Deep in the snowy mountains is a village of dwellers called Whos. They are excited for Christmas and are spreading cheer.

However, there is one creature who hides far away called the grinch – and he hates Christmas.

In Whoville, a guy named Lou asks his young daughter, Cindy Lou, to drop off a letter at the post office. But once she’s there, she meets the grinch and gets scared to the point where she falls into the gift machine. The grinch saves her, but then wraps paper around her.

After the grinch leaves, Lou comes. He is impressed with Cindy’s gift-wrapping skills.

Curious to why the grinch is so unkind, Cindy meets two elderly women who happened to have raised the grinch. They tell her that they found him as a baby and adopted him. His distaste for Christmas actually began around that time.

But when he was in school, he was bullied by his classmates during the holiday season. Only this girl, Martha, respected him. He even had a crush on her.

However, the stress of being bullied around Christmas caused the grinch to hate it. So, now he hides on Mount Crumpet with his dog, Max.

While in his home, the grinch criticizes the Whos. Then Cindy comes and offers him an invitation to be nominated as holiday cheermeister. The grinch takes it, but then ejects her out of his house.

The mayor of Whoville, Augustus, is not fond of the idea of the grinch being nominated. But the grinch comes anyway. Everyone tries to get him into the Christmas spirit, including feeding him traditional holiday food.

Unfortunately, the grinch gets mad to the point where he sets the town Christmas tree on fire. Then he returns home and decides to “get rid of” Christmas.

He dresses as Santa and makes Max wear antlers as a way to “be” his reindeer. Then he goes back to Whoville and takes all their gifts, Christmas trees, and anything else holiday related.

On Christmas morning, the Whos wake up to no presents or anything they were looking forward to. They are devastated.

What will happen next?

Although I am familiar with the story of the grinch, I will admit that his movie did not always engage me. The first half was kind of boring. I think the pacing was a little too slow, as well.

That being said, the second half got more exciting. I think it is because it became more faithful to the book and the 1966 animated adaptation.

The song, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” gets sung by the grinch himself. Cindy also has a musical number, “Where Are You Christmas?”

I’ll also admire the character development. All the Whos are likable – especially Cindy. I particularly loved how she wasn’t afraid to trust the grinch. She also has a sweet relationship with her parents.

I thought the backstory of how the grinch became mean was interesting. It wasn’t even in the book or the cartoon.

The grinch himself had a creepy appearance. I also liked how Max would disagree with his decisions.

Does the grinch ever change? See the film to find out. Or if you did, then you know.

I also want to mention the Who’s appearances. Most of them looked like people with funky shaped noses. Some looked like normal humans, though, such as Cindy.

One part that grossed me out was when they spoon fed the grinch different Christmas food. The grinch would leak them out of his mouth. I covered my computer screen several times during that part.

Overall, I thought How the Grinch Stole Christmas was decent. I just wish the first half was a little more exciting.

I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.