Yup, this is no phony, Dr.Seuss gave The Grinch a Halloween Special and if you haven't noticed, it's not shown on TV during the month of fright. Does this mean this special’s a failure in trying to make a Halloween Special with a creepy Christmas icon, or is it a hidden underrated gem that is not looked at enough? On with the review....
The "Sour-Sweet Wind" is blowing in "Whoville" again and when that wind blows every Who knows, it's "Grinch Night". On "Grinch Night" the Grinch comes down from Mount Crumpit with his "Paraphernalia Wagon" to release his spooks on the Who's at "Whoville". A young Who boy named Euchariah gets swept away by the wind and is now lost, but not alone because he bumps into the Grinch. It's up to Euchariah to stop the Grinch from arriving to "Whoville". Can he stop him in time?
Since Boris Karloff died, the creators had to find a replacement voice actor. How can anyone replace Boris Karloff's eerie and menacing voice for the character? Surprisingly, they found a perfect actor who matches the tone of the character and that voice actor is Hans Conried who you might recognize his voice from cartoons such as "The Duddley Do Right" cartoons as Snidely Whiplash or as Captain Hook from the animated classic "Disney's Peter Pan". His voice isn't as eerie as Karloff's, but he still makes the character sound menacing. The Grinch in this cartoon is more evil than he was in the Christmas cartoon. He not only has spooks, but he also likes to destroy everything that's beautiful; abuses and insults his dog Max in an unfunny way; and he even has powers that can change his size, make things appear, and even uses them to frighten Whos. Why didn't he use them in The Christmas Special? Han Conried is no Karloff, but he makes for an excellent substitute. Our main character and hero Euchariah however, kind of ruined it. The character can get annoying from time to time; he's very bland; and to be honest, he feels more like a footnote to this special then he does as a hero. Why can't Cindy Lou Who be our hero instead of this undeveloped Who?
It's not just the hero that ruined the special it's also the dialogue. Most of the dialogue sounds so boring and pointless that you'd wish that they didn't say anything at all. Even the lines that you hear most of the time are usually repeated throughout the special. There were even times when we didn't need a narrator, but yet they throw his voice in anyway. This special doesn't even have much rhyming as you usually hear in other Dr.Seuss stories and cartoons. With all that said, even though the dialogue is off, Hans Conried still does a fine job of being the Grinch and making the character interesting and he does an excellent job with the narration.
Since the dialogue is bad I guess the songs are going to be just as bad. I mean, come on the songs from The Christmas Special are timeless, catchy, and unforgettable. To my surprise the songs in this special are just as good as the ones from the Christmas special. Songs like "I Wouldn't Go Out On A Night Like This" and "Wandering In The Wind" give great build up to The Grinch's "Paraphernalia Wagon" and makes the audience fear what the Who's are fearing. The songs for the Grinch are just as eerie as the song "You're a Mean One Mr.Grinch", in fact they even got Thrul Ravenscroft's voice (Who sang "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch") to help with the backup vocals. The Grinch even sings a few times being fun and scary at the same time. A song that makes me emotional in the Special is Max's song "What Am I Doing Here?". You hear his song through his thoughts, singing about why he's with the Grinch and seeing his sad face and hearing The Grinch tease him throughout the song makes you feel sorry for him. The songs are good, but sadly they're not as memorable as the ones from the Christmas Special, but they still help add to the tone that this Special is going for. The score itself also gives the special its atmosphere and is very powerful to hear.
The animation is incredible. It has great atmosphere of bringing the beauty of "Whoville" to showing the Gothic darkness on Mount Crumpit. The designs for the animals that make the noises that annoy the Grinch are very creative, and The Grinch himself looks as creepy as he did in the Christmas special. The real applause for the animation, Hans Conried's voice acting, the music, and the songs goes to the whole sequence when The Grinch releases his spooks out of the "Paraphernalia Wagon". This sequence is so dark that it looks like Dr.Seuss's vision of hell in his world. Monsters and Ghosts are popping out of nowhere chasing after you, the song's scary enough to make kids hide under their beds, the score for the number is out of this world, and we even hear The Grinch's creepy voice echoing, asking if you're "Enjoying yourself"? The designs for the spooks are so creative that you can't help, but praise the work of Dr.Seuss. This whole sequence literally stole the whole special.
My biggest issue with this special is I'm not sure if this is a sequel or a prequel. In the ending of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas", his heart grew three sizes and became nice; and in the cartoon "Horton Hears A Who" you see him in a cameo of him now happily living with the Whos. What made him suddenly live back on Mount Crumpit and make him villainous again? It's never explained. Could this probably be before he stole Christmas, if that's the case that would explain why he's evil and why we don't see Cindy Lou Who, but look at Max he was practically a puppy when he helped The Grinch steal Christmas, in this he looks more like a grown dog instead of being a puppy. They say he's a puppy, but comparing him to the original cartoon, he really doesn't look like one; he's just as big as our main character. In fact, what happens to Max in the ending makes no sense at all of when this story is taking place. Whatever the reason is will never know. I also might as well add that this special has nothing to do with Halloween at all.
Even though the special has a boring main character, bland dialogue and a confusing setting filled with plot holes, you can tell they tried to create something new. It's very creative and brings it's Halloween feel even if it doesn't take place on Halloween. In fact, the special won a prime time Emmy for Outstanding Children's Special and the "Paraphernalia Wagon" sequence is put as the number 8 "Top 11 Nostalgia Mindf--k Moments" by my favorite critic Doug Walker (Aka That Guy With The Glasses). Is the special as good as "How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", no but it's defiantly worth a look and something I personally think should be shown on TV during the Month of Halloween. Even though it's also a childhood favorite of mine and still holds up the memories it gave me as a small boy I'm still giving this special a low rating. It's not bad, but it's not nearly great as the Christmas Special that this special spun-off from.
RATING 2/5
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