Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) Review

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.”