Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 1966 Dr. Seuss television special.

Plot[]

The Grinch (voiced by Boris Karloff) is a surly, antisocial green creature with a heart "two sizes too small" who lives alone in a cave atop Mt. Crumpit, located above the village of Whoville. He especially hates Christmas and has spent the last 53 years annoyed by their Christmas celebrations. In particular, he hates the noise, the gluttonous feasting, and the Christmas music. On Christmas Eve, he finally has enough and decides to stop Christmas Day from coming to Whoville at all.

The Grinch makes himself a Santa Claus-style coat and hat, to disguise himself as the famed Christmas character. He also disguises his dog Max as a reindeer. The Grinch then loads empty bags onto a sleigh and travels to Whoville in the night. Acting as the reverse of Santa Claus, he takes everything Christmas-themed in the first house he finds. In so doing, he is almost caught by Cindy Lou Who (voiced by an uncredited June Foray^[1]), a toddler Who girl who wakes up and sees him taking the Christmas tree. Maintaining character as Santa, the Grinch tells Cindy Lou that he is merely taking the tree to his workshop for repairs, and then gets her a drink before sending her back to bed. He finishes emptying the first house of all the Christmas-related items, then repeats the process at the other houses in Whoville.

With the Whos' stolen Christmas goods, the Grinch and Max travel back up Mt. Crumpit. Before dropping the loaded sleigh off the mountain, the Grinch listens, excitedly, to hear cries of anguish from the Whos when they wake to discover their losses. However, down in the village, the Whos joyously begin to sing Christmas carols as though nothing had happened, proving that the spirit of Christmas does not depend on material things. At first, the Grinch is confused, but he then begins to understand the true meaning of Christmas. Just as the stolen Christmas items begin to slip off the mountain edge, the Grinch rushes to save them. His heart grows three sizes, granting him "the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!", which he needs to lift the sleigh to safety. He brings everything back to the Whos and participates in the holiday feast. He is given the honor of carving the Whos' favorite Christmas dish, a rare roast beast, and Max gets the first slice for all his troubles.

Voices[]

The Grinch, Narrator - Boris Karloff

Uncredited[]

June Foray - Cindy Lou Who
Dal McKennon - Max
Thurl Ravenscroft - Singer

Trivia[]

The Grinch was voiced by Boris Karloff in How The Grinch Stole Christmas!, He was also voiced by Jim Carrey in the 2000 version and then he was voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch in The Grinch.
This is the first Dr. Seuss TV special.
The special was directed by Chuck Jones, who is best known for his work on Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry shorts. He would go on to direct an additional special, Horton Hears a Who! and also serve as a producer along with Ted Geisel in The Cat in the Hat, before he left the Dr. Seuss TV specials.
Thurl Ravenscroft being uncredited in this Dr. Seuss’ special is one of the infamous errors. Dr. Seuss attempted to rectify by sending letters to every major columnist in America identifying Ravenscroft as the singer on "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch!". He is also part of the chorus on the other two songs.
Some character designs in this adaption differ from those in the original book as follows:
- The Grinch is given his signature green color for the first time.
- Max's fur was colored brown, in comparison to his entirely white fur color from the book.
- The Whos appear to wear clothing attire, and also have human-colored fleshtones.
- Cindy Lou Who looks almost much more human in her design, and was given blond hair and blue eyes. Originally, in the book she was almost balding and had very small, tall specks of hair sticking out of the top of her head.
When the special was remastered in the 1990s, the Grinch was arguably in pale-yellow color and not green. When the special was re-remastered in 2006, the Grinch was restored to his original green color.
- The 2006 remaster of this special eliminates the MGM choir notes for the music background at the end before showing the end credits.
In 2000, the soundtrack for this special was released on CD.
This special was one of the most popular Christmas specials, making it the only Dr. Seuss TV special to be bundled along with other famous Christmas specials (notably the ones produced by Rankin/Bass) on the four-disc Classic Christmas Favorites DVD box set.
An unused clip showing the Grinch placing his hands on his chin as saying "I must stop Christmas from coming, but how?" with his teeth closed, possibly done during production, was shown on the TNT documentary hosted by the late Phil Hartman in 1994. This animation piece is replaced by another animation piece showing the Grinch thumping his finger and then looking around with his head by using the same words in the actual version of this special.
Boris Karloff did not reprise his role as the Grinch from this special for the prequel Halloween is Grinch Night, due to his death from pneumonia on February 2, 1969, so he was posthumously replaced by Hans Conried.