The holiday season is now officially upon the year 2000. One could tell at the time because the ads and tie-ins for Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas were inescapable. The original work was a plea against the commercialization of the holiday, the Grinch's heart growing because he sees that, to the Whos, gifts are a bonus, the Christmas holiday is about being together with friends and family. In the lead-up to the new live-action adaptation, we were subjected to a Visa ad that directly contradicted that:
The promotion was also advertised on Kellogg's cereal boxes and was the center of a lawsuit between Visa and American Express. All I knew at the time was that, "Just in case we're wrong..." was cyncial and completely antithetical to what my favorite Christmas story was about. It soured me on the movie before it even came out, I refused to see it. A year later, when it came out on VHS, we rented it just to see...and Mom and I turned it off once Cindy Lou started singing (as it turns out, there are no other comparable musical numbers - this is the movie's attempt to get a hit single and possible Original Song nomination). So yes, I managed to avoid seeing this now-classic holiday film - seen and beloved and memed by apparently everyone else in my generation and all the generations after - until this year. Did I like it? Did I hate it? How were the other November 2000 releases? Let us talk:
