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How the Grinch Stole Christmas - A Little Less to "Carrey" Edition

MusicEd921

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Well, I finally saw the newest Grinch movie and I was highly disappointed.  It made me want to revisit the Jim Carrey Grinch movie that I remember liking and then not liking and thought maybe, just maybe there's something there that I could find.  So, after sitting down over the weekend to look through it, I really liked what they were going for, but the overall problem is that it's just basically Ace Ventura as the Grinch.  Jim Carrey's schtick feels a little outdated to me and I'm just not into that anymore (I wasn't really much into it to begin with).  When you look at the movie with an eye for what you'd cut out, I found that if you cut out A LOT of Jim Carrey doing these long stretches of improv that halts the story and trim away some of the more adult humor that was a little too adult (the swingers party and the overly sexual Martha May) as well as some of the b and c plots, there's actually a pretty good adaptation of the awesome story/TV special.

So, heavily in the works (while taking a break from my Stranger Than Fiction edit as well as a secret project), is the A Little Less to "Carrey" Edition of How The Grinch Stole Christmas:

-Trimmed the mail room scene so that when Cindy falls down the chute, Max bites Grinch when he hears that Cindy is in trouble and now instead of the Grinch knowingly leaving her to basically die, once he realizes she's in trouble (thanks to Max), he rolls his eyes and then helps her.  No silly fast motion going round and round with Max on his butt and in a way, trying to make Grinch less evil.  He's a dick, but he's not going to let a kid die (at least in my version).
-Lights subplot cut since 3/4 of it exists as deleted footage on network TV runs.
-Cut out a lot of the Grinch in his lair following his visit to Whoville.  It's basically lots of Jim Carrey improv and doesn't progress the story.
-Cut the Whoville dad seeing the baby landing and telling his wife it looks like her boss
-Cut out that the Grinch's baby basket lands in front of a swingers party  :rolleyes: .  We don't see him land, but we know he lands with the old ladies.
-Cut Martha May's line "the muscles" when Cindy is hearing the story of the Grinch going mad when in school as well as the mayor's commentary.
-Cut more side antics (Grinch hitting himself with a mallet)
-Trim all of the side gags Grinch does to drown out the sounds of Whoville singing.  When Cindy arrives, we'll see him getting his head clapped by the giant monkey with the cymbals and move away from blenders with nails and jackhammering around
-Trim some Carrey-esque voices and laughter
-Grinch decides to go to the Centennial celebration and immediately grabs the yodeler.  Then we speed up that he is on the fence and Max sends him down the chute.
-Cut that the Grinch lands into Martha May's chest.  I'm pleased with how it turned out.  It was a pretty difficult cut.
-Trimmed down the head celebrator stuff just a bit.  The conga line is gone, but most of it stays.
-No mistletoe on the butt.  He shaves the mayor's head and then kisses him, hence the mistletoe setup works.
-Slight trimming here.  I wanted to cut from the Grinch shaving the mayor's head to him leaving, but then it was cutting too much away from the mayor blaming Cindy for what happened.
-Grinch doesn't burn down the tree.  I just felt it was too much of a bad guy move and now sure how anyone could forgive that by the end.
-Cut the action movie running from the explosion gag.  
-Cut the Ron Howard directing improv with Grinch and Max.  It was originally an improvised joke and Ron loved it and kept it in.  I just felt like it was slowing us down from getting to the moment we've been waiting for.....Grinch going to steal Christmas!
-Grinch doesn't make faces at Martha while she's sleeping.  He loves her, he's not mad at her and it looks like he only steals her engagement ring as opposed to destroying her house.
-Grinch doesn't hold up Max's butt to the mayor's sleeping face
-Trim down the overly long wretching of the Grinch's heart growing as well as some of the silly voices he does.  It's a big moment and I felt that Carrey was still being too super goofy.
-Cut quick reference to the light battle between Martha and Betty Lou
-Cut Grinch busting some moves after Martha says she loves him.  Well, I trimmed it a lot.
-Cut Grinch laughing right in the mayor's face that Martha chose him.  It just felt like Grinch grew a lot (2 sizes in fact), that I wanted him to be the bigger person considering the mayor was the cause of most of the Grinch's outbursts
-Cut Grinch's final lines because it felt like a more perfect ending that the narrator says he cut the roast and Grinch smiles and everyone applauds and we segue into "Where Are You Christmas" and zoom out of Whoville
-Lots of small trims here and there as well

Original run time: 104 mins
At the moment run time: 89 mins
 

reave

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This could be interesting. Both this and the new film have their moments and are interesting visually, but they really stray from the core story for the sake of making a feature length, and in both cases it ruins the film. I would like to see both of them cut way back and have their modern elements removed.
 

MusicEd921

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reave said:
This could be interesting. Both this and the new film have their moments and are interesting visually, but they really stray from the core story for the sake of making a feature length, and in both cases it ruins the film. I would like to see both of them cut way back and have their modern elements removed.

I saw that other editors had gone for this with this version of the movie, but I didn't want to try and retell the classic just as live action, but continue on with how it explores why the Grinch hates Christmas and tried to give it a little more weight with how the people of Whoville really are all about the gifts and forgetting what Christmas is about.  Unfortunately, a lot of the better deleted scenes are on the broadcast version and those scenes are not available on home media currently.

#RelaseTheHowardCut
 

moviefan95

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musiced921 said:
-At the moment, I'm cutting the lights competition side plot.  Two big reasons I'm doing so.....one is because of the overly sexual Martha May and the other is that it doesn't contribute to the main plot.  This is a kids holiday movie, so let's not slow it down with these side plots.  Let's get to the Grinch stealing Christmas!

The side plot also never gets a resolution because the actual scene showing the lighting contest was cut from the film (it only appears in the extended edition shown on Freeform). It just gets dropped and never mentioned again. I always thought it was weird that they cut that scene but then kept the set up for it, so I fully support cutting this scene out.
 

MusicEd921

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EDIT: Combined posts since I didn't want to do 3 posts in a row.

If there is anyone interested in previewing, please PM me. I’m putting some finishing touches on this today and uploading for previews this evening. I’m really hoping to get this out for the holiday!

Also, if there is anyone with suggestions on how to edit Grinch arriving in Whoville without landing into Martha May's chest, I'd be happy for some ideas.  Here's a clip of that scene (it starts at 3:34):
 

MusicEd921

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If there is anyone interested in previewing, please PM me. I’m putting some finishing touches on this today and uploading for previews this evening. I’m really hoping to get this out for the holiday!
 

MusicEd921

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I took a stab at creating a simple poster for my edit:

ipi4B96.jpg


Clearly I'm not good with the artwork aspect, so be kind lol!
 

That One Guy

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For recutting the arrival, how about:
Grinch flies out of tunnel
Grinch bounces off the round sign, shortened to reduce the apparent rebound
Cut to audience reaction shot (originally from after he faceplant's Martha May's chest)
Followed by child shouting "He made it!"
Grinch gets up

Visually I think it should work, even if we don't see the Grinch on the ground. It might feel a bit short, in which case maybe you could rework some of the airborn scenes, or tweak the timing so that he fires out of the tunnel immediately after the tonsils line but before the villagers have seen/heard him.
 

MusicEd921

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That One Guy said:
For recutting the arrival, how about:
Grinch flies out of tunnel
Grinch bounces off the round sign, shortened to reduce the apparent rebound
Cut to audience reaction shot (originally from after he faceplant's Martha May's chest)
Followed by child shouting "He made it!"
Grinch gets up

Visually I think it should work, even if we don't see the Grinch on the ground. It might feel a bit short, in which case maybe you could rework some of the airborn scenes, or tweak the timing so that he fires out of the tunnel immediately after the tonsils line but before the villagers have seen/heard him.

I'll give it a try.

One idea I tried and probably should've posted instead of telling myself it didn't work was as soon as he flies out of the tube, we cut to Cindy who shouts that he made it and then cut right to the Grinch sneering at the crowd and ascending the stairs towards the mayor.  Right now my edit is being previewed by a few people, so I'll work on fixing that scene in the meantime and try to post what I have.
 

bionicbob

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musiced921 said:
I took a stab at creating a simple poster for my edit:

ipi4B96.jpg


Clearly I'm not good with the artwork aspect, so be kind lol!

Nice work.  My only critique is I would go with a bolder, cleaner font on the ornament.  Thumbs Up.  :)
 

MusicEd921

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I've uploaded after making a few updated changes!

Hopefully your enjoyment of the movie will grow 3 sizes after viewing!
 

Jrzag42

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Sorry, I still haven't gotten around to watching this, I'll do it tonight for sure. The link you sent me the other day, has it been updated to include the new version, or will I need a new link?
 

MusicEd921

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jrWHAG42 said:
Sorry, I still haven't gotten around to watching this, I'll do it tonight for sure. The link you sent me the other day, has it been updated to include the new version, or will I need a new link?

Please!  No worries!  It's a busy time of year!  I've made some updates from what I watched on my own, so once it's done uploading I'll send you a new link.  Thanks!
 

MusicEd921

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If there is anyone interested in this edit, please let me know as I would like to get some feedback on it. The poor Grinch has been sitting for almost 2 years and gotten little to no love lol.
 

Dwight Fry

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If there is anyone interested in this edit, please let me know as I would like to get some feedback on it. The poor Grinch has been sitting for almost 2 years and gotten little to no love lol.
I'm up for this. Feel free to shoot me a PM. Anything that cuts Jim Carrey down is a winner in my book.
 

Racerx1969

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I'd be up for a MusicEd921 edit...but I only have the original 1966 film in my collection so I'm not eligible right now. I'll be interested in reviews to see if I can be pushed to obtain the source.
 

Dwight Fry

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I'd be up for a MusicEd921 edit...but I only have the original 1966 film in my collection so I'm not eligible right now. I'll be interested in reviews to see if I can be pushed to obtain the source.
I watched it yesterday (will rate and review). It's excellent. Though due to the source material, it all comes down to how you respond to Jim Carrey. His worst excesses and all that improv get thankfully removed here, but of course his acting style is what it is. Me, I really don't like him (his comedy persona, in other projects he has shown he can act) but this cut managed to make him bearable for me and it's one that I can easily see myself rewatching in future holidays.
 

Racerx1969

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Some movies I really like him, others not so much. The Grinch is a 50/50 for me; his comedy style suits the character, but it went a bit over the top here.
 
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