How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

"If Jim did a scene and wanted to knock some thing off the table, I wanted to be sure that the dog had enough in him to think, 'this is all right; this doesn't bother me.' You can't plan every minute part of a scene ahead of time particularly with a talent like Jim. He and Ron would come up with stuff on the spot and sometimes you're not sure how it's going to work out," says Schumacher.

Schumacher used a total of six dogs, all mutts, hair cut and dyed to match Kelly. All came from shelters and after the movie four of them found homes with Grinch crew members.

Part of creating the Whoville world was the physicality of the Whos. In Dr. Seuss' world, characters find themselves in situations that defy conventional physics. To your garden-variety mortal, everything looks skewed, but to a Who it's all absolutely square.

Prior to production, stunt coordinator Charlie Croughwell ran a "Who School" for three weeks for the actors and stunt performers to help develop a physical language for the Whos. How far can the Whos defy gravity? What can Whos do that normal people cannot?

"Sometimes Seuss would have it that the Whos defied the laws of physics so much that a Who could stand on their toe on the corner of a box, and the boxes are all balanced on their corners while playing badminton, yet sometimes they were like normal people," notes C roug hwell.

The goal was to find a way to set the Whos apart from a normal person, but not so that the viewer would get annoyed because the physicality became too gimmicky. The actors, extras and stunt people came and went during the three week rehearsal process on stage 18 where trampolines crash pads, and assorted stunt equipment was rehearsed with as well as simple walking.

Croughwell created a rig (using the base of a wheelchair that was extended) so that he could drive Jim Carrey, seated on the Tiny Who car, throughout Whoville. A flying rig, attached to the perms on stage 12, consisted of an l-beam which allowed Croughwell to spin the car around and around and then let Grinch stunt double Pat Banta travel 25 feet through the air and 10 feet off the ground. Throughout this car chase, the Grinch narrowly misses assorted Whos and sends them tumbling.

These stunt people, Sonny Tipton, Terry Notary, Greg Wise, Fricso Canyon, Richie Gaona, Stas Greiner, Svetla Krasteva and Pavel Soukharev came from the Las Vegas-based troupe of the "Mystere" show of Cirque du Soleil.

"The Cirque performers have a strong per formance background doing odd characters in odd situations, so they were perfect for the movie," says Croughwell. "There's not too many stunt people I could find where I could go to them and ask them to climb up a pole upside down only with their hands. These guys give you a broad range of abilities that you normally don't get."

As drawn in the book, the village of Whoville was quaint and sparse, which served the book well, though, for a full-length movie was hardly adequate. Howard turned to the visual effects studio, Digital Domain, which served him so well on Apollo 13 (the movie was nominated for an Academy Award® for best visual effects and won the British Academy Award), to extend and enhance Whoville.

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