YMMV / The Grinch (2018)

• Adaptation Displacement: Like the 2000 live-action film, in some countries where the book and the 1966 animated special aren't well-known and/or were never published, many viewers were introduced to the Grinch story by this movie.
• Adorkable:
  • The Grinch is presented in a more endearing, awkward way than in previous tellings of the story.
  • Bricklebaum is a jolly, enthusiastic Nice Guy who sees the Grinch as a friend, absolutely loves Christmas, scolds his Christmas decorations when they hurt the Grinch and makes a "Christmas dragon" because it "came to him in a dream".
• Awesome Music:
  • The film features "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" as performed by the A Capella group Pentatonix.
  • Danny Elfman's music definitely stands out from the typical Illumination score, particularly the track "Stealing Christmas", which perfectly complements the visuals of the theft montage.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Max's fantasy of him driving a car with the song Mambo Number 5 playing in the background after The Grinch asks him what he wants to do of the day.
• Character Rerailment: People disliked the Whos (aside from Cindy) in the live action movie for being unlikable jerks that made fun of the Grinch both as a kid and an adult, as well as displaying the negative aspects of the Christmas season. The Whos in this film, however, resemble that of the original book and Chuck Jones special who simply enjoy Christmas for what it is and are genuinely friendly folks.
• Critical Dissonance: The film received mixed reviews from critics, scoring a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, PostTrak reported that the film also earned an 83% positive score from filmgoers and a 75% "definite recommend".
• Diagnosed by the Audience: As stated under Does This Remind You of Anything?, this movie's version of the Grinch seems to have some sort of anxiety/stress-based disorder, and a case of PTSD on top of it - he is apparently prone to stress eating, when the carolers start singing around him, he has to cover his ears and run into the nearest quiet place (store) while breathing heavily, he has a flashback triggering anxiety attack when he accidentally stumbles into the tree lighting ceremony, he hates bright lights, loud noises and crowds of people and at the end, seems to have some social anxiety, needing to work himself up to ring the doorbell. In fact, Max seems to function as his service dog who helps him with everyday tasks (like showering, getting dressed and eating), he forces his owner to go outside when they are out of food, and he becomes concerned when the carolers surround them.
• Discredited Meme: One trailer sees the Grinch groan in despair and throw his alarm clock away when it plays Happy, a song that was made for Despicable Me 2 and became a runaway hit (In the movie proper, it plays Christmas songs).
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Bricklebaum is by far the most popular new character in this film, namely for being an adorkable Nice Guy who has a childlike enthusiasm for Christmas that is hilarious to watch. It helps that he's voiced by Kenan Thompson.
• Harsher in Hindsight: There’s a scene at the beginning of the movie where the Grinch is chased around Whoville by Christmas carolers. Around the mid-point, the Grinch is thrust into the middle of Whoville's tree lighting ceremony where he has an anxiety attack, and it becomes clear that Christmas is a traumatic trigger for him.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Grinch once again has his cleverness on full display despite being less malevolent than his book and live action counterparts. Aiming to steal Christmas with style, the Grinch analyzes the houses of the Whoville denizens to factor in the time needed to steal the Christmas decorations in one fell swoop, and after willingly allowing a reindeer to return to its family, solves it by offering his dog Max the role. Realizing the error of his ways, the Grinch returns everything he had stolen to the Whos and earnestly apologizes for his actions before being invited to a Christmas dinner.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The film's profile picture on social media, in particular the expression that the Grinch makes, has become somewhat popular among animation fans.
  • Part of the movie's promotional campaign included billboards with hilariously vicious and spiteful insults from the Grinch himself directed at the audience. The internet unsurprisingly found these hilarious, and naturally started editing them with jokes that were far worse and well beyond the boundary of good taste.
  • "Green and salty. Just like my nuts."^ExplanationRelated to the above, this comes from an edited ad for Wonderful Pistachios featuring the Grinch.
  • The Grinch Leak. ^ExplanationDuring the leadup to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a fake leak appeared claiming that various highly-requested characters would be included. The leak was attributed to a French firm that allegedly worked on this film, and a picture of Illumination's version of the Grinch was included to assert its supposed legitimacy, leading people to joke that the Grinch himself leaked the game's roster. After the leak was debunked as fake (though two of the depicted characters coincidentally got in), fans shifted to depicting the Grinch as a Memetic Troll, thanks to the idea of him posting fake Smash leaks being surprisingly in-character.
  • Making fun of the fact that the Grinch's iconic song says that he has "yellow teeth" and "termites in his smile", even though this version of the Grinch appears to have Eternally Pearly-White Teeth.
  • "When guac is extra" ^ExplanationAn ad that kept appearing on people's Instagram and Twitter feeds that has this caption above a picture of the Grinch crying as Max looks confused. The ad was widely panned as representative of Illumination's milquetoast reputation, which combined with its commonality led to it being widely parodied and quoted in response to Grinch-related posts.
• Mis-blamed: People believe it was Illumination's idea to have Benedict Cumberbatch use an American accent as the Grinch, seeing as how the Grinch has been portrayed with a British accent since the original animated Christmas special. In reality, the producers wanted Cumberbatch to use his natural voice for the Grinch, but he suggested using an American accent to match the rest of the American cast.
• Moe:
  • Young Grinch, as shown in the teaser poster and in the flashback shown in the second official trailer. Borders on Ugly Cute to some people.
  • Cindy Lou Who◊.
    • Her friends, Groopert, Izzy, Axl, and Ozzy count as this too.
• Nightmare Fuel: While it can cross into Narm teritory, the Grinch, who is mostly cuter and less mean in this movie, surprisingly looks pretty intimidating in the scene where he announces he is going to steal Christmas.
  • Before that, the panic attack he experiences when he accidently stumbles into the tree lighting ceremony. The movie is mostly light hearted, and yet the way it portrays how some people may feel in situations like that is... almost painfully realistic.
• Older Than They Think: Some will use the movie’s marketing and merchandise to throw the film under the bus, crying out that it goes against an anti-consumerism message (that's either not even there, or not as pronounced as the Ron Howard film) or goes against the message of the original book. However, not only did the live-action film have the exact same issue with its marketing and merchandise (and a more hamfisted anti-consumerism message) but the original animated special has just about as much merchandise dedicated towards it.
• Periphery Demographic: Has garnered something of a following among people on the spectrum and/or with panic disorders due to the respectful, realistic handling of the Grinch's ambiguous disorder.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Casting someone like Benedict Cumberbatch to voice the titular Grinch was met with mixed reactions. Some hate this casting, while others note that this could result in a Karloff-esque Grinch (for the record, Boris Karloff himself was British). Unfortunately, Cumberbatch decided to go with an American accent for the role.
  • Pharrell Williams as the narrator is a pretty odd choice considering not only the fact that he’s a rapper but also never did any kind of voice acting. Then again, all of the narration is in Seussian rhyme, but it doesn't help that most viewers generally found his narration wooden and dull.
• So Okay, It's Average: The film's critical reception is generally this; it's superior to the 2000 live-action film in some aspects (keeping Whos likable and maintaining a colorful and festive atmosphere), though is bogged down a bit by subpar padding before the holiday heist (which most reviews prefer the 2000 version in this regard due to Carrey's performance and the wanting to be accepted plotline) and the Grinch himself, while well-acted and entertaining, is far tamer than past iterations, which proved divisive in and of itself. Critical scores and audience scores on various websites only have it higher by slim percentages, such as 55% compared to 53%. Still it's also agreed to be much better than the previous Dr. Seuss film Illumination made and many reviewers admit it ended up being much better than they thought it would.
• Tainted by the Preview: Opinions on the official trailer were mixed-to-negative; many criticized the tone as feeling recycled from Illumination's previous film Despicable Me, and portrayal of the Grinch coming off as rather generic compared to Karloff and Carrey's portrayals, not to mention just too soft in general.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Fans of the book and original Christmas special weren't keen on the subtle changes made to the Grinch's design, such as giving him normal eyes instead of his signature yellow and red ones as well as removing most of his exaggerated features.
  • Having the Grinch actually interact with the Whos in person on a regular basis instead of just lurking up in his tower and cursing them all from a distance has also been a point of criticism, with some arguing that it misses the whole point of him coming down to ruin their Christmas.
  • Similarly, Benedict Cumbarbatch using an American accent instead of his natural British accent has been considered widely disappointing by many, including critic Peter Travers, who felt that the studio should have cast an American actor if they wanted the Grinch to sound American. (Cumberbatch's Grinch voice drew a number of comparisons to Bill Hader, with many wondering why they didn't simply hire Hader himself.) It's especially bad since Cumberbatch's argument for doing it — that the rest of the cast was American so his British accent would feel out of place — has been said to be another case of missing the point, since the Grinch is supposed to be an outsider who should contrast with the Whos and feel out of place.
  • People used to prior depictions bemoaned the narration's changed verses and Cindy's house being the last one the Grinch robbed rather than the first one.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Cindy's subplot about her overworked single mother could have been really touching and a sweet addition to the film, but she only spends about four minutes with her mother in the beginning of the film in which she unfortunately comes across as more of an unintentional nuisance adding to her load.
• Ugly Cute: The Grinch himself, especially as a little kid, mostly because this version gives him a more appealing design with lighter, shinier fur and green eyes, instead of his old yellow and red ones. Unfortunately, some people think that he looks too cute, instead of looking like the creepy goblin in the original book, TV special, and live-action.
• Unexpected Character: Honestly, who was expecting freaking Snowball to appear in the Illumination logo?
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: A really downplayed example, but some people are a bit weirded out by the fact that the Grinch, who is mostly green, has pink, human-like lips in this movie.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The carolers who begin chasing around the Grinch with their singing at the beginning of the film lose a lot of sympathy points from viewers since they not only come across as forcing the holiday on a passerby who is clearly uninterested (even if they knew what a troublemaker the Grinch was), but the latter parts of the film will reveal that Christmas is a traumatic trigger for the Grinch. The film treats it as a showcase for Pentatonix, however.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Whoville looks beautiful with its enormous size, stylish buildings and wide assortment of Christmas decorations. To say it's far more appealing than in the live action movie is an understatement. That and the snow, something in abundance in this film, combines the style of Dr. Seuss with exquisite, colourful modern animation seamlessly.

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