With Dr. Seuss’ “The Grinch,” I was a little worried about the new content restrictions ruining a movie line I loved ever since first seeing the 2000 live-action and 1966 cartoon as a child being completely re-made in Dr. Seuss’ children’s book world through animation. However, I let nostalgia get the best of me and gave it a try, and to my delight, I think the greatness is comparable to the other two Grinch flicks.

Being animation allowed Illumination to build yet another wacky Dr. Seuss world filled with huge reindeer, slay gadgets and stilts. It’s far better than the “Horton Hears a Who” version of the town, as well as the 2000 Grinch movie featuring Jim Carrey. The zany gadgets used by the Grinch are both enjoyable and they help express his genius.

However, one would only create all of these gadgets if one sadly has nothing to do and is lonely. This movie captures the Grinch’s loneliness perfectly, as he lives in solitude with his dog Max. The audience notices he wants to be with the people in the very beginning of the movie, but he doesn’t understand how. Yet as the movie continues, the Grinch learns how to be a good person and make friends.

You can see how he goes from a grouchy green hermit to a polite social man and that is something that is scarcely there in the other Grinch’s until the last five or so minutes. You can first truly notice Grinch has a character arc when he lets his dog and reindeer into his bed at night, something he never does as they have their own beds downstairs. Through this action and others, viewers realize the Grinch has hope before the town begins to sing in the end.

The attention to detail in the entire movie immerses the viewer in both understanding of the setting, characters and the struggles that they have to make them seem almost absent in the other films. This is a great movie for all, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys it predecessors.