Directed By: Chuck Jones, Ben Washam
Starring: Boris Karloff, Thurl Ravenscroft, June Foray
Trivia: Dr. Seuss himself wrote the lyrics to all the songs
The Grinch, a nasty, green-haired hermit living high atop Mount Crumpet, hates Christmas.
Enraged by the music and Holiday cheer coming from the nearby town of Whoville, the Grinch, with the help of his trusty canine Max, dresses up like Santa Claus and, once all the Whos are tucked into bed, descends upon Whoville to steal every Christmas decoration... every present... every tree. He takes all of it, right down to the Roast Beast, the Whos’ traditional Christmas supper!
The mid-’60s was a magical time for Holiday-themed animation, with Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), A Charlie Brown Christmas (’65), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (in ’66) all released within a few years of each other. Clearly, this was the “Golden Age” of Christmas animation, and over the years, very few specials have come close to matching the popularity of this trio of classics.
Hoping the loss of these items will end the festivities once and for all, the Grinch instead learns that, no matter how hard you try, you can’t keep Christmas from coming!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was a perfect storm of creativity, merging the talents of its director (Chuck Jones, who, for years, brought Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to life for Warner Brothers), narrator (the great Boris Karloff, balancing gentle sophistication with a touch of madness), and, of course, Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, whose penchant for nonsensical rhymes has entertained children for generations (as a kid, my favorite Dr. Seuss book was Green Eggs and Ham, but I also loved the chaos of The Cat in the Hat). Through their combined efforts, a Holiday masterpiece was created, featuring a central character every bit as nasty as Ebenezer Scrooge.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was a perfect storm of creativity, merging the talents of its director (Chuck Jones, who, for years, brought Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to life for Warner Brothers), narrator (the great Boris Karloff, balancing gentle sophistication with a touch of madness), and, of course, Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, whose penchant for nonsensical rhymes has entertained children for generations (as a kid, my favorite Dr. Seuss book was Green Eggs and Ham, but I also loved the chaos of The Cat in the Hat). Through their combined efforts, a Holiday masterpiece was created, featuring a central character every bit as nasty as Ebenezer Scrooge.
There are plenty of memorable moments scattered throughout How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, but my favorite sequence is when the Grinch is carrying out his diabolical plan, an evil grin affixed to his face as he fills sack after sack with the Whos’ Christmas cheer, the song "You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, filling the soundtrack. These scenes are wonderful, and are rivaled only by the film’s incredibly moving finale (as upbeat endings go, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! features one of the finest ever conceived).
The mid-’60s was a magical time for Holiday-themed animation, with Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), A Charlie Brown Christmas (’65), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (in ’66) all released within a few years of each other. Clearly, this was the “Golden Age” of Christmas animation, and over the years, very few specials have come close to matching the popularity of this trio of classics.
They are, quite simply, the best of the bunch.
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