How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Children's book produced as a feature film review #1

This story, which was originally written in 1957 by Dr. Seuss is about the Grinch who hates Christmas so he devotes his life to ruining Christmas for all of the Whos in Whoville. In 1966 a TV movie was created based on the book. Then in 2000 a feature film was made. Because the film is based on a children's picture book many additions had to be made to the storyline to bring it up to feature-length.

The original Grinch featured in the book was actually not green. Like everything else in the book, he was black and white with some red and pink splotches. In the movie, however, the Grinch is featured as a bright green character who is played by the hillarious Jim Carrey. The Grinch costume was actually created by sewing yak hairs, which were dyed green, onto a spandex suit. The hairs were sewn on one by one.

Although Max, the dog, was somewhat of a minor character in the book, he was made into a more significant character in the feature film in order for him to "represent the audience... the one you wanted to rescue."

The original book, set in the 1950's, in many ways, celebrates the joys of simple living. The costume director of the feature film did indeed go for the 1950's look, getting ideas from old cookbooks and decorating the Who's costumes with vintage buttons. The detail of the costumes in the movie along with the vivid set however, symbolizes the change in our society from simple living to complexity in that it cost more than $115 million to make! The live-action movie actually features more than 52,000 Christmas lights, about 8,200 Christmas ornaments, and nearly 2,000 candy canes. As for the costumes and make-up, no other movie has featured so many characters and heavy make-up since the Wizard of Oz in 1939.

Adults and children around the world have considered the book to be one of Dr. Seuss' most well-known stories of all time. When the feature film was created in 2000, it actually received mixed critical reaction, but did end up spending four weeks as the #1 film in the U.S., eventually earning $260 million at the US box office.