Podcast: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

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Christmas season in high gear, and that means we'll be looking at less-than-stellar Holiday movies in the month of December. Our first foray into the genre is Ron Howard's brazen cash grab live action remake of the Dr. Seuss classic with How the Grinch Stole Christmas (a.k.a. Grinch 2000). Jim Carrey cranks it up to 11 with his manic interpretation of the Grinch that is 60% Richard Nixon, 3% Jerry Lewis, and 37% Other Parts.

Howard and company pad out the 64 page illustrated source material (with additional heavy influences from the 1966 Chuck Jones cartoon) by adding signature Carrey ad libs, a needless Grinch backstory, additional characters, a love interest, and precocious Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) as a nearly jaded young adolescent.

Some Notes:

• Where is the Grinch's penis anyway?
• Needed additional backstory: Christine Baranski backstory. Max the dog backstory. The origin of the Grinch's conception, involving Oscar the Grouch and Cindy Lou Who's grandmother.
• According to Wikipedia, Gene Autry got the idea for the song "Here Comes Santa Claus" after "riding his horse in the 1946 Santa Claus Lane Parade (now the Hollywood Christmas Parade) in Los Angeles, during which crowds of spectators chanted, 'Here comes Santa Claus'." So the lyrics are even lazier than we originally imagined since the crowd more or less wrote the song for him.
• IMDb trivia authors are obsessed with the dog:
• The words "Grinch" and "Christmas" are spoken by every major character in the movie, except Max.
• The Grinch's dog, Max, has the same name as Jim Carrey's son in Liar Liar.
• Despite living with the Grinch, Max has a lot of Christmas spirit. Max is shown secretly dancing to Christmas music while the Grinch is away.
• Max the dog is supposed to be a boy in the movie but actually Max the dog is a girl dog.
• Max appears to understand the English language by being able to obey specific commands by, the Grinch, like what size wrench to bring him.
• Don't worry, Clint Howard is in this movie. As well as a very young Bryce Dallas Howard.