Articles

Which Grinch is Better?

A comparison of the different movies of the Dr. Seuss classic
Katya Tiffany

Many adore the classic story of the mean Grinch who lives on the towering Mount Crumpit. He hides away and despises Christmas, which the inhabitants of Whoville, the town at the base of Mount Crumpit, celebrate.
There have been multiple adaptations of the Dr. Seuss favourite, spanning across live-action and cartoon movies, broadway productions, and television shows. One may not be familiar with all of the different versions of the story that have been developed over the years, but they all tell the same holiday story in their own unique way
Starting in 1957, the story of the Grinch begins in Dr. Seuss’ original story, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” The story follows the Grinch and his dog, Max, in the typical rhyming style that Dr. Seuss used.
The story is pretty basic since it is a short story for children, and it does not go too in-depth about the backstories of characters. The book features Dr. Seuss’ own drawings as illustrations, just like many of his books.
The first movie adaptation of the Grinch, made in 1966, is one of the closest adaptations of the original story. By using the words and mimicking visual illustration styles, the movie gives an authentic look and copies Seuss’ style.
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” represented the original story exactly as it was in the book and did an extraordinary job bringing the story to life. The movie featured Boris Karloff as the Grinch and narrator and Thurl Ravenscroft as the singer.
The second movie adaptation starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch provided a different adaptation of the illustrated book. The 2000 movie, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” was shot in real life and provides backstory for the Grinch and why he despises the Christmas holiday. It also features a love story using new characters that were not depicted in the original plot.
The movie follows the original Dr. Seuss story but has additional plots and characters to lengthen the movie and provide a more realistic version of the same story.
The final movie adaptation of the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” is the 2018 animated film that gives the original cartoon a new look and animation style.
The Grinch also adds characters and fun that was not featured in the original Dr. Seuss book and the prior movies. Many showed displeasure when hearing how the story was changed in the newer adaptation, but many also showed a liking to the changes.
After analyzing the three movies, the best would have to be the 1966 “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” It is simplistic and gets to the point while mimicking the original story without implanting love interests or too much backstory.
Although the alternative versions of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” including the 2018 and 2000 movies show many silly jokes and fun side characters and plots, the adaptation that is closest to the original book is what satisfies me most as a viewer.

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Layton Greene EP Review

Layton Greene EP review
Katya Tiffany

Layton Greene, raised in East St. Louis, Illinois, has been pursuing her music career since being rejected from both “X-Factor” and “America’s Got Talent.” Instead of quitting after the rejection, she pushed even harder to become a professional singer.
Before the release of her own music, she went viral in 2019, with the release of her first single, “Leave Em Alone” (ft. Lil Baby, City Girls, and PnB Rock). The single accumulated over 85 million views on YouTube and gained a lot of positive attention.
In her new EP, “Tell Our Story,” Greene shares a new music video to accompany the urban soft pop feel of her new song, “I Love You.” The song mixes an urban beat, synthetic sounds, and a soft bass line to create a sentimental mood in the beginning.
The theme is reminiscing as she shares a true experience of one of her past lovers.
“I just was real dependent on him. It should never be like that,” said Greene.
The music video accompanies the song and shows a couple that is in a happy, loving relationship, but as the song and video progress, the couple’s relationship grows unsteady and gloomy, with the boyfriend eventually leaving Greene for another woman.
The woman and the now ex-boyfriend are then shown through the rest of the video living a dream life, getting married, having baby showers, and raising children, while Greene watches from a distance regretfully.
Her lyrics, ”I was under the impression you were real with me, was it all a lie, was it just fantasy,” show her struggle to understand what went wrong in the relationship while Greene and her boyfriend are shown arguing and fighting before the final split.
Greene goes on to sing about how she was not able to leave the relationship easily because the boyfriend would beg her to stay and she could not bring herself to leave.
Greene’s story through the song is a relatable situation to many young girls in relationships. It gives them the message that they should not be afraid to leave a relationship if they feel it is toxic.
Her overall message is, “It’s okay not to be okay sometimes. It’s okay to go through stuff,” and she does a good job conveying it in her music. The music video also does a good job of depicting Greene’s experience of the relationship and her feelings and emotions throughout and after the breakup.
The song deserves at least a 3.5 stars out of 5 and the music video is worth giving a listen to.

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Who and What Are New at FHS?

Katya Tiffany