The three versions compared here are a 1966 animated TV special, a 2000 live-action film and a 2018 animated feature. They are separate adaptations of the same Dr. Seuss story, not a trilogy, so you can choose any one of them on its own.
“The Grinch” on its own rarely tells you which version someone means. The quickest identifiers are the year, the format and the lead performer, so add one of those when you search. This guide adds what each studio and classifier record says about length and content, with each figure tied to the edition it belongs to.
1966: the Chuck Jones TV special
The Television Academy’s archive page describes How the Grinch Stole Christmas! as a 26-minute animated special directed by Chuck Jones. It was first broadcast on CBS on December 18, 1966, with Boris Karloff as narrator and the Grinch’s speaking voice. Warner Bros.’ page describes the special as a collaboration between Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) and Chuck Jones, and lists it under animation, comedy, family and music.
The same archive includes an interview in which June Foray discusses voicing Cindy Lou Who in the special, uncredited. So Cindy Lou Who already appears in 1966, long before the 2018 film gave her a larger story.
In the UK, the BBFC rated a 2000 home-entertainment release U, finding no material likely to offend or harm, and timed that release at 24 minutes 37 seconds.
The two lengths do not contradict each other. One describes the special as made for television; the other is the measured length of a specific home release.
2000: Ron Howard’s live-action film
The BBFC record for the 2000 film lists Ron Howard as director, with Jim Carrey in the lead. It went into UK cinemas in 2000 under the title The Grinch, rated PG for mild fantasy peril and timed at 105 minutes.
Here the Grinch is an actor in heavy makeup rather than a drawing, and the makeup won an Academy Award. The Academy’s ceremony page lists Rick Baker and Gail Ryan as Makeup winners for the film. It was also nominated for Art Direction (Michael Corenblith, with set decorator Merideth Boswell) and Costume Design (Rita Ryack).
For its 2025 UK cinema re-release, titled How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the BBFC again rated it PG and noted:
- Scares: the Grinch tries to frighten people, in brief, comic scenes.
- Rude humour: innuendo and backside jokes.
- Stunts: fantastical tricks, such as eating hot coals.
- Theme: flashbacks of the Grinch being bullied at school.
2018: Illumination’s animated feature
Illumination’s page calls The Grinch the studio’s eighth fully animated feature, presented with Universal Pictures. Benedict Cumberbatch voices the Grinch, who lives alone in a cave on Mt. Crumpet with his dog, Max. The film adds a new thread: Cindy-Lou Who, a young girl who plans to trap Santa Claus so she can ask him to help her overworked single mother.
The BBFC rated its cinema release U for mild slapstick and very mild bad language. Two details matter here:
- A category cut: the distributor chose to remove one use of mild bad language to obtain the U, and the BBFC notes that an uncut PG version was available.
- A short on the same programme: the 89-minute-55-second cinema timing includes the short Yellow Is the New Black, so it is not the length of the feature alone. The 2019 home-entertainment versions were timed at 85 minutes 57 seconds (3D) and 82 minutes 23 seconds (2D disc).
The BBFC’s content notes describe comic slapstick, brief and swiftly resolved threat, and one implied drug joke.
Why the lengths are so different
The 1966 special fits a half-hour television slot. The two features stretch the same short picture-book story to feature length with added scenes and backstory.
That difference in room shapes the choice. A half-hour special and a feature of roughly 90 to 105 minutes give the same story very different amounts of time. If your household loved the book for its brevity, the special is the closest match in length; if they want more time in Who-ville, the features offer it.
Edition matters as well: when you plan a viewing, use the running time printed on the edition you will watch.
Choosing by format
Our suggestions are based on format and on each version’s own content notes, not on age or on which version is “best”:
- For a shorter TV sitting: the 1966 special.
- For a live-action comedy: the 2000 film, after reading its notes above.
- For a feature-length animation: the 2018 film.
- For a comparison evening: the special plus either feature, since the special takes under half an hour.
A rating or content note for one Grinch cannot be carried over to the others. Ratings belong to a specific version, release and country.
All three tell the same basic story. What changes is how much each adds around it and how each looks: hand-drawn television animation, a live-action fantasy town in heavy makeup, or a bright computer-animated world.
Related reading
For another comparison of two family films that are easy to confuse, see Coraline vs ParaNorman.