If your heart swelled three sizes watching The Grinch, you'll want to make sure you caught
all the amazing hidden details.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here and today, I'm going to reveal 17 cool easter
eggs and references you might have missed in Illumination's new animated movie!
Keep watching to the end to find out The Grinch's secret connection to Gru from the Despicable
Me movies!
And subscribe and leave a comment about the film for a chance to win some awesome Grinch
merchandise.
The Grinch has a ton of fabulous gadgets and inventions he puts to use in his mission to
steal Christmas from Whoville.
In one particular tribute to the animated TV special, we see the Grinch employ some
springy type of stilts which enable him to jump with ease from one rooftop to another
as he gathers up the Whos' presents.
The new Grinch movie tips its hat to Dr Seuss, the author of the original book, in the scene
where the Grinch starts making his Santa Claus disguise.
Look carefully at the model of the sewing machine which is "Theodor", a shout-out to
Dr. Seuss's real name Theodor Geisel.
A funny little detail you might have missed is the title of the book that the Grinch tosses
at the alarm clock when it wakes him up playing cheery Christmas songs.
The book is called "Spelunking For Beginners" which is very appropriate for the Grinch as
"spelunking" refers to the activity or hobby of exploring caves, and the Grinch, of course,
lives in a cave on Mount Crumpit.
One of the roles that Benedict Cumberbatch, who voices the Grinch, is best known for is
Marvel's Doctor Strange.
And there's a very cool visual nod to Cumberbatch's Sorcerer Supreme in an atmospheric scene in
the new Grinch movie.
After the holiday-hating character comes up with his "wonderful, awful idea" to steal
Christmas, we see him walk up the stairs of his cave-home and stand in front of a circular
window.
It's not exactly the same, but the lines across the round window and the circular centre do
bring to mind the Window of the Worlds in Dr Strange's Sanctum Santorum.
In the original book and animated TV special, as well as stealing all the Whos' presents,
the Grinch also takes all their food, "even the last can of Who hash!"
And there's a little call-back to that in Illumination's new movie when the Grinch realises
he's eaten all the groceries he bought to last him through to January, even his "emergency
stash of Who hash".
And when he goes into Whoville to restock, he sweeps a whole load of Who-hash cans off
the shelf and into his basket.
When Cindy-Lou first bumps into the Grinch, she's on her way to post a letter to Santa.
Which is a nice hat-tip to how in the live-action movie, Cindy-Lou's father was a postmaster
and she happened to meet the Grinch for the first time at the town's post office.
In the new Grinch movie, Cindy-Lou's hairstyle with its two braids sticking up with pink
bows is a lovely reference to the original book, where Cindy-Lou had two wiry strands
of hair sticking up on her head, and it's also a cool shout-out to the 1960s TV special,
where she wore two pink bows in her hair.
Something that infuriates the Grinch even more than usual is when he discovers from
his nearest neighbour Mr Bricklebaum that the mayor of Whoville wants Christmas to be
three times bigger this year.
And this is a subtle little nod to how the Grinch's heart will eventually grow three
sizes by the end of the story.
When the Grinch wants to learn all about how to become like Santa for his dastardly plan,
he starts flipping through a book called "Cringle's Christmas Almanac".
The name Kris Kringle, when spelled with a 'K', is an alternate name for Santa Claus,
and you may well have heard that name before if you've ever watched the classic Christmas
movie Miracle on 34th Street.
When Fred the reindeer, who was originally going to pull the Grinch's sleigh, ends up
leaving, the Grinch references the classic song "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
Riffing on a line from that famous Christmas tune, the Grinch promotes Max to reindeer
duty, saying "you will guide my sleight tonight".
The single antler that the Grinch places on Max's head is also a little throwback to the
same thing that happened in the book, the animated TV special, and the live-action film.
This time, Max's antler has been enhanced with an extendable arm to grab the swag that
the Grinch tosses down to him during the great Christmas heist.
And as the Grinch orders Max to get to work, there's a funny moment as the little dog pulls
at the enormous sleigh and, instead of moving it forward, he just ends up burrowing down
into the snow, before he finally summons enough strength to pull himself up and set off.
It's an amusing moment which echoes a similar scene in the TV special where the Grinch's
sleigh was so laden with everything he'd stolen from Whoville, that Max just couldn't get
himself up out of the snow and stayed like that pretty much all the way back to Mount
Crumpit!
A little difference in the new Grinch movie is that in this version the Grinch steals
Christmas from Cindy-Lou's house last of all, whereas in all the other versions, her home
is the first stop on his yuletide raid.
The new film does, however, acknowledge the original order as the metre on the Grinch's
sleigh counts down the number of houses he's robbed and when he gets to Cindy-Lou's home,
the metre reads "number 1".
The new movie also has a couple of easter eggs to another of Dr Seuss's most famous
books, The Cat in the Hat.
In The Grinch, the green grump wears a red and white-striped scarf when he goes food-shopping
in Whoville and he also dons a red and white stripy tie when he visits Cindy-Lou's house
and both of these echo the Cat in the Hat's iconic stripy red and white hat.
As an Illumination film, The Grinch also has a number of hat-tips to previous movies by
the animation studio.
In Despicable Me 3, we already saw Margot wearing a Grinch on one of her shirts and
the clothing-related connections between the movies continue in this latest film.
First up is the stripy dark-coloured scarf that the Grinch wears during his raid on Mr
Bricklebaum's house.
The Grinch's muffler looks an awful lot like Gru's signature scarf from the Despicable
Me movies.
There's also a nod to Agnes's fluffy unicorn obsession in The Grinch.
As the Whos get their Christmas photos taken, you can see that Groopert's family are also
fans of fluffy unicorns, though their one has blue rather than pink hair like Agnes's.
And Cindy-Lou's friend Izzy also has a similar toy unicorn by her bed.
If you were wondering who narrated the new Grinch movie, well it's none other than singer-songwriter
Pharrell Williams.
He's a regular contributor to Illumination's movies and composed numerous themes and songs,
including the Oscar-nominated Happy, for the Despicable Me movies.
Now, did you spot any other cool easter eggs in the movie?
And Who was your favourite character?
Let me know in the comments below and remember to subscribe for a chance to win one of these
cool Grinch merch packs.
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!