How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which starred Jim Carrey and was directed by Ron Howard, came out during the holidays back in 2000 and was a huge hit. It's easy to see why. Dr. Seuss' story is an undeniable classic and, at the time, the idea of Jim Carrey playing The Grinch seemed like the perfect idea. Unfortunately, the film is such a departure from the original source material that it completely lacks the heart and that Dr. Seuss charm. This is an especially difficult film to watch if you grew up watching the old TV cartoon version of the story. That cartoon was only 26-minutes long, but Ron Howard and his filmmaking team padded the story out to 105 minutes. By doing this, there winds up being a bunch of unnecessary additions to the story which ruins the rhythm and loses the magic that made the TV special so great. Jim Carrey did a solid enough job with the material, but the film ultimately feels like a bad Tim Burton impression. And thanks to the success of the film, an even worse Dr. Seuss adaptation soon followed: The Cat in the Hat starring Mike Myers. Both films seem to follow this weird blueprint as they're very similar to each other yet they hardly resemble the Dr. Seuss books they're adapted from. It's as if Hollywood wrote a manual called "How to Murder Classic Children's Stories." The Academy, nonetheless, were impressed by the film's technical aspects. It was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Costume Design and Art Direction. It won the Oscar for Best Makeup.
