Jim Carrey’s Grinch Turns 25 Next Year, And I’m Amazed That There’s A Four-Hour Cut Fans Want Released
Thinking about the upcoming 2025 movies schedule isn’t just about looking forward to the new and returning properties at a theater near you. Nostalgic anniversaries are also pretty important, especially since everything released in the year 2000 is going to celebrate a quarter of a century.
Arguably one of the best Christmas movies ever, Ron Howard and Jim Carrey’s Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, has fans celebrating by apparently pushing to release an alleged four-hour cut. But does this amazing prospect actually exist?!
Fans Really Want How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ Four-Hour Cut To Exist
A new petition over at Change.org has sounded the alarm for Grinch fans to sign up and demand a supposedly four-hour version that is alleged to exist. In a proposal that shares an extensive list of 35 scenes that were seemingly left on the cutting room floor, this intrepid loyalist is ultimately looking to get a new home video re-release, with all the bells and whistles reintroducing to us to The Grinch’s tragic backstory.
Dubbed “The Holiday Cheermeister Edition,” user Tom Sinclair has scoured everything from storyboards, behind-the-scenes extras and texts, as well as the TV cut that’s said to clock in at 5 minutes longer. It’s an extensive and exhaustive rundown that I’m pretty excited to dig into in a bit more detail.
Which also leads me to a bit of a caveat before we continue. You see, while there are quite a few deleted scenes scattered in the wild for Ron Howard’s live-action adaptation hit, I’m increasingly skeptical that we’ll be getting an epic length version when all is said and done.
How The Grinch’s Four-Hour Cut Rumors Really Started
So where did all of this hubbub begin? Well, if you consult author Andy Lipschultz’s behind-the-scenes book How The Grinch Stole Hollywood, the story of Ron Howard’s extensive cut supposedly originates from this very text. This is where the tale begins to twist a bit, courtesy of what page 13 had to offer on that very subject:
One director’s first cut of a 1999 movie clocked in at a derriere-numbing four hours. The director was pleased with this length and declared to the studio no major cuts needed to be made. The studio, not surprisingly, disagreed.
Reading this quote above a bit more critically in the context of Lipschultz’s book, it appears that this quote is misattributing Ron Howard as that “one director” who thought they had a four-hour masterpiece of holiday Who-bilation. For as long as these rumors have been circulating, I’m honestly kind of surprised people haven’t asked Mr. Carrey about his hands-on nature with one of his dream roles.
Meanwhile, the truth of what we’re missing may clock in closer to roughly 20 minutes. At least, that’s what exists in a YouTube supercut that’s compiled quite a few of the moments that Ron Howard did dump to Mount Crumpit. I’m not trying to shave the mayor’s head here and abuse the post of Holiday Cheermeister here, especially because I’m a staunch supporter of Dr. Seuss’ iconic holiday story.
I’d be satisfied with a slightly longer running time, and an extras-laden 4K disc for the anniversary of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. That said, we don’t even know if the materials for what we know exists are in any shape to make that happen. Though with Jim Carrey excited for a potential Grinch sequel, another force for good may help boost these festivities as a stopgap between this anniversary and another installment.
The clock is ticking between now and November 17th 2025, which is when Ron Howard and Jim Carrey’s Christmas gem will officially be 25 years old. And if you haven’t gotten to catch this version at all this year, as it somehow just returned to subscription streaming, you can use your Peacock subscription to do just that.
