Christmas Review – “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”

This is, of course, the animated version, rather than
the inferior live action product.

Cast and Crew

Boris Karloff made the noises of the Grinch, and
narrated, too!

Written by Dr. Seuss and Bob Ogle

Directed by Chuck Jones and Ben Washam

Complete information is
available from this
IMDB
page
.


Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca
.
Note that the Amazon.com comments include arguments
about colour
problems with the DVD. The copy I have is properly
coloured, but with
so many complaints, there may be inconsistencies in
the production run.

Past TV reviews can be found here.

Original Airdate


This special first aired in 1966.

Synopsis

The Grinch hated Christmas and all the noise, noise,
noise, noise that
it created, so he decided that he must keep Christmas
from coming.
But how?

High Point

Max riding the sled.

Low Point

The flickering hat colour on the chef in the
beginning. It’s the only
major animation error, and it’s annoyingly obvious,
partly because
it’s in a repeated part of the animation.

The Review

The originality suffers a bit from being an
adaptation, and a
remarkably faithful one at that, adding only some
appropriate songs
and dialogue free action sequences to fill out the
time. I give it 4
out of 6.

The animation is wonderful, which is why the
low point stands
out. Chuck Jones does excellent work creating a
smooth flow,
particularly in the fades. Very well done. I give
it 6 out of 6.

The story was well written, and well told.
I give it 5 out
of 6.

The voice acting is almost all Karloff, and
his voice is well
suited to the tone of the story. The fact that he’s
doing double duty
as the narrator lightens up some of the requirement
for emotional
expressiveness, too, as he’s doing all the work
himself. (If the
story is supposed to sound like it’s being retold,
emotional
imperfections are expected.) I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is great. This is
one of the staples
of the holiday season, and it was well made. I give
it 5 out of 6.

The production is excellent, with a variety
of backgrounds
and camera angles that make it look like they were
planning this as a
film, and refusing to employ the cost cutting
measures usually used
for animation. (For example, reducing camera angle
changes to require
fewer backgrounds.) I give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, this is just one of those specials
that really,
really works. I give it 6 out of 6.

In total, How The Grinch Stole Christmas
receives 36 out of 42.

2 replies on “Christmas Review – “How The Grinch Stole Christmas””

  1. Voice acting
    The voice acting is almost all Karloff, and his voice is well suited to the tone of the story.

    That song by Tony the Tiger (Thurl Ravenscroft) deserves a mention.

  2. Great movie
    I loved this one, it was extremely true to the original. I can’t say the same about the POS with Jim Carey, its one of the most aweful movies of the last twenty years IMHO and really didn’t do the story justice at all.

    Damien

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