Random Xmas movie part 1

movie:  The Grinch
starring:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones
genre: Comedy, Cartoon
year: 2018
format: Crave

plot: When the holiday hits the town of Whoville, everyone gets a little bit crazy, as the mayor has informed them to make everything three times larger than previous years. This is bad news for the Grinch, who just wants a quiet holiday. Deciding he must stop the festival, he hatches a plan to steal everyone's xmas related things. Meanwhile, a local group of kids decide to stay up late and capture Santa. Unknown to them, they accidentally trap the Grinch instead.

Okay, so if you've been following me for any amount of time, you know I don't celebrate winter holidays, so for me to sit down and watch an xmas movie something is going on. In this case I was looking for something for the upcoming Foodn'Flix.  I actually ended up liking this new version of the story.

The characters in this new version of The Grinch have more depth and they are fleshed out a lot more than previous versions. You get to know the kids in the neighbourhood as characters this time around with personalities which is something previous versions didn't really do.  And the addition of the reindeer buddy was cute.  I found myself giggling at the scenes of the Grinch, his dog and the reindeer thinking they'd make a great buddy comedy.  Which, is basically what this boils down to be. An animated buddy comedy with some over the top slapstick gags. Which, are actually funny.

I think this version is smart, witty and likeable.   Though, ironically, I decided not to go with this for Foodn'Flix, it's got a ton of food scenes.

The moral of the story hasn't really changed, the Grinch unwittingly reminds everyone the lesson that having tons of stuff isn't the point of the holidays, or the point of anything really. The rest of the town seem to bounce back from their "loss" easily as if it never happened.

I will say this about the film though, you almost get a sense that the producers/directors wanted to give the Grinch a romance because they point out more than a few times that the lady down the road is a single mom.  That would have been an interesting twist I think.