch wears a red and white tie when he's invited over to Cindy-Lou's house for Christmas dinner, a reference to The Cat in the Hat (another Dr. Seuss character) who has the same color pattern hat.
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In the original book as well as the first film adaptation, the Grinch could not find a reindeer to help him with his heist, so he used Max instead. But in this adaptation he does successfully find a reindeer and lets it stay at his house with Max.
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The Grinch's epiphany to steal Christmas happens on December 21st rather than Christmas Eve. This gives the Grinch more time to develop his gadgets and formulate his plan to rob all of Whoville in one fell swoop. This extra time also allows him to find reindeer to pull his sled, eventually snagging a reindeer named Fred.
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A frozen lake in the film is shown to be in the shape of a heart, foreshadowing the ending when the Grinchs heart grows twice in size.
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The reason why the Grinch has to go down to Whoville during Christmas season. He initially had stockpiles of food to last him till the start of January but due to his excessive "emotional" eating, he was reduced to a mere bean on a plate just five days shy of Christmas itself.
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In one of the trailers The Grinch is stealing Christmas and a cat attacks him. This was reused from the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) where Jim Carrey's Grinch character gets attacked by a cat as well.
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It is possible that the Grinch's backstory will differ from this film's live-action counterpart, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), in which the Grinch was publicly humiliated in elementary school as a child due to having to shave at his age.
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Martha May Who from How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) would not be included in this version, especially as the Grinch's love interest. It is possible that she was viewed as a gender stereotype.
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Several times the Grinch stands on a rock outcropping by his cave that overlooks Whoville. On long shots of his cave, the outcropping is missing.
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When we first see Cindy-Lou's house, there is a long winding sidewalk that goes from her front door down into town (she sleds down it to mail her letter). In all other shots of her house, this sidewalk is missing and the road runs right by her front door.
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The Grinch's cave door alternates between opening to the outside and to the inside throughout the movie.
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