The Grinch (film)/Trivia

Trivias for The Grinch (film).

Trivia

 * The studio originally wanted Benedict Cumberbatch to voice the Grinch using his natural voice, but Benedict fellt that, since the rest of the cast is American, the Grinch himself should have an American accent.
 * 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. Being as both are from Illumination Entertainment, this was clearly a nod to the upcoming film. In the first Despicable Me (2010) film, Margo had a Lorax shirt, teasing Illumination Entertainment's The Lorax (2012), a fellow Dr. Seuss film.
 * 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 the cartoon 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. 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.
 * The song that Grinch plays on his pipe organ is, "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen.
 * When Cindy Lou and her friend go up into the treehouse the baseball bat they ride on as a platform has the name "Theodor" carved on it. This is a reference to author-creator Dr. Seuss aka Theodor Seuss Geisel.
 * The film was originally scheduled for a 2017 November release, but was moved to November 2018 presumably to avoid competition with Sony Animation's The Star (2017), another animated Christmas-related film. Had the film been released in its original scheduled release date, it would've been released approximately 60 years after the Dr. Seuss book, in which his film is based on, was first published in 1957.
 * 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 let's her on. This is a reference to the film Speed (1994), where Sandra Bullock's character Annie does the same thing.
 * When asked if the film 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.".
 * 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".
 * Brad Dourif was replaced by Pharell Williams as The Narrator.
 * 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 film 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 The Grinch (2000) or Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), where the Grinch's impending arrival is a big deal.
 * This is Illumination Entertainment's second Dr. Seuss film, after The Lorax (2012).
 * Second voice acting of Benedict Cumberbatch, without the use of motion capture peformance.
 * Angela Lansbury's third theatrically released animated film. Her previous two were Beauty and the Beast (1991) from Disney and Anastasia (1997) from 20th Century Fox, both released in the 1990s.
 * This film marks the second time a British actor has voiced the character of the Grinch. The first was with Boris Karloff in the 1966 TV special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966).
 * This was Benedict Cumberbatch's second animated film. The first being Penguins of Madagascar (2014), 4 years prior.
 * When asked how prepping and going into record compared to motion capture, Benedict Cumberbatch stated: "it's far less mobile. It's a fixed point, you have to create a lot of energy, but it's around a really fixed access of microphone, whether you're being hauled around in a sleigh round a mountain or flung through a catapult or talking very quietly to your dog - all those levels have to come around a microphone. Your voice has to be supported by the action that makes it sound that way, but you have to stay on the mic whereas with motion capture you can really swing yourself about because you have a headset usually; you can throw your body around the landscape, except you're in isolation at the mic without Angela Lansbury or Kenan Thompson or any of the thousand people I did talk to".
 * The movie's animation was made using Autodesk Maya.
 * This is the second Grinch remake to be released by Universal, following The Grinch (2000).
 * Like almost all of Illumination's other films, the animation was created entirely in France by Illumination Mac Guff.
 * In Cindy-Lou Who's first scene she is chasing after a mailman to give him a letter to Santa. In The Grinch (2000), Cindy-Lou's first scene was going to the Post Office to join her father at work.
 * The first official footage of the film was released by Illumination Entertainment as a TV spot on February 9, 2018, to capitalize on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
 * Benedict Cumberbatch had been cast as the titular character in April 2016. By September 2018, Angela Lansbury had been cast as the Mayor of Whoville. Rashida Jones, Cameron Seely, and Kenan Thompson had also been cast in the film, while Pharrell Williams, who previously worked on Illumination's Despicable Me films, was revealed to be narrating the film.
 * Released a month before Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) also starring Benedict Cumberbatch voicing the main antagonist, Shere Khan.
 * Cindy-Lou Who has a stuffed animal that resembles Snowball from Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets (2016).
 * 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 the film, the Grinch's teeth are clearly white. Whereas in the live-action The Grinch (2000), his teeth are yellow and extremely crooked. In the original book and the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), his teeth also appeared to be white, though also crooked. In this film, his teeth, aside from being white, are mostly straight.
 * The Grinch in the 1966 cartoon and The Grinch (2000) wears a Santa Claus costume but makes no further attempt to really look like Santa. In this film the Grinch plays a more convincing looking Santa including a beard and boots.
 * 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 (2000) by a Persian cat.
 * Benedict Cumberbatch compared the Grinch to his motion-capture performance of Smaug in the Hobbit movies: "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."
 * There is a new reason for why the Grinch has to go down to Whoville during Christmas season. He initially had stockpiles of food to last him till the start of January but due to his excessive "emotional" eating, he was reduced to a mere bean on a plate just five days shy of Christmas itself.
 * In the book, Cindy Lou Who is "no more than two" years old. In this cartoon, Cindy seems to be a bit older.
 * 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.
 * Benedict Cumberbatch was already a fan of the book, and the 1966 Chuck Jones animated version.
 * 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.
 * 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."
 * This was Illumination Entertainment's ninth feature film.
 * This is Illumination Entertainment's third musical film, after The Lorax (2012) and Sing (2016).
 * 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."
 * Illumination's second film to have a narrator, after Minions (2015).
 * The book the Grinch throws at 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 process of carving out the interior of his home long ago.
 * In 2018, producer Scott Mosier took over from Peter Candeland as director.
 * At one point The Grinch is stealing Christmas and a cat attacks him. This was not in the book, but also happened in The Grinch (2000).
 * This is Illumination's last original full-length animated feature film of the 2010s, and last original full-length feature for the next two years as the next films releasing in that time The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019), Minions: The Rise of Gru (2020), and Sing 2 (2021) are all sequels.
 * One of the Whos is named Mr. Cubbins. This is probably a reference to Bartholomew Cubbins, hero of two non-rhyming adventures by Dr. Seuss.
 * This is Illumination Entertainment's first holiday based film since Hop (2011).
 * Pharrell Williams, who is the narrator of this film, and Tyler the Creator, who provided songs for the film's soundtrack, would go on to collaborate on the song, "The Mantra", which is on the Creed II (2018) soundtrack.
 * This is the second Illumination Entertainment film to have a holiday season release, after Sing (2016).
 * Illumination Entertainment's second film to feature no humans after Sing (2016), and the second animated Dr. Seuss film to feature the furry humanoids seen commonly in Dr. Seuss books, after Horton Hears a Who! (2008).
 * In the Latin American Spanish dub, the Grinch is voiced by Eugenio Derbez; in the Japanese dub, the titular Grinch is voiced by the movie actor Yo Oizumi, better known to videogame fans as the Japanese voice of the titular Professor Layton and also playing Kureo Mado in the Tokyo Ghoul live-action film; in the Brazilian dub, the Grinch is voiced by Lázaro Ramos.
 * Illumination's fourth animated film to be screened in IMAX theaters after  The Lorax (2012), The Secret Life of Pets (2016) and Despicable Me 3 (2017).
 * Martha May Whover from The Grinch (2000) is completely written off from this version, as the writers felt that a voluptuous love interest is not the kind of message they wanted to require 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.
 * This is Illumination first PG-rated animated film for thematic elements.
 * The second Illumination film with a dog named Max, first was The Secret Life of Pets (2016).
 * Feature film non-documentary directorial debut of Scott Mosier, whose previous directing credits are the documentary 'Mae Day' and a short subject.
 * The second Illumination film to be produced in 2.39:1, after Despicable Me 3 (2017).
 * The second theatrical Dr. Seuss animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA, after The Lorax (2012), and the fourth theatrical Dr. Seuss film to be rated PG by the MPAA.
 * The eighth Universal animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA, of which all previous animated Universal films released after The Tale of Despereaux (2008) (Universal's only CGI film Rated G by the MPAA) were rated as such.
 * Rashida Jones' second animated film, after Inside Out (2015), 3 years prior. Both of these movies had a Hotel Transylvania film in their respective years (2015 and 2018).
 * This film marks the second time that The Grinch is shown as a child. The first film to show him as a child is The Grinch (2000).
 * Singer Kaitlyn Maher was originally considered for the role of Cindy Lou Who.
 * Fourth 2018 animated film to have a non-verbal lead character (that being the Grinch's dog, Max) after Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (2018) (which has the titular Sgt. Stubby the Dog), Incredibles 2 (2018) (which has Baby Jack-Jack) and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) (which has Blobby the Blob Monster).
 * This is the first Illumination film to not feature a main antagonist.
 * In the Latin American Spanish dub: Ruben Cerda, who voiced the titular character's singing voice in the live-action film, will reprise the character in the dub, through the acting voice will be voiced by Eugenio Derbez instead, rather than Mario Castañeda.
 * Beat Home Alone (1990) as the highest grossing Christmas movie of all time.
 * Benedict Cumberbatch and Kenan Thompson were both in animated films where studio members at animation companies are mentioned during the casting call of main cast members outside the credits. Cumberbatch previously appeared in Penguins of Madagascar (2014) whilst Thompson later appeared in Wonder Park (2019) both films respectively had a character voiced by Ken Jeong.
 * Illumination Entertainment's third film to take the name of the protagonist(s) after The Lorax (2012) and Minions (2015).
 * In both the 1966 cartoon and the live action movie, the Grinch gets the idea of disguising as Santa Claus when he sees Max's face being covered with snow that vaguely resembles Santa's face. In the book and the Illumination version, the Grinch comes up with the idea of disguising as Santa completely on his own.
 * The third Universal's animated film to be produced in 2.39:1, after The Tale of Despereaux (2008) and Despicable Me 3 (2017).
 * Cindy Lou Who's night gown that she wore when the Grinch steals a Christmas tree resembles the dresses worn by the female smurfs in "Smurfs: The Lost Village" (2017).
 * The movie was from the creators of Despicable Me (2010), The Secret Life of Pets (2016) and Sing (2016).
 * In Spanish dub (Spain), the Grinch is voiced by Ernesto Alterio.
 * The Grinch's backstory differs from the live-action counterpart, The Grinch (2000), in which the Grinch was publicly humiliated in elementary school as a child due to having to shave at his age.
 * The last Illumination film of the 2010s to be released in 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
 * Released two weeks before Black Friday.
 * 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".

Spoilers

 * 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.
 * Near the end of the film, the Grinch wears a red and white tie when he's invited over to Cindy-Lou's house for Christmas dinner, a reference to The Cat in the Hat (another Dr. Seuss character) who has the same color pattern hat.
 * In all 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 does successfully find a reindeer and lets it stay at his house with Max.
 * A frozen lake in the film is shown to be in the shape of a heart, foreshadowing the ending when the Grinch's heart grows twice in size.