This new adaptation of "The Grinch" is a fantasy comedy with a darker heart, staying truer to the tone of the original Dr. Seuss book but with a blockbuster visual scale. The story is set in the colorful, obsessively cheerful town of Whoville, where Christmas is the central celebration of existence. Far away from the town, atop Mount Crumpit, lives the Grinch, a green, furry, and misanthropic creature whose hatred for joy and, especially, Christmas, is of epic proportions.
Driven by a deep-seated, painful aversion to the noise and happiness of the Whos' Christmas, the Grinch plots an audacious scheme: to steal all the presents, decorations, and even the feast, hoping to "prevent Christmas from coming." However, the small, spirited Cindy Lou Who (a six-year-old girl) crosses the Grinch's path, becoming his first genuine obstacle. The narrative culminates when the Grinch realizes that Christmas is not about presents or things, but something that resides in the hearts of the Whos, leading to his own revelation that his heart is, in fact, not empty. The film is a story of redemption and the discovery that joy, even if forced, is contagious.
