How the Grinch Stole Hollywood: The Making of the Movie [Paperback]

Andy Lipschultz (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

From the sets to the costumes to the delightfully wacky makeup, from the sketchbook to the storyboards to the production shots, here is a detailed look at the art and the ingenuity that went into the making of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, director Ron Howard's and Imagine Entertainment's feature movie adaptation of the Dr. Seuss holiday classic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With a sharp eye for detail, good photos, and oodles of inside information, Andy Lipschultz has produced an exemplary book on the making of the live-action film of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.The transformation of Seuss's fanciful illustrations into physical reality (and the challenge of competing with Chuck Jones's great cartoon version) is largely a feat of makeup, special effects, and design, and a book is the perfect medium for explicating such magic. In chapters with lively, entertaining titles (the one on costume design is called "Laugh Now, But Wait Until It's Selling on Melrose Avenue"), Lipschultz delves into the origins and deeper meanings of the zillion props and sets and characters. Five-time Oscar winner Rick Baker's face-engulfing Grinch makeup design looks great on the page, and it's interesting to learn how the contact lenses and artificial snow made Jim Carrey suffer for his art. "We tried painting my face, which would have been very comfortable and given me a lot of leeway, but I looked like someone from the cast of Cats," explains Carrey. The Grinch's Mount Crumpit is revealed as Solitude ski resort near Salt Lake, with twisty Seussian crags added. The Grinch's cave is Carlsbad Caverns with the ramp from the Guggenheim and the bleak spirit of Charles Foster Kane's Xanadu. Like Dr. Seuss himself, the designers were crucially inspired by the architect Antonio Gaudi, and so there are no straight lines in Whoville. Even a pencil must be crooked, and the overall aesthetic was defined as "Blizzard Deco"--every item looks as if it were buried in a snowdrift. Almost all the materials used in the movie were made no later than 1957, when the book was written, stuff like Bakelite. Director Ron Howard consulted George Lucas on how to create an alien world rooted in realism. When the Grinch opens his "General Wholectric" fridge to remove the roast beast, the design evokes the optimistically futuristic spirit of that era.

There are plenty of colorful pictures here, but don't miss the text explaining the in-jokes. When the Grinch burns the Christmas tree, he exclaims, "Oh, the Whomanity!," echoing the radio report of the Hindenburg disaster (to hear the original, get the book-and-CD set We Interrupt This Broadcast: The Events That Stopped Our Lives). When the Grinch, driving a stolen car, narrowly misses a Who baby carriage, it's a reference to the famous scene in Battleship Potemkin. --Tim Appelo

From the Inside Flap

From the sets to the costumes to the delightfully wacky makeup, from the sketchbook to the storyboards to the production shots, here is a detailed look at the art and the ingenuity that went into the making of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, director Ron Howard's and Imagine Entertainment's feature movie adaptation of the Dr. Seuss holiday classic.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (October 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375806296
• ISBN-13: 978-0375806292
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,395,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How the Grinch Stole Hollywood, November 21, 2000

By 

"aharlib" - See all my reviews

This review is from: How the Grinch Stole Hollywood: The Making of the Movie (Paperback)

How the Grinch Stole Hollywood: The Making of the Movie: 'Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas' by Andy Lipschultz. Andy Lipschultz, an entertainment journalist, has produced another the-making-of a movie book that delivers the goods for those who relish the

behind-the-scenes details involved in any Hollywood creation. Here creation is definitely the operative word, for Universal Studios' 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' entailed the daunting task of bringing to life the uniquely imaginative vision of Dr. Seuss, beloved writer/illustrator of picture books for children and the young at heart of all ages. The book includes interviews with the key persons involved in the Grinch live-action feature film project, from director Ron Howard, to star Jim Carrey, to make-up designer Rick Baker, to production designer Michael Corenblith, to costume designer Rita Ryack, to provide those juicy details that backstage buffs crave. If the text at times is a bit sparse, this is more than compensated for by the profuse, gorgeous, full-color photos (and frequently production sketches) that adorn every page of this large-format, glossy trade paperback. Lipschultz documents the process by which a team of talented folks collaborate to bring an invented world to life for the cinema screen, for the Grinch project in particular embodies an effort of near unprecedented scale. Dr. Seuss' world of Whoville and its not-quite-human inhabitants (and their heroic efforts to save their beloved Christmas holiday from the selfishness of the mean green one), had to be built and dressed from scratch and this challenging task is revealed in fascinating detail. Make-up magic involved the evolution of Jim Carrey's Grinch face which took over 3 hours to apply with its 3 custom-made facial appliances and yellow contact lenses not to mention some 200-odd Whoville residents all of whom required make-up, wigs and distinct costumes of their own. Whoville, a quintessentially Seussian world with no straight lines or right angles, was an architectural challenge that required special engineering consultations and the expertise or authorities on Antoni Gaudi, the world-famous architect who inspired Dr. Seuss to begin with. To flesh out the simple, yet timeless and appealing story of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' to full-length feature format required the dramatic license of scriptwriters whose solutions (approved by Audrey Geisel, widow of the 'source of all'), included adding newly invented characters and to portray them there had to be recruited a cast of talented, dedicated actors willing to endure cosmetic applications nearly as complex as Jim Carrey's. Then the wildly inventive sets all had to be specially lit, photographed,and enhanced by CGI special effects, but the devil of believability is in the details---thus, all the props were custom-crafted and employed along with 600 miles of Styrofoam, 50,000 Christmas lights, 8,000 ornaments, tons of artificial snow, and thousands of candy canes and other seasonal objects.

Through all this production minutiae, Lipschultz makes one thing abundantly clear---all the producers, cast members and crew signed on to the the 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' project out of love of the Dr. Seuss books on which they all grew up and they poured their enthusiasm and creativity into attempting to be as true to the spirit of their source of inspiration as they could be. They did this in the hopes that their efforts would communicate the original, ingenious and magical invention of this giant of juvenilia in a movie that would 'steal Hollywood' and engender box office magic! Judging from the profusion of sketches, photos and never-before-seen scenes contained in this document of the production process, 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' looks exceedingly promising and tantalizing (as though their goal has been achieved), thus 'How the Grinch Stole Hollywood' may indeed be prophetic and not be yet another artifact of filmic folly.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great book, December 20, 2000

By 

"misfiteen1" (newburyport, mass) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How the Grinch Stole Hollywood: The Making of the Movie (Paperback)

to go along with a great movie. i love all the behind the scences stuff... so cool!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Artistic Decisions and Production Trivia About the Movie, December 8, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: How the Grinch Stole Hollywood: The Making of the Movie (Paperback)

If you are preparing for your appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, this is the book to fill your mind with production trivia about the movie. The main appeal of this book comes from a description of how the artistic decisions were made about make-up, sets, costumes, and props. The photographs are often reproduced out of focus, in sizes so small you cannot see the details, or with too much ink to accurately portray the original. The potential is mostly missed in the book to get lots of insights into the outstanding work of Jim Carrey and Ron Howard in making the movie.

The book focuses successfully on Jim Carrey's makeup, as developed by Rick Baker. As you will read many times in the book, it took three hours to apply and a half hour to remove daily. Each of the 80 wearings required a different mask be prepared. Jim Carrey presuaded director Ron Howard to wear the makeup himself one day, sans the yellow contact lenses over the whole eye. Mr. Howard reported being "highly uncomfortable" by the end of the day.

The artistic issue on the makeup was how to make Carrey look like the Grinch, yet allow him the facial and body mobility required to act like Jim Carrey. Reviews of the movie differ on how well this was accomplished with regard to Carrey's facial expressions. You can decide for yourself from the movie and the book how well this was accomplished.

With so many actors needing so much makeup (many of whom were children), there was also the challenge of how to get it all on in time for some daily shooting. Also, what does a Who look like? The decision was made to make Whos more human than in the story in order better to attract the sympathies of the audience.

The sets designed by Michael Corenblith were a compromise as well. It was felt that matching the drawings in Dr. Seuss's work would make the movie look like a cheap local theatrical production. So the designs come from a number of Seuss books to make a little World's Fair, emphasizing Gaudi-like designs. Designs were drawn from many standard sources including Gaudi's Barcelona work, Carlsbad Caverns, and even the winding stairway in New York's Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Props were built (as were the sets) with the rule that there would be no straight lines (not even for a pencil). In many cases, old items from the 30s and 40s bought at flea markets provided components. No materials from after 1957 were used.

Costume designer Rita Ryack produced 400 outfits (including 200 hats) in less than 9 months. How's that for keeping busy?

Cirque de Soleil stunt people were used for the unusual acrobatic sequences.

Special effects were explained mostly by showing how blue screens were used.

Everyone who worked on the project seems to have been in awe of Dr. Seuss's work, and dedicated to creating something special. In doing so, they clearly developed and expanded the story and everything else well beyond the original. Purists will say they went too far. Those who don't know the original will probably like it well enough.

Those who know film making will learn relatively little from the book. The trivia buffs will have a field day.

After you have finished enjoying the book, I suggest that you sit back and think about how you would like to have something you have worked on reproduced by others. How would you ensure that the results matched your desires? How would you grant them the freedom to improve on what you had done? How would you want the results to be judged?

Remember the real spirit of Christmas, always . . . even when in Hollywood!