How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Question: Where exactly is Whoville located? And what year is the movie meant to take place?

Answer: Then why does it appear as a tiny speck in Horton Hears A Who?

In "Horton Hears a Who", both the book and the animated film, the speck of dust lands on a clover. In the 2000 Grinch film, the speck of dust has now landed on a snowflake because it's winter time. It should be noted that it's only the 2000 Grinch film that has Whoville as a speck similar to Whoville in "Horton Hears a Who." In the book and other adaptations, Whoville and the Whos are normal sized and probably located somewhere in Massachusetts.

Bishop73

Where are you getting Massachusetts from?

Brian Katcher

Dr. Suess was born in Springfield, MA and there are some that claim the drawings in the book are similar to Easthampton, MA and Mt. Tom (although others say it's La Jolla and Mt. Soledad in California). Residence of Easthampton put on an annual "Whobalation" to celebrate the legend Whoville is based on them.

Bishop73

Answer: According to the introduction, Whoville is located on a snowflake. Therefore they don't keep time like we do.

Brian Katcher

Question: In the beginning, there is a watchman that announces "Another minute closer to Christmas!" as each minute ticks off a countdown clock. Assuming that each panel (days, hours minutes) is on a revolving wheel of some sort, how can the three wheels work correctly in such close proximity to each other? Granted, only the minutes part moves for the sake of the story, but it still begs the question.

Movie Nut

Answer: By machine.

The clock in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is designed for cinematic effect; a real-world counterpart would rely on precise gearing and engineering to allow three separate wheels to operate in close proximity without interfering with each other. The key would be in the gear ratios and the alignment of the gears to ensure smooth operation of each panel.

Answer: It was a rocket sleigh.

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Mistakes

Continuity mistake: After the Grinch unscrews the light bulb in the town Christmas tree, all the lights in the town go dark and the Grinch starts to take off in his sled-thing. When they show a close up of him, the lights are on. Then a few seconds later, the lights are off again.

More mistakes in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Quotes

Grinch: Hello!
Grinch's Echo: Hello! Hello! Hello!
Grinch: How are you?
Grinch's Echo: How are you? How are you? How are you?
Grinch: I asked you first.
Grinch's Echo: I asked you first. I asked you first. I asked you first.
Grinch: Oh, that's real mature. Saying exactly what I say.
Grinch's Echo: Exactly what I say. Exactly what I say. Exactly what I say.
Grinch: I'm an idiot.
Grinch's Echo: You're an idiot.
Grinch: [Whispering] All right. Fine. I'm not talking to you anymore. In fact, I'm going to whisper. So that by the time the sound of my voice reverberates off the walls and gets back to me, I won't be able to hear it.
Grinch's Echo: You're an idiot.

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Trivia

Trivia: When the Grinch takes the table cloth from the table, everything on the table was supposed to fall off. When Jim Carrey yanked out the cloth however, everything stayed in place. Jim immediately walked back to the table and improvised knocking everything off and then knocking the table over.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: There is no evidence this was a mistake.

There's an apparent scan of an original script on scriptslug.com that indicates the scene, as written, had him pulling the cloth without disturbing anything, then kicking the table over.

More trivia for How the Grinch Stole Christmas

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