How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been a holiday classic for generations.
So it wasn’t too surprising when in 2000, a new rendition of the story would be released.
However, since this story does take some turns from the original
story, who was the most good in Whoville? And who was the most evil?
I’m ____________ with WickedBinge and this is How The Grinch Stole Christmas: Good to Evil.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and noble character
and working our way down. These characters are The Good.
Starting off our list we have the gold medal of most good going to Cindy Lou Who. Cindy was always
full of questions, which often got brushed off. Cindy’s curiosity was seen as an inconvenience to
many of the residents of Whoville. When the vote for Holiday Cheermeister came about, Cindy didn’t
hesitate to nominate The Grinch. She even spoke up against the Mayor criticizing the idea
and climbed Mount Crumpit herself to deliver the invitation. Cindy refused to simply accept
that The Grinch was a bad person, and took the time to ask about him from people he had known
in order to better understand him. Even after The Grinch attempted to steal away Christmas,
Cindy still sought him out just so he wouldn’t be alone on Christmas.
Our silver medal of most good is a tied spot going to Clarnella and Rose Who. Clarnella and Rose were
the two women who took in The Grinch when he was an infant. Despite him being far different from
the other Whos, with his fondness for eating ceramic plates and his distaste for Christmas,
Clarnella and Rose loved him wholeheartedly. When The Grinch returned to Whoville to receive his
award for Holiday Cheermeister, Clarnella and Rose gifted their son with a homemade Christmas
sweater. The only reason we decided to rank them second most good rather than giving them the top
spot was because they essentially gave up on the idea of bringing The Grinch back home. When he
climbed Mount Crumpit, they let him be alone, not knowing what else they could do for him.
However we did want to point out that even if Clarnella and Rose had asked for help, it would
have been unlikely they would have gotten it, as The Grinch had been an outcast even in his youth.
Taking their place as the bronze ranked winner of most good, we have The Grinch himself. The
Grinch thrived on causing mischief and confusion, but for the most part his deeds were harmless.
In the beginning of the film we saw him disorganizing the mail and shoving into people
as they rushed around to do their shopping. But while he labeled himself as terrifying,
using the Whos’ fear to his advantage, The Grinch wasn’t a terrible person. When Cindy Lou Who fell
into the machinery, he did end up saving her. And of course he saved her at the end of the film when
he realized all of his attempts at stopping the holiday from happening were in vain. The Grinch
was also fair in how he assessed the holiday. At the mention of gifts and seeing Augustus trying to
bribe Martha, he immediately dug into the people of Whoville, ridiculing them for putting so much
into a time of year where most of it wound up in the trash. This is made even more heartbreaking
when you take into account a theory that’s been circulating on the internet for a few years now:
that Max had been one of the gifts that was thrown away. The Grinch wasn’t an evil person. In truth,
he was a kid trying to find his place and wound up being hurt in the process, which caused him
to seek out isolation so as to avoid being hurt again. We can’t blame him for reacting
the way he did. It was completely unfair of the people of Whoville to treat him as an outcast
simply because he looked different and wasn’t a complete sucker for Christmas
and we don’t blame The Grinch at all for being reluctant to go back to Whoville.
After The Grinch, we have his pet dog Max. Max was the loyal sidekick that always tried to get the
Grinch to do the right thing. When Cindy fell into the machinery at the post office, Max had been the
one to keep The Grinch from leaving, knowing that his owner would regret it if something actually
happened to her. Max was also shown to actually be fond of the holiday season, dancing around to
Christmas music. In the end when Cindy was in danger once again, Max also jumped into action
to help her. As we mentioned in the previous listing, there is a chance that Max decided
to become loyal to The Grinch after his first family had literally thrown him away, and we feel
it’s worth mentioning this theory as it really does explain the depth of their relationship.
Max clearly believed his owner to be a good person at heart. And while Max disagreed with the idea of
ruining Christmas, he did still help his owner build the sleigh and sneak around Whoville.
Next on our list is Cindy’s father, Lou Lou Who. Lou was always shown as a patient man.
Whether he was trying his best to answer all of his daughter’s questions about the Grinch
and Christmas or when he was doing his best to help his wife gather Christmas lights,
Lou was always rolling with the punches. Though Lou was hesitant to encourage Cindy’s fixation on
why The Grinch hated Christmas, Lou defended her when Augustus tried shaming her before the whole
town. He was proud of his daughter for standing up for what she thought was right. This was made
all the more impactful when we take into account that Lou generally let people talk to him however
they pleased. Lou was already shown to not want to gain the Mayor’s wrath when his sons Drew and Stu
claimed they came across The Grinch. This was then shown later when Lou was clearly nervous
about letting Cindy nominate The Grinch for Holiday Cheermeister. So when he decided to
step in and speak in Cindy’s defense, it was a very sweet moment between a father and daughter.
Following is the love interest in the film, Martha May Whovier. As a child, we learned that she was
in the same class as The Grinch and took quite a liking to him. She didn’t mind that he was
different from all the other Whos. However, Martha had also been too afraid to defend The
Grinch after his outburst. Though it was clear that she regretted letting him leave, Martha was
more concerned with fitting in and moving on with her life. She was easily impressed by the more
lavish things in life, and Augustus certainly used that to his advantage when trying to win her over.
In the end, Martha was finally able to stand by The Grinch and reject Augustus’ proposal. It was
nice to see her finally decide that being with the person she cared for was more important than
fitting into the standards she had been taught. We also want to give Martha props for being the only
kid in the class to not laugh at or mock The Grinch when his shaving attempt was revealed.
When even the teacher was snickering in amusement, Martha was shown angrily glaring at her peers
for their cruelty and immaturity. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened
had she been the one to seek out The Grinch rather than Cindy Lou Who. It was obvious that Martha had
at least entertained the idea at some point by the way she behaved and spoke during the interview.
With that said, we've arrived at the neutral territory. These characters fall in The Grey Area.
Our next ranking goes to Officer Wholihan. This officer was a very minor role in the film,
and we had to place him as the most purely neutral in all the cast. Yes, Wholihan had his doubts
about letting The Grinch return to Whoville. And yes, he had been among the many Whoville
residents upset that everything they worked for was stolen in the night. But Officer Wholihan also
accepted that The Grinch was remorseful for his actions and so refused to arrest him. After all,
The Grinch not only returned everything he took, but he saved Cindy’s life.
Taking the next spot on our list is Betty Lou Who. Cindy’s mother, Betty was shown to be far
more concerned about the glamour of winning a Christmas lighting contest than anything else.
You have to admire the dedication it took to acquire every single light in the house,
rig them up in a fashionable way around the outside of their home…all in her pajamas no less.
But this same behavior is what knocked her down a few points in our ranking. After all,
winter is a season where it gets dark early. Having your children wandering around the house in
the dark or with candles is not the best solution just because you want to impress the neighborhood.
Following is another tied spot with Stu Lou Who and Drew Lou Who. Stu and Drew were the sons of
Betty and Lou Lou Who, but they weren’t really a factor for much of the movie. Stu and Drew
earned their place in the neutral rankings for how they decided to set up the story. Being teenagers,
they of course thought it would be a great idea to drag their girlfriends up Mount Crumpit in
order to find The Grinch. This wasn’t the level of impressive that they thought it would be.
Instead they all ran away in fear, with Stu and Drew immediately putting the town of Whoville in a
state of unrest when they explained what happened. As we stated before, though, they were dumb
teenage boys. And trying to impress their dates wasn’t a bad idea exactly. It was just poorly
executed. After all, their younger sister managed to find The Grinch and talk to him perfectly fine.
Finally, we've reached the dark side. These characters are The Bad and The Evil.
The bronze medal of most evil goes to the mayor’s assistant, Whobris. Whobris had been a lackey for
Augustus, ever since they were children. Whobris was the typical suck-up type of character that
is fairly common in children and family content. He spent his time lavishing Mayor Augustus with
compliments and flattery in order to stay in good graces and get recognized around the community as
an important figure. Whobris also took the time to help with gaining all the expensive and flashy
gifts Augustus wanted to use to impress Martha. Whobris sat by when Augustus spent his time
targeting The Grinch back when they were kids. When Cindy was going around interviewing everyone,
Whobris defended Augustus’ actions by pointing out that The Grinch was different from everyone else,
as if that alone warranted tormenting a kid to the point of running away.
Had Whobris been less afraid of being an individual and stood up for himself,
he might have been able to earn a spot in our grey zone.
Our silver medal for most evil goes to Miss Rue Who. This ranking may cause some conflict, but
hear out our reasoning. Miss May Rue was not only The Grinch’s teacher back when he was a child,
but she was also Cindy’s teacher. Which meant a few things. First, that the people of Whoville
age incredibly well. Second, that her reluctance to entertain Cindy’s doubt and questions likely
stemmed from the fact that she didn’t want a repeat of what happened with The Grinch.
However it was Miss Rue Who’s time with The Grinch as her student that earned her such a low spot on
our list. We understand that teachers have a lot on their plates and that it would be impossible
to keep track of what every student was doing all the time. However, there was no possible way she
didn’t notice how The Grinch was being treated in her classroom. From Clarnella and Rose’s accounts
of what happened, they had no idea what had been occurring in that classroom. And if Miss Rue Who
had indeed witnessed some of this bullying and mistreatment, she had an obligation to
make Clarnella and Rose aware of it. Later on during the party, when the Grinch had given his
gift to Martha, Miss Rue Who prodded at him to show his face despite his clear embarrassment.
When the children then burst out laughing at him, triggering his outburst, Miss Rue Who
did nothing to stop them. In fact, she also showed herself to be amused at how he looked
after his shaving attempt. While Miss Rue Who was trying to be kind and patient when addressing him,
we still don't get how she didn’t notice him hiding in the coats until the gift exchange. She
also didn’t scold the children from mocking The Grinch’s homemade gift, which was also a bad call.
Finally our gold medal of most evil in Whoville is Mayor Augustus Maywho. While The Grinch was
labeled the antagonist in the original story, Augustus was clearly the villain
in this version. Even as a kid, August was very much the jealous and boasting type.
He hated not getting his way. When The Grinch was starting to warm up to celebrating Christmas
and was impressing Martha, Augustus made it his mission to destroy The Grinch’s confidence
and paint him into the bad guy. Augustus didn’t feel an ounce of guilt for making another child
decide to live the rest of their lives in isolation among trash. When The Grinch came
back to Whoville for the festivities, Augustus decided to rub salt in the wound by choosing that
moment to propose to Martha. When everything was shown to be stolen on Christmas morning,
Augustus was quick to round on Cindy Lou Who, calling her out before the community.
He accused her of bringing all the misfortune to the town, as though Cindy could have had any clue
that The Grinch was going to rob everyone. Taking out your frustration on a child is not a classy
move in the least, especially when you’re meant to be a pillar of your town. Truly a scummy guy.
It was incredibly satisfying to see Augustus finally called out by The Grinch
and given a close shave in the process. But let us know in the comment section if
you agree with our ranking. And tell us what we should cover next. Remember to hit that
notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist. Where we break down the morality of
the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked.