This is the Grinch for the iPad generation: bright, zippy, and safe enough to put on during holiday chaos. It won't win any originality awards—critics were meh, audiences were meh—but it does what it sets out to do: retell a beloved story with enough visual pizzazz to hold modern kids' attention.

The moral is clear without being preachy, and Benedict Cumberbatch's Grinch is more lonely-sad than truly scary. A few parents worry about the sensory overload for toddlers, and there's one 'ass' in a song that might raise an eyebrow, but otherwise this is low-stakes family viewing.

It's not a must-watch masterpiece, but if you need a holiday movie that won't traumatize the 6-year-old or bore the 10-year-old, this'll do the job. Just don't expect it to dethrone the 1966 cartoon in your heart.