It’s common to call someone who doesn’t like Christmas a “Grumpy‘, a kind of ogre who goes against the spirit of others, especially after the great popularity that the character had in the early 2000s when the successful version was released with Jim Carrey dressed in the skin of this character, and who is also the protagonist of the most profitable Christmas film.
Beyond that, the origin of this pop culture figure who has become one of those most quoted during the holidays is not that well known, even if it is as an insult or in the form of pride in being against the tide of the Christmas spirit.
Who is the Grinch and what is the origin of this character
The Grinch is a green, grumpy creature who tries to ruin the Christmas holidays because he hates them, and part of that is because his heart is “two sizes too small.” A character from children’s literature and created by Theodor Seuss Geiselbetter known by his pseudonym Dr. Seuss.
This writer born in 1904 in Massachusetts He wasn’t in a good personal situation when he decided to create this character, which motivated him when his wife was experiencing significant health issues and discovered she had lost the Christmas spirit. He himself told in an interview how the idea for the Grinch appeared one morning after Christmas Day:
“I was brushing my teeth on the morning of December 26 (1956) when I noticed a face very similar to the Grinch in the mirror. I realized that something was wrong with Christmas, or more likely with me. So I wrote a story about my sour friend, to see if I could rediscover something about the holidays that I had obviously missed,” detailed Dr. Seuss.
The Grinch, however, had appeared before, or something very similar, in the author’s book. Great scrambled eggs!published in 1953, in which it is a type of bird called “Grinch with a bald head and a Beagle beak”, but from there, after the idea he had previously, he appeared as the main character and as we currently know him in the story How the Grinch Stole Christmas!from 1957.
The book was not only a success with the public and sales, but it was also highly praised by critics and the press, who pointed out that the story was darker than that of his previous novel “The Cat in the Hat” and that it taught a lesson about the true meaning of Christmas.
Adaptations that made The Grinch popular
Although the book was very popular in its time, it was its small and big screen adaptations that gave it its current fame. The first took place in 1966 and was a short cartoon produced by CBS, with the voice of Boris Karloffactor known for his role as Frankenstein in the classic Universal franchise, as the Grinch. This first adaptation, carried out by Chuck Jonesalmost entirely respected the structure and tone of the book, which is why it is called the most faithful to the book.
In 2000, his first and only “live-action” version appeared, with Jim Carrey as the protagonist, and which was a box office success, one of the highest-grossing films at Christmas after “Home Alone”, and narratively developed the origins of the character. His collection figures would be surpassed by the 2018 version in which the character returned to animation adapted for the 21st century with a simpler story.
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