Yes, we all know this timeless Christmas Special written by Dr.Seuss; animated by Chuck Jones; and narrated by Boris Karloff. The story about a green furry monster called The Grinch who lives up on top of a mountain overlooking the small town of Whoville, where the Who's happily celebrate Christmas which is a holiday that he hates so much that he decides to dress up as Santa and sneak into the Who's houses and steal every single item that they have to prevent them from celebrating it, only to find out in the end that he can't steal Christmas. It's as classic of a Christmas tale as it could get. In all honesty, I'm actually surprised that I didn't review this Christmas Special before, especially when I already reviewed the Spin-Off Halloween Special of this cartoon a few years ago. Still it's better late than never and as a Special treat to make up for my overdue review of this Special, I'm also going to be reviewing the live action remake of this Christmas Special tomorrow and see how well that holds up. With two reviews on two adaptations of a classic Christmas story written by Dr.Seuss that are both cherished, lets finally begin.
Starting things off with our leading anti-hero of the story who is none other than the Grinch himself, the first thing that I really admire about this creature is his design. It's seriously a really cool looking design that stays faithful to Dr.Seuss' original design, while still giving him an original look by making him green from head to toe, to having eyes that change colors from how he feels (Though there are some continuity errors regarding that aspect, but I’ll let that slide). I think the best part about the character's design is the expressions that the Special's animator Chuck Jones gives him, from his nasty frown to that sinister grin. These expressions give the character so much personality that even if the Grinch didn't talk or have a narrator telling you how he feels, you can still pretty much feel and sense every single bit of emotion he's feeling. Still without the narration and voice acting from Boris Karloff, I honestly don't think the Special would be as great. Karloff does such a fantastic job narrating and voicing the Grinch that he's one of the main reasons why the Special's such a Christmas classic. Yeah, it's obvious that he's voicing both the narrator and the character (Even if he does try to make his Grinch voice sound a bit different from his narrating voice), but his narrating and voice acting is so fitting and gives the Special such a unique richness and charm that you honestly don't care. It's exactly like how Bing Crosby narrated and voiced the main characters in Disney's "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow", he does such a perfect a job with both the narrating and the voice acting that it doesn't matter if you can obviously tell that he's voicing the majority of characters, it's just part of the cartoon's charm. On top of it, casting Boris Karloff as this nasty green monster seems very fitting since he's best known for playing the famous Frankenstein Monster who's green (Despite that the film was shot in Black-&-White). It’s interesting to note that Dr.Seuss wasn't too happy with Karloff being casted as The Grinch because he feared that he might be too scary for kids, and while the Grinch does look and sound creepy here and there, he’s nowhere near as scary nightmare fuel as Seuss thought he would be.
Of course without the constant rhyming written by Dr.Seuss, I don't think Karloff's narration nor the Special itself would be as enjoyable, or quotable for that matter. The rhyming that Dr.Seuss uses to tell the story is so fun, clever, and imaginative that it's seriously one of Seuss' best, especially when you have classy horror actor Boris Karloff reciting Seuss' words who seems to be having fun with it, while still maintaining his classy charm. Not only is the dialogue in the Special perfectly written by Seuss, but so are the songs. Out of all the songs I've heard written by Seuss for his animated TV Specials, the songs in this Special are the ones that stand out to me the most. You first of all have the Christmas song that the Who's sing as they gather around in a circle and sing about how happy they are about celebrating Christmas, that is so cute and so full of Christmas cheer that the happiness and cheer just grows and grows as the Who’s keep singing that song throughout the Special. It really is a beautiful song that still manages to be beautiful even when given silly and questionable lyrics that just add to the Dr.Seuss charm. However, the song that everybody remembers and fully enjoys is the Grinch's theme song sung by Thrul Ravenscroft with lyrics that are so dark, twisted, and out of the norm, that Thrul Ravenscroft deep singing voice really sells it, as well as bringing the same amount of class and richness as Karloff does with narrating and voicing our grumpy lead.
In terms of supporting characters there's only very few of them, which isn't at all bad because each character does play a part in the story. The Who's who love to celebrate Christmas, I seriously freaking adore them. I love how happy and cheerful they are during Christmas as they celebrate in peace and harmony in this very surreal and imaginative world where they live in. These are the kind of people that you want to celebrate Christmas with. There's also the little Who girl Cindy Lou, who is so adorable in every single scene she's in that you just want hug her for her subtle and effective innocence. Of course the most memorable supporting character out of them all is the Grinch's dog Max who reluctantly helps him steal Christmas. Max is not only just as cute and innocent as the other supporting characters in the Special, but the slapstick that involves him helping out the Grinch is still just as laugh out loud funny as when I first saw it as a kid. However, while being really hilarious scenes, you at the same time can't help but feel sorry for poor Max.
Actually, the whole Special itself pretty much toys with your emotions by making you not know how you should feel about a few things. I mean really think about it, your lead character is literally stealing items away from a group of adorably cute and cheerful characters who for all we know has done nothing wrong to the Grinch, and yet we still side with this nasty mischievous monster, despite knowing it's not right. It's stories like this that play with your emotions where you don't know how to feel, but overall find yourself enjoying the story all together and embracing it’s good hearted message, which for me is what makes this Special and story so unique. However, as emotionally torn as you are about the character's actions, the story itself is very simple and straight forward with no BS put into it at all. Actually (Just like how I describe the Grinch’s expressions) you can probably watch the whole Christmas Special on mute and still understand the whole entire story and get an emotional reaction out of it. The simplicity of the Special not only makes the story and moral really stand out, but it also gives the animators and writers plenty of opportunities to play around with a few scenes and throw in some creative ideas that flow naturally with the story. In fact, Chuck Jones' animation is also part of the many reasons why the Special is so iconic. It all looks so bright and colorful while also being very surreal and imaginative, with every single image having a Christmas look and feel. It's all very beautiful and fun to look at, even when you see some of the footage being recycled in a few montages or some continuity errors.
Do I need to go on with why this Special is such a Holiday treasure? Everything about the Special is just
pure Christmas gold! The story, the moral, the rhyming, the songs, Karloff's
narration, the characters, the animation, the visuals, the humor, and oh my god
have you ever seen such a great animated Christmas Special like this before in
your life? It's scary to think that Dr.Seuss was completely uninterested with
animating his Christmas story for the small screen, and if wasn't for Chuck
Jones' persuasion, we would never get this iconic Holiday
classic. While there are many great animated made for TV Holiday classics out
there, this cartoon might probably be far my personal favorite out of them all.
It's such a fun and creative Christmas classic that every time I see it just
gets better and better.
RATING 5/5
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