Other Titles • How the Grinch Stole Christmas • Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas • The Grinch • Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
The exterior of the Who houses (or, suburbs) was constructed on the Universal backlot between the Psycho House and the laboratory from JurassicPark.
Beyond the ingenuity of creating and then building the sets, the fact that every prop and set decoration had to be manufactured was somewhat daunting. The set decoration and props are Seussian inspired though it took a lot of trial and error to figure out what "Seussian" really meant and would it work in the movie. When discussing the movie early in pre production with friend George Lucas, Ron Howard was advised to try 1950s style appliances and props and tweak them to the desired look as opposed to creating from scratch (a technique Lucas used in StarWars).
For example, the Whoville kitchens feature Wedgewood stoves from the 1950's that have been colorfully painted with the prop shop creating new handles, dials and grills. Blenders, refrigerators, record players, tape records, and scores of other items were "kludged" together after being located at local flea markets, antique stores and garage sales.
Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) passed away in 1991, though his widow Audrey, was convinced her husband would have approved of the world the filmmakers created: "I really wish Ted could be here to see what has been created," she observed when visiting the shooting sets in October 1999. "The way everything is meticulously, lovingly Seuss; I don't think he would believe what has been done on these sets."
A second unit crew directed by Todd Hallowell, went to the Solitude Ski Resort near Salt Lake City in March 2000 after principal photography had wrapped to shoot the sequence of the Grinch, Cindy Lou and Max speeding down the slopes of Mt. Crumpit back to Whoville to return to the presents.
The close-up and medium shots on Mt. Crumpit were done by Ron Howard on stage 27 where a Styrofoam mountain was built in the pit on the stage which gave the set a total height of 56 feet. The sleigh ride sequence alone features over 150 visual effects shots to amplify the Seussian world where the laws of physics are just a bit different.
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