40 Fun Facts About The Grinch (2018 Film)

Which British actor, famous as Marvel's Doctor Strange, voices the title character in The Grinch (2018)?

Benedict Cumberbatch took on two famous storybook creatures in 2018: the Grinch and, through performance capture, the tiger Shere Khan in Mowgli.

Which comedy, the record holder since 1990, did The Grinch (2018) overtake as the highest-grossing Christmas film?

Home Alone had been the top-earning Christmas film for 28 years before the Grinch stole its crown with more than $500 million worldwide.

Which singer of the Despicable Me 2 hit Happy serves as the narrator of The Grinch (2018)?

Pharrell Williams had already written music for the Despicable Me films, and Happy earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

In The Grinch (2018), flashbacks reveal that the Grinch spent his unhappy childhood in what kind of place?

An orphanage where Christmas never came is the backstory this version gives him, which is why Whoville's festive joy stings so much.

What is the name of the Grinch's loyal dog, who ends up pulling the sleigh in The Grinch (2018)?

Max was singled out by the New York Times review as the most charming character in this version of the story.

Which rapper recorded a new version of the classic Grinch theme song for the 2018 film The Grinch?

Tyler, the Creator suggested adding a children's choir to the remake, and also wrote and performed an original song for the film.

Which animation studio, the home of Despicable Me and Sing, produced The Grinch (2018)?

Illumination first announced the project in 2013 under the book's full title, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, before shortening it.

Which accent does the Grinch speak with in The Grinch (2018), a choice its British lead actor argued for?

American was his own pick, because the rest of the cast is American; the studio had wanted his natural English voice.

Which comedian played the Grinch in the live-action film released 18 years before the animated The Grinch (2018)?

Jim Carrey's 2000 film opened to $55 million, a debut the animated version topped with $67.6 million.

Which characters star in Yellow Is the New Black, the short film released in theaters with The Grinch (2018)?

The Minions also turn up on the home release, which adds a second short of theirs called Santa's Little Helpers.

Which Saturday Night Live veteran voices the Grinch's relentlessly cheerful neighbor in The Grinch (2018)?

Kenan Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member in Saturday Night Live history, having joined the show back in 2003.

Which screen legend, the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast, plays Whoville's mayor in The Grinch (2018)?

Angela Lansbury was in her nineties when she voiced Mayor McGerkle, the same year she sang in Mary Poppins Returns as the Balloon Lady.

Which Parks and Recreation star voices Donna Who, the single parent of Cindy Lou, in The Grinch (2018)?

Rashida Jones played nurse Ann Perkins on Parks and Recreation, and before that Karen Filippelli on The Office.

Which song do the Whos sing together after waking to find their presents stolen in The Grinch (2018)?

Welcome Christmas comes from the 1966 TV special, and hearing it is what makes the Grinch's shrunken heart triple in size.

Which composer of The Nightmare Before Christmas songs wrote the orchestral score for The Grinch (2018)?

Danny Elfman called the job a full-circle moment: he grew up on Dr. Seuss stories and once met the author about a musical that never got made.

On which mountain overlooking Whoville does the Grinch live in a cave in The Grinch (2018)?

Mount Crumpit is also where the Grinch hauls the stolen gifts to dump them, before the loaded sleigh nearly slides off the edge.

What is the name of the jolly neighbor whose sleigh the Grinch steals in The Grinch (2018)?

Bricklebaum is a merry Who who is somehow convinced that the Grinch is his best friend.

What name does the Grinch give the overweight reindeer he recruits to pull his sleigh in The Grinch (2018)?

Fred never makes the big night: the Grinch lets him go before Christmas Eve, so the dog has to haul the sleigh instead.

Which Whoville celebration does the Grinch try and fail to sabotage early in The Grinch (2018)?

The tree-lighting ceremony is overseen by Mayor McGerkle, and the failed stunt stirs up the memories that push him toward a grander scheme.

What does Cindy Lou Who hope to ask Santa Claus for face to face in The Grinch (2018)?

Help for her mother is the whole wish: Cindy Lou sees how hard her single mom works looking after her and her twin baby brothers.

In which European capital was The Grinch (2018) animated, at a studio that then carried the Mac Guff name?

Paris is home to the studio that animates nearly all of its parent company's films, helped by French subsidies for the work.

Which other Dr. Seuss book had the makers of The Grinch (2018) already adapted as a 2012 animated film?

The Lorax was directed by Chris Renaud, who came back as an executive producer on the Grinch film six years later.

Audrey Geisel, an executive producer who died five weeks after The Grinch (2018) opened, was related to Dr. Seuss how?

She was his widow and ran his literary estate for decades; this was the last Seuss adaptation released in her lifetime.

Which New York City event promoted The Grinch (2018) a full year before the film opened?

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade flew a giant Grinch balloon in November 2017, the month the film was meant to open before a one-year delay.

Which bass singer, the voice of Tony the Tiger, first sang the Grinch theme song that The Grinch (2018) reworks?

Thurl Ravenscroft went uncredited in the 1966 special, so the song was long wrongly attributed to its narrator, Boris Karloff.

Yarrow Cheney, co-director of The Grinch (2018), had previously co-directed which 2016 animated hit?

The Secret Life of Pets, which he made with Chris Renaud, was the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2016.

Scott Mosier made his feature directing debut on The Grinch (2018) after years producing films for which indie director?

Kevin Smith met him at Vancouver Film School, and the two went on to co-host the podcast SModcast.

Which franchise's 2018 entry was the only Universal release to out-gross The Grinch (2018) that year?

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was the studio's only higher earner; the Grinch still turned an estimated net profit of $184.6 million.

Which hip-hop group's holiday classic Christmas in Hollis, also heard in Die Hard, plays in The Grinch (2018)?

Run-DMC named the song after Hollis, the Queens neighborhood in New York City where the group's members grew up.

Which a cappella group's recording is used for the carolers who stalk the Grinch in The Grinch (2018)?

Pentatonix supply the carol God Rest You Merry Gentlemen; the group formed in 2011 and won NBC's contest The Sing-Off that year.

How did billboards for The Grinch (2018) tease the film in the weeks before its release?

With mean, ironic messages beside the Grinch's face, the billboards were part of a worldwide campaign estimated at $121 million.

How does Cindy Lou Who plan to finally meet Santa Claus on Christmas Eve in The Grinch (2018)?

Catch him in a trap is the plan she hatches with her friends, and it works, except that the Santa she snares is the Grinch.

According to The Grinch (2018), what is the only reason the Grinch ever goes down into Whoville?

To buy groceries is his one concession to town life; otherwise he keeps to his cave with only his dog for company.

Why does the Grinch send his newly recruited reindeer home before Christmas Eve in The Grinch (2018)?

It has a family, and the Grinch is moved enough to let the animal leave with them; the favour is repaid in the cliffside finale.

At Christmas dinner in The Grinch (2018), the Grinch admits it was never Christmas he hated, but what?

His loneliness was the real problem, he realises, and he ends the film raising a toast with the Whos.

Which decree does Whoville's mayor issue about Christmas at the start of The Grinch (2018)?

Make it three times bigger is the mayor's call, and the film later mirrors it when the Grinch's own heart triples in size.

Which screen character's 2018 sequel twice led The Grinch (2018) in a historic one-two at the box office?

Wreck-It Ralph returned in Ralph Breaks the Internet, which led the Grinch two weekends running: the first time animated films had held the top two spots back to back.

Bill Farmer, who voices a Whoville bus driver in The Grinch (2018), is the longtime voice of which Disney character?

Goofy has been his role since 1987; in Whoville he plays Sam, a driver who is friends with Donna Who.

Which Looney Tunes director made the 1966 Grinch TV special, half a century before The Grinch (2018)?

Chuck Jones picked Boris Karloff to narrate the special, drawn to the rhythm and warmth of the actor's voice.

The Grinch (2018) adapts a Dr. Seuss book published in 1957, the same year as which other Seuss classic?

The Cat in the Hat came first: Dr. Seuss had only just finished it when he began work on the Grinch early in 1957.