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Movies & TV

05th Dec 2023

Animated Grinch film is officially more highly rated than Jim Carrey version

Simon Kelly

The Grinch higher rating

“Max, help me… I’m feeling!”

While we all get into the Christmas spirit this week, it’s the perfect time to start sticking our favourite Christmas movies on the box.

For many, among the top festive flicks is the one and only How The Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey as the mischievous green creature, simply for the nostalgia it brings to a certain generation.

However, that particular Grinch’s crown has been nabbed by another, as it turns out that the animated version of the film from 2018 is actually higher rated.

According to IMDb’s rating system, The Grinch (2018), which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character, is rated a 6.4, compared to the Jim Carrey entry at 6.3.

Grinch

Animated Grinch film is officially more highly rated than Jim Carrey version

If you crunch the numbers even more and look at Rotten Tomatoes, the same results show up in favour of the newer Grinch flick, with it grabbing a 59% critics score compared to 49% for Jim Carrey’s

The low score for How The Grinch Stole Christmas might shock some viewers who have a great nostalgic love for the flick. However, it may need a rewatch in order to fully get rid of those rose-tinted glasses.

On its RT page, some critics have not been kind the the 2000 comedy, with Variety calling it “shrill, strenuous and entirely without charm.”

The AV Club said in their review: “Director Ron Howard aims for the beautifully stylized mayhem of Frank Tashlin and Tim Burton, but he comes closer to the clamorous, headache-inducing visual overkill of Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies.”

The one metric Jim Carrey’s grinch has going for it is a slightly higher audience score (58%) than the animated version (52%), but it’s hardly anything to hang your hat on.

We think it might be best to let nostalgia be the driver here. Stick those rose-tinted glasses back on, it is the holiday season after all.

Or, just watch the TV movie from 1966, an absolute classic.

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