The Grinch is the titular main protagonist of the 2000 live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He is a grumpy lonely green creature with a heart "two sizes and a half", who loathed Christmas with a passion. He also harbored a grudge towards the residents of Whoville for their Christmas spirit and how they treated him poorly as a kid.
He is portrayed by Jim Carrey.
What Makes Him Entertaining?[]
- He has a very sassy, expressive and suave approach to his vengeful personality in a unhinged and deranged way than any other version of The Grinch, which makes him come off as highly entertaining to watch.
- He carries out some of his misdeeds in a generally comedic way (while most of them are done in a badass way), thus making him more likeable and entertaining to the audience than the Whos ever were (minus Cindy Lou Who, her parents, and Martha May Whovier despite The Grinch having a strong grudge towards Whoville. Also, the Grinch's unpleasant traits in the film, like his sadomasochism, malicious intent, spite, anger and arrogance (as well as being remarkably aloof and clown-like in his voice and movements), are all treated in a usually hilarious light and mostly overshadowed by his charm since he appears to do it in a incredibly cartoonish, energetic, light-hearted and exaggerated way that makes you like him more rather than finding him to be a complete scumbag due to The Grinch himself being somewhat jocular and over-the-top.
- He also harassed Mayor Augustus Maywho by shaving off his haircut and did this to humiliate him in front of everyone, which worked as he intended. Though to be fair, Mayor Augustus deserved it as he was the one who re-instigated the Grinch's wrath towards the Whos in the first place by giving him the shaver as a "gift".
- He terrorized Whoville by causing everyone in fear by taking a elderly Who's drink, sipping it, tossing it away and using a lighter to set an entire Christmas tree on fire, burning it all to the point it made the star fall to the ground (which The Grinch shows enjoyment in doing so). He also took a tiny Who's car to drive it to cause disorder while all the Whos are running because of The Grinch scaring them, and he crashed the car into a fire hydrant: which caused a giant explosion all around the town and nearly endangering all of the Whos with his shenanigans, thus showing how incredibly threatening his antics can get.
- He carries a lot of charisma thanks to Jim Carrey's hilarious hammy acting, and The Grinch himself being depicted in a humorous light throughout the film in a way that makes you enjoy him as a character overall, before and after his role as a villain.
- Behind his sadistic actions, he has shown to be somewhat insecure as he thinks of himself as nothing but a monster to be hated because of his appearance and nature, like he was as a kid. However, it wasn't until the intervention of Cindy Lou Who who tried to reach to his heart (even when Cindy says his temperature was cold then warm but overall saw him as a sweet person while Grinch was pretending to be Santa), and the epiphany of the true meaning of Christmas is what made him learn the error of his ways (on his own), his heart growing made him show tears while sobbing with tons of remorse, even admitting that he does genuinely love Max once his heart has grown three sizes that day (even letting Max lick him before getting him off), he was also willing to save the presents (as well as Cindy Lou) from falling down the mountain for the fact he cares (thus showing his most heroic moment in the film) and willing to return the gifts and decorations that he stole from the Whos (once he saw Cindy on there and her stating that she went to see him so he wouldn't feel lonely again), this made The Grinch save her and the presents from falling, not for self-serving purposes, but showing his good-hearted side when the people that cared for him are in danger.
- The reason behind his cold-hearted disposition, is how his childhood was basically ruined and derailed by the Whos (minus Martha) in his youth ever since he was an eight-year-old. It starts from him being picked on when he was a child and being an outcast at school while bullied by Augustus Maywho, despite the Grinch once having a good childhood, it's how the horrible treatment several Whos show him when The Grinch tried shaving his face off since he was seen as "hairy" because of his looks, and being mocked and jeered by everyone in the class (even his own teacher) except for his childhood crush Martha, is what drove him over the edge to become the Christmas-hating and who-Hating person he was ever known.
- It is shown that he made schedules with himself to cope with his bitter hatred towards the Whos (and enjoys talking to his own echo in the cave to entertain himself without needing to torture anyone like Max for example), which shows how his hatred towards the Whos was still growing ever since he was a 8-year-old child and was actively finding ways to mind his own business despite all the noise the Whos been making for years (as well as trespassers that keep bothering him), all of which made him grow even more spite for the Whos than before.
- He is the smartest Who of Whoville. He was able to live on his own in a mountain ever since he was a child, created an entire extravagant lair on his very own, and can singlehandedly invent several devices and vehicles to serve his own schemes without fails, such as his mechanically modified sleigh he can pilot with.
- For all of his silliness, exuberance and comedic moments, he also exhibits remarkable genius qualities such as top-notch mechanical engineering such as his sleigh actually flies (which he did several tests on to make sure that it didn't malfunction at all) and even as a child, he shows crafty skills by manufacturing a beautiful-looking angel tree topper as his gift to Martha as a kid.
- He is also very capable of outsmarting anyone during his scheme of stealing every present that wasn't just fooling Cindy Lou Who, as this also includes tricking Cindy's dad into thinking Cindy wrapped herself up in a gift when it was The Grinch who wrapped her up in a package and left her there, and even getting Mayor Augustus into thinking he was kissing Martha in his sleep when The Grinch was play-acting and impersonating a woman voice while making him kiss Max's butt as a prank to pull on him.
- Not only is he proven to be the smartest (if the quirkiest) Who in Whoville of the whole film, he concocted a plan to steal all of the Whos' presents, food, and decorations, and he executes his plan flawlessly.
- He also knows how to keep a safety rope on his sleigh so he couldn't put himself in danger while he allowed Cindy to take control of the sleigh, which had The Grinch be able to do some wind tricks in the air while the rope is tied to the sleigh being driven back to Whoville by Cindy, with all the presents still intact.
- When Cindy Lou-Who sees the Grinch stealing her family's Christmas tree, The Grinch had to think on his feet, hide behind the tree and fabricate an excuse that he is not stealing but fixing her Christmas tree while pretending to be Santa with a boisterous tone of voice (even when Cindy asked what is Christmas about and said "VENGEANCE", he was able to change it back to it being about "presents" to soothe the mood). He was also affable enough to get her the drink she got up for in the first place (which made Cindy see the good in The Grinch and see him as "sweet").
- He was even able to save Cindy Lou Who despite intending to scare her to fall into a box factory to be turned into a package in a factory, and pulled her out so she didn't get stuck inside a box, which made Cindy see him as a "hero" even when The Grinch didn't intend to be seen as "heroic" by anyone at the time.
- While pragmatic, manipulative and an obnoxious manchild who faced humiliating moments throughout, we do get to see him express genuine remorse towards the Whos for stealing their gifts and causing disorder all the time. He does this by admitting he is sorry for the crimes he's committed and was willing to get himself arrested by the Whoville officer, being pepper sprayed in the eyes or being put in a "chokehold" as consequences The Grinch is highly aware of. This made the officer see the good in the Grinch and correct the Mayor for having spiteful intent towards "punishing" The Grinch.
- He even invited all of the Whos to his lair to celebrate Christmas with him after finally being accepted to the Whos in a long time.
What Makes Him Detestable?[]
- Even though he is nowhere as much of a loathsome, hypocritical, egotistical scumbag that Augustus Maywho is, The Grinch was depicted to be overall sociopathic, somewhat of a force to be reckoned with in his adult years despite being a bit of a nuisance.
- He is also an obnoxious manchild throughout the film and was hated (in-universe) by a few Whos (such as the Mayor himself) despite most of the Whos genuinely fearing him and seeing him as a threat.
- Even when he succeeds in his gift-stealing scheme, his sleigh running out of gas didn't stop the Grinch as he still resorted to a backup plan like getting Max to carry the sleigh with all the presents by whipping Max to force him to carry the sleigh onto his mountain.
- He played harmful pranks on the citizens of Whoville, such as tampering with their mail in a post office, making some prank calls in Whoville (with a death threat style voicemail of his own) and scaring a couple of intruders from entering into his lair with a giant scary-looking face machine that roars very menacingly once Max barks at it through an cone attached to the back.
- He was fairly abusive towards Max at times, such as throwing Max into the snow (with his doghouse) for even liking Christmas, ordering him to find the right screwdriver for his sleigh in an angry way while The Grinch was building said sleigh, and whipping him to force him to pull his sleigh.
- After terrorizing Whoville, he stole all of the Whos' presents, decorations, and food in an attempt to destroy their Christmas spirit.
- This says something since, compared to the original and the 2018 version, this Grinch was initially successful at nearly destroying the Who's Christmas spirit and ruining everyone's holiday cheer due to the gifts and decorations being gone (even getting the Mayor to throw a pathetic temper tantrum before Cindy's dad cheered everyone up by saying Christmas isn't all about gifts and putting an end to The Grinch's nearly successful plan).
- He nearly let Cindy Lou Who be stuck in the gift conveyor belt of a box factory in the post office and caused her to call for help due to The Grinch jump scaring her to the point of falling into the gifts of a gift wrapping machine, and The Grinch intended to leave her in the situation before Max bites him on the butt to make him save her. Even after he got Cindy Lou Who out of the gifts pile, once she thought he "saved" her, he claims that he didn't intend on saving her and then wraps her up in a package, leaving her there upon his escape.
Trivia[]
- This is the only version of The Grinch to be Entertainingly Detestable, where his original/animated counterpart and his 2018 counterpart are both Magnificent Baddies.
External links[]
- The Grinch on the Villains Wiki
- The Grinch on the Heroes Wiki