How the Grinch Stole Christmas
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Boris KarloffBrand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Dr. Seuss
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 26 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-08-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Animated; Closed-captioned; Color; DVD; Full Screen; NTSC
Movie Reviews of How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Movie Review: I'd watch it just for the little dog!
Summary: 5 Stars
I actually saw this when it was first aired on TV, so when I realized I could get it on DVD, I had to have it to add to my Christmas collection of films for the holiday. Every year I watch a set of some 20 films at Christmas time that has become a personal tradition. Not all of them are specifically about the holiday, but many of them are set during Christmas or are about the underlying spirit of the holiday. For me the Grinch is very much part of that.
The DVD version appears--at least to me--much as it did when it first came out. The cartoon setting is very minimalist in character, in keeping with the tradition of animation during the 60s as developed by Hannah Barbara, for cartoons like Yogi Bear and Huckelberry Hound, and in stark contrast to some of that featured earlier in the genera, like Mickey Mouse, the Old Farmer, and others. The setting is less cluttered with detail, and features broad blocks of color that give an impression of content and emotive character and delight the eye. There is not the slightest attempt at creating "reality," which makes the magic of the story acceptable even to the most pragmatic.
Boris Karloff does the narrative and is the speaking voice of the Grinch. They couldn't have selected a better actor for the role. My mother once told me that a record company that featured stories for children had asked the man to narrate some of them, but that they had so scared the children that they failed miserably. She said she saw him once when we lived in California, and he seemed like a lovely, grandfatherly old gentleman who wouldn't scare a fly! This combination of the scary voice and the lovely, old grandfather seems to come across brilliantly in his narration of the Grinch story.
The music is simple and memorable. Who can't remember at least a few lines of "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch?" The poetry by Suess is wonderful, well rhymed and tempoed work with wildly improbable words and great pairs of lines that give punch to the meaning of the words.
My favorite character is and always has been the little bewildered dog. How cute. That single much pruned horn tied to his head to make him look like a "reindeer" is just wonderful, especially when viewed frontally! And his manful and surprisingly successful attempts to move the huge sleigh uphill in deep snow is also delightful. I'd watch the film just for the little dog!
Especially for young children, the rather unthreatening "villain," his reclamation at the end, and the underlying theme that Christmas "doesn't come in a bag" makes the Grinch a wonderful choice for family holiday films.
Summary of How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Every who down in Who-ville likes Christmas a lot, but the Grinch who lived just north of Who-ville did NOT! So the cuddly as a cactus Grinch (with termites in his smile and garlic in his soul) tries to wipe out Christmas for the cheerful Who-villains, only to discover: maybe Christmas, he thought doesn't come from as store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more! Magnificently narrated by Boris Karloff and animated by cartoon legend Chuck Jones, it's an award-winning Who-roast-beast-feast of a holiday classic!Accept no substitutes. The 1966 television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' timeless book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!--about an anti-Santa who tries to heist the holiday only to learn a powerful lesson--is a classic in its own right, and looking better than ever in its 50th Birthday Deluxe Edition. (For those doing the math, the 50 years is counting from the book's 1957 publishing date rather than the show's broadcast date.) The most significant improvement is in the digital transfer, cleaning up fuzz and specks and restoring the proper colors to the program. While the awful earlier DVDs showed the Grinch in a mustard-yellow color, this edition restores his proper green gleam. Special features are mostly ported over from the previous DVD--the Horton Hears a Who program, a featurette on the songs, Phil Hartman's special edition version, pencil tests, etc. minus the commentary track--but there is a new 15-minute featurette, "Dr. Seuss and the Grinch: From Whoville to Hollywood." While it starts out as a fluff piece aimed at the younger set (interviews with kids, some rapping), it does provide some interesting information, including interviews with the widows of Theodore Geisel and Chuck Jones and clips of Geisel and Jones' Private Snafu. (No mention of Jim Carrey, however.) --David Horiuchi
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