ANI-MOVIES, *The Grinch

Illumination tried to milk the Dr. Seuss cow one more time after The Lorax with yet another full-length adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas which was perfect the first time in the 30-minute TV special done by the master of facial expressions, Chuck Jones. The live-action version gave people the jibblies, so possibly going back to animation would be a step back up. The CGI is pleasant to watch but bringing in modern day 3D animation filled with pop culture references don't really help.

This version of Whoville doesn't mention the fact that their world exists in a microverse which happened to have their own counterparts to Jesus and Santa Claus as Christmas is the center of the entire town's attention. The Grinch is a mysteriously green loner that lives inside a nearby mountain along with his dog Max who realizes he needs to go into town for groceries. The decorations, good cheer, and aggressive carollers reinforces Grinch's hatred of the holiday, so much so that he plans on stealing the entire thing from everyone. He decides to dress up as Santa Claus(this time with an actual white beard!)and herds the fat reindeer Fred into pulling his sled which he stole from his neighbor. Fred is later shown to have his own family so Grinch lets him go and replaces him with Max. With an assortment of gadgets right out of Wile. E. Coyote's catalog the Grinch successfully pulls off the citywide heist, even though the Whoville residents still sing welcoming Christmas which seeps into his heart. It's just then that the sled filled with swag almost goes over a cliff where Fred and his family shows up to use their mutant reindeer super-strength to help Grinch retrieve his stolen goods so he can return them. The Whoville folk are strangely okay with this as they invite Grinch to Christmas dinner where the reformed loner realizing that all he really wanted was to stop being alone. There is a subplot in this with Cindy Lou trying to ask Santa to help with her single mother raising her twin baby brothers, although this is mainly used as filler to make it to an 85-minute long feature.

The Grinch is definitely the lesser annoying of the two adaptations of Seuss' book and it does have a number of charming cartoon gags. The downside is that it pulls along what is a short story into a full-length movie by giving the Grinch another unnecessarily sobby origin with pathetically little dedicated to giving any details concerning his past. The original TV special is still one of the single greatest holiday specials of all time and this movie is more of a humorous cash grab instead of becoming a Christmas standard.

ANI-MOVIES, *Mirai

Being the only non-Ghibli anime movie to be nominated for an Oscar, Mirai was directed by Mamoru Hosoda of Summer Wars fame. Produced by Studio Chizu, the 2018 movie used elements from Hosoda's previous title The Girl Who Leapt Through Time into a new time travel fantasy feature for all ages.

Kun is a playful 4-year-old who gets some competition for his parents' affection with his newborn sister. The baby Mirai(which is Japanese for "future")is taking up most of the family's time with their second child, and the Kun is naturally jealous of her for this. The boy goes out to the garden of the house that his family built enclosing a tree where he meets a humanized version of his dog Yukko, revealing that there is something enchanted concerning this tree. Kun gets a visit from a teenage Mirai from the future who convinces him to put away a pair of dolls which is a Japanese tradition concerning a girl's marriage. Somehow being able to go along with all the weirdness, Kun soon gets sent back in time to meet his mother as a girl, and then later on his great-grandfather after WWII. A visit from Kun's future self leads him to a realize that Mirai has a place in his family as her future self shows him how the tree in the garden literally acts as a family tree with its mysterious power.

Mirai is shown from the point of view of a toddler with none of the adult characters having any given names. It doesn't make Kun out to be a likable protagonist, but then he's only 4 as his perception on the bigger world is still developing so any criticisms about him being a brat should add his age to the equation. The anime is an original idea by Hosoda and the creators at Studio Chizu where their vision expands into a diverse feature with the various timelines Kun visits. As a movie, this might not seem as memorable as a Ghibli presentation, although it does help the viewer appreciate the ties to their family both past and future.

Christine McVie, R.I.P.