Since its first publication in 1957, Dr. Seuss’ “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” has fascinated readers. While the story is timeless and fun for all ages, the 2000 version starring Jim Carrey has statistics that are mind-blowing.
1. Every year millions of families decorate their Christmas trees. Many well-meaning parents and grandparents load up each possible branch with every single family relic of Christmas past. “Baby’s first Christmas” and the like. Imagine having to decorate the set of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with 8,200 ornaments.
2. Snow is a novelty to many of us. But in the burbs of Whoville 152,000 lbs. of crushed marble was used to create a wintery scene.
3. Everyone who ever entered for a science fair knows the amount of hot glue, goo, and paint that go into the making of volcanos and solar systems. The Styrofoam needed to build sets topped out at 2 million linear feet. That equates to about 6 miles worth of Styrofoam.
4. As sexy as Jim Carrey would look in a spandex suit, a little modesty is always welcome. His costume as the Grinch was covered in yak hairs, sewn on one by one after being dyed green. Bet that was itchy
5. Carrey’s dedication to the Grinch costume puts makeup wearing females to shame. He spent a total of 92 days in Grinch garb and makeup. It took him 3 hours getting into costume, and 1 hour to get out.
6. Everyone gets a sweet tooth around holiday time, but 1,938 candy canes seems a bit excessive. Not in Whoville where residents are known to feast to the point of gluttony. Hope they have a good town dentist…
7. There’s always that one house in the neighborhood that goes all out and absolutely covers their house in Christmas lights, lighting the way for Santa and all the air traffic within an 8 mile radius. Think that’s bad? The set of How the Grinch Stole Christmas featured 52,000 lights. ‘Nuff said.
8. The Wizard of Oz had lovable, quirky characters like the munchkins and those darling monkeys we all adore so much (and by adore, I mean fear). Naturally, the costumes were intricate and well-designed, however, no other movie has featured so many characters in such heavy makeup since the 1939 classic until the 2000 version of the Grinch debuted.
9. Ever notice the vintage quality the movie has? Costume designer, Rita Ryack, created designs for nearly 300 hats. Her inspiration? 1950s cookbooks.
10. Max the dog was actually a mutt from a local shelter named Kelly. She was a runaway that had wound up in the shelter several times before the owner abandoned her. Kelly was trained for 15 weeks and had 5 other dogs to back her up, doing specialty gags – doggie stunt doubles.
11. The simple message the Whos offer is admirable, but the cost of the production? More than $115 million.