Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) Review
As of this month, I have been writing this blog for four
years, and one of the first things I ever talked about was the TV Christmas
special How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
It’s time to re-visit what is, hands down, my favourite Christmas TV special of
all.
When I was four or maybe five, my dad taped The Grinch (yes, taped, as in recorded the show off TV onto a VHS tape, remember
when that was a thing?) and ever
since, I have watched it with my parents at least once every Christmas season,
without fail (though we have since upgraded to the blu-ray, the original VHS
still exists). Even though I have seen The
Grinch more than 20 times and every word and frame is embedded in my
memory, I still notice new things each time—whether it’s an object with the
wrong colour, or a recycled piece of animation—and during this year’s viewing,
it occurred to me that no one in this show is human. The Who’s, though
human-like, are not people in the sense that Charlie Brown is a young boy or
that Santa Claus is a jolly man with a beard. Is this perhaps the only
Christmas special without any actual humans in it? I can’t think of any others:
another way in which it is wholly unique.
The Grinch came
out during an inundation of Christmas specials. There was Charlie Brown Christmas the year before, Rudolph and the Flintstones
Christmas special two years prior, but Grinch
stood out because of its unique story. It is a nearly word-for-word adaptation
of Dr. Seuss’ book, but all of the small additions or changes are for the
better. The story draws on the classic Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by being about a character who is anti-Christmas.
The Grinch is like Scrooge, but unlike Scrooge, he takes matters into his own
green hands and attempts to take away the very thing he despises, while still
learning a valuable lesson by the end.
The Grinch isn’t
brought up in the conversation of best screen-adaptations of books, but it
should be. It is such a perfect half-hour of comedy, excitement, drama,
emotion, even horror (some of the faces he makes are actual nightmare fuel) and
of course Christmas cheer/jeer, I can’t imagine it any other way. The animation
(from Looney Tunes creator Chuck
Jones) is fantastic, the music is classic, the narration/voice of the Grinch by
Boris Karloff is iconic, and the message, that Christmas “doesn’t come from a
store” but instead “means a little bit more” is a beautifully simple one.
Christmas, to me, is not about any one thing. It’s not about
gifts or decorating a tree or celebrating the birth of Christ. To me, Christmas
is about tradition. It’s about continuing to do things each year that
previously brought you joy, whatever they may be, and preserving those
traditions every year. Watching How The
Grinch Stole Christmas with my family is not just my favourite Christmas
tradition, but one of my favourite traditions in general. It’s something I look
forward to, and will continue to look forward to, for as long as the tradition
can be preserved.
“Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart, and hand
in hand.”
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