The Grinch Trivia | 40 facts about the animated Christmas movie

One of the most popular Christmas movies is “The Grinch”, that was first created during the ’50s, but was recreated as an animated movie in 2018.

Let’s find out more about this popular movie!

1. The Grinch is a 2018 American computer-animated Christmas fantasy comedy.
2. It is also known as Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch.
3. The film was produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures.
4. It is based on the 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss.
5. It is the third screen adaptation of the story, following the 1966 television special starring Boris Karloff and the 2000 live-action feature-length film starring Jim Carrey.
6. It marks Illumination’s second Dr. Seuss film adaptation, following The Lorax (2012).
7. The film is directed by Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier, written by Michael LeSieur and Tommy Swerdlow.
8. It is narrated by Pharrell Williams.
9. It is tarring the voices of Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, Cameron Seely, and Angela Lansbury.
10. The plot follows the Grinch and his dog Max as they plan to ruin Whoville’s Christmas celebration by stealing all the town’s decorations and gifts.
11. The Grinch was released and distributed by Universal Pictures in the United States on November 9, 2018, in RealD 3D, IMAX, IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema, and 4DX theaters.
12. It grossed over $511 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing holiday film of all-time, as well as the highest-grossing Dr. Seuss film adaptation.
13. It received mixed reviews from critics.
14. Some critics praised the animation and the vocal performances (particularly Cumberbatch’s), but felt the film added little or nothing new to the source material
15. This was the final Dr. Seuss film adaptation released during the lifetime of Seuss’s widow Audrey Geisel, who served as executive producer of the film and died on December 19, 2018, five and a half weeks after the film’s release.
16. This was Illumination Entertainment’s ninth feature film.
17. When the Grinch is talking to Mr. Bricklebaum, the ladder behind the Grinch flips. The folding joints are on the underside of the ladder and, in a quick shot, they change to the top and back down again in the next shot
18. The studio originally wanted Benedict Cumberbatch(who is British) to voice the Grinch using his natural voice, but Benedict felt that, since the rest of the cast is American, the Grinch should have an American accent.
19. The song that Grinch plays on his pipe organ is, “All by Myself” by Eric Carmen.
20. When Cindy-Lou Who and her friend go up into the tree house, the baseball bat on which they ride as a platform has the name “Theodor” carved on it. Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, wrote the Grinch book.
21. When asked if this movie was always the direction of the storybook, Benedict 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.”
22. The Grinch’s epiphany to steal Christmas happens on December 21 rather than Christmas Eve.
23. This gives the Grinch more time to develop his gadgets and formulate his plan to rob all of Whoville in one fell swoop.
24. This extra time also allows him to find reindeer to pull his sled, eventually snagging a reindeer named “Fred”.
25. This movie was originally scheduled for a November 2017 release, but was moved to November 2018.
26. This was presumably to avoid competition with Sony Animation’s The Star (2017), another animated Christmas-related movie.
27. Had this movie been released in 2017, it would’ve been released sixty years after the Dr. Seuss book on which this movie was based, first published in 1957.
28. 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 lets her on. This is a based on a scene in Speed (1994) where Annie does the same thing.
29. There is a given concept for this adaptation.
30. Like in the previous “Grinch” media, the Grinch appears to be undressed, but in here, it is revealed that he’s been wearing extra green fur over his briefs.
31. This, however, cuts out the misinterpretation to the children of seeing the Grinch “nude”.
32. The book at which the Grinch throws his alarm clock is called “Spelunking for Beginners”.
33. Spelunking is the activity and hobby of cave exploring.
34. Since the Grinch lives in a cave on Mount Crumpit, this could have helped him in the process of carving out the interior of his home long ago.
35. In all of the other versions, the Grinch could not find a reindeer to help him with his heist, so he used Max instead. But in this adaptation, he successfully finds a reindeer and lets it stay at his house with Max.
36. On November 20, 2017, Danny Elfman was revealed to be composing the score. Tyler the Creator wrote a new song for this movie 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 movie, which was featured in the final trailer.
37. One of the Whos is named Mr. Cubbins. Bartholomew Cubbins was the hero of two non-rhyming adventures by Dr. Seuss.
38. This version of the Grinch insists on getting into character as Santa and actually dons a white beard, compared to the previous versions who didn’t even bother. Yet he still does little else to hide his distinguishing green fur.
39. This was Benedict Cumberbatch’s second animated movie.
40. A frozen lake in this movie is shown to be in the shape of a heart, foreshadowing the ending when the Grinch’s heart grows three times in size.