The Grinch Trivia | 60 facts about the Christmas movie

The Grinch is a 2018 American animated Christmas comedy film. It’s the third screen adaptation of the 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.

Let’s find out more about the movie!

1. 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 should have an American accent.
2. The song that Grinch plays on his pipe organ is, “All by Myself” by Eric Carmen.
3. 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. Both are from Ilumination Entertainment, and this was clearly a nod to the upcoming movie.
4. In Despicable Me (2010) Margo had a Lorax shirt, teasing Illumination Entertainment’s The Lorax (2012), a fellow Dr. Seuss movie.
5. 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.”
6. 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.
7. 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 in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) or The Grinch(2000), 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.
8. 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.
9. This movie was originally scheduled for a November 2017 release, but was moved to November 2018.
10. This was presumably to avoid competition with Sony Animation’s The Star (2017), another animated Christmas-related movie. 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.
11. The Grinch’s epiphany to steal Christmas happens on December 21 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”.
12. 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 identical to the scene in Speed (1994) where Annie does the same thing.
13. 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. Furthermore, the previous versions establish/imply that the Grinch lives in self-imposed exile away from the Whos. This movie 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 How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) or Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), where the Grinch’s impending arrival is a big deal
14. When asked what is a holiday tradition or Christmas thing that makes him feel most like a Grinch, Benedict 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 Grinchy. 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.”
15. One of the Whos is named Mr. Cubbins. Bartholomew Cubbins was the hero of two non-rhyming adventures by Dr. Seuss.
16. 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”.
17. 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.
18. Like almost all of Illumination’s other movies, the animation was created entirely in France by Illumination Mac Guff.
19. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000), the Grinch gets the idea of disguising himself as Santa Claus when he sees Max’s face being covered with snow that vaguely resembles Santa’s face.
20. In the book and this version, the Grinch comes up with the idea of disguising himself as Santa completely on his own.
21. There is a given concept for this adaptation. 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. This, however, cuts out the misinterpretation to the children of seeing the Grinch “nude”.
22. Dame Angela Lansbury’s fourth and final theatrically released animated movie. In the book, Cindy-Lou Who is “no more than two” years old. In this movie, she is six-years-old.
23. The book at which the Grinch throws his alarm clock is called “Spelunking for Beginners”. Spelunking is the activity and hobby of cave exploring. 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.
24. Benedict Cumberbatch compared the Grinch to his motion-capture performance of Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy: “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.”
25. This is Illumination Entertainment’s second Dr. Seuss movie, after The Lorax (2012).
26. The Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) and Ο κατεργάρης των Χριστουγέννων (2000) wore a Santa Claus costume, but makes no further attempt to really look like Santa. In this movie, the Grinch plays a more convincing looking Santa including a beard and boots.
27. Brad Dourif was replaced by Pharrell Williams as The Narrator.
28. The Grinch is attacked by a ginger cat while he is stealing presents, just like how his live-action counterpart was attacked in The Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000) by a Persian cat.
29. 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.
30. This movie marks the second time an English actor has voiced the character of the Grinch. The first was with Boris Karloff in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966).
31. 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.
32. This was Benedict Cumberbatch’s second animated movie.
33. Cindy-Lou Who has a stuffed animal that resembles Snowball from Illumination’s Pets (2016).
34. The Grinch’s intellect to build inventions originally came from The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982). This trait was repeated in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and the animated film.
35. Similar to his previous incarnations, this Grinch has a massive intellect when it comes to concocting schemes and creating technological marvels – apparently inspired by Rube Goldberg – all for the purpose of stealing gifts.
36. Martha May Whover from How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) was completely written off from this version, as the writers felt that a voluptuous love interest is not the kind of message they wanted to acquire this time, which is connected to the controversy from The Cat in The Hat (2003). Like many other versions of the classic Christmas story, the Grinch was never given a love interest.
37. The movie’s animation was made using Autodesk Maya.
38. Since the Grinch has a very distinctive shape and look, the animators took inspiration from the book, Benedict 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 it’s not like facial capture, I never did anything of that nature.”
39. 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 this movie, the Grinch’s teeth are clearly white.
40. Whereas in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) (2000), his teeth are yellow and extremely crooked. In the original book and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), his teeth also appeared to be white, though also crooked. In this movie, his teeth, aside from being white, are mostly straight.
41. Released a month before Mowgli (2018) also starring Benedict Cumberbatch voicing the main antagonist, Shere Khan.
42. Benedict Cumberbatch was already a fan of the book and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966).
43. Second voice acting of Benedict Cumberbatch, without the use of motion capture performance.
44. 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.
45. The first official footage of this movie was released by Illumination Entertainment as a television spot on February 9, 2018, to capitalize on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
46. Illumination’s second movie to have a narrator, after Minions (2015).
47. The very first time the Grinch says the word Christmas, Benedict Cumberbatch pronounces it like the Grinch in How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) as a nod to Jim Carrey.
48. This is the second Grinch adaptation released by Universal Pictures. The first being How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000).
49. Cindy-lou’s friends are called Axl, Izzy and Ozzy. Possibly a nod too Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin of Guns n’ Roses and Ozzy Osborne, Prince of darkness of Black Sabbath.
50. This movie marks the second time that The Grinch is shown as a child. The first being How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000).
51. Benedict 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.”
52. A couple of cameos were shown in Cindy Lou Who’s room. The first is the Swomee Swan from The Lorax (2012). The second is a bunny doll that looks like Snowball from Pets (2016).
53. The third fully CGI animated film based on a Dr. Seuss book, the first being Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and the second being The Lorax (2012).
54. In 2018, Producer Scott Mosier took over from Pete Candeland as director.
55. Feature film non-documentary directorial debut of Scott Mosier, whose previous directing credits were the short films Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary (1992) and Eddie’s Life Coach (2017).
56. This is the last Dr. Seuss film to be released during Seuss’s widow Audrey Geisel’s lifetime as she died five and a half weeks after the film’s premiere.
57. This was Illumination Entertainment’s ninth feature film.
58. Illumination’s fourth animated movie screened in IMAX theaters after The Lorax (2012), Pets (2016), and  Despicable Me 3 (2017).
59. Cindy Lou Who’s mother is named Donna, after the wife storyboard artist Steve Moore. She passed away during production.
60. This is Illumination’s first PG-rated animated movie for thematic elements.