It's Grinch Night

The second animated TV special featuring Dr. Seuss' arguably most famous creation, The Grinch. This one isn't the absolute must-see classic that "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is, but it is decent on its own. The animation is good, especially by the standards of television animation at the time. The voice work is solid. Yes, Boris Karloff is missed but Hans Conried is an admirable replacement. I found the songs unimpressive. Certainly no standouts like in the Christmas special. All in all, it's an interesting effort that should please most Seuss fans. Just try to go into it not expecting anything on the level of the more famous Grinch story.

I never heard of this movie, and when I discovered there was an Emmy- winning Grinch sequel written by Dr. Suess, I had to see it. Unfortunately, it's not very good. I realize I'm going against the tide here, but I suspect all these glowing reviews are by those who first saw the movie as a kid, and thus have an opinion based on a child's mind. From an adult perspective, it's really not very good.

The most surprising thing is how poor the writing is compared to classic Dr. Suess books. I had to check the credits to make sure this was really written by Dr. Suess, because the meters and rhymes are much less elegant than one would expect; it actually sounds like someone trying to copy Suess and failing. I can only suspect that he simply wasn't putting the same effort into perfecting the rhymes of the show as he did in his books.

While the original Grinch story had a wonderful fable-like quality, this is pretty much just standards kid fare, with an overly busy plot and poor songs. But apparently if you're a kid there's a good chance you'll love it.

Halloween is Grinch Night is not going to appeal to everybody, people will find it hugely entertaining and others will find it bizarre. I do belong in the former category, but I can certainly understand the latter opinion as well. It is not as good as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but is still very impressive. The animation is very good, it is full of colour and the Paraphanelia Wagon sequence is memorably trippy. The music is wonderful, I love the jauntiness of the incidental scoring and the songs are very catchy. Max also sings and his song I found touching as a child and still do at 20. There are more faithful Dr Seuss adaptations out there, but the rhymes that form the dialogue are witty and elegant at the same time, while the story is briskly paced and bewitchingly oddball. The characters are ones you engage with, The Grinch himself will live long in the memory, and the voice acting is superb especially the soothing then terrifying narrator/Grinch of Hans Conreid, a worthy successor to Boris Karloff. So all in all, a great and underrated special. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Parts of this special is really good and other parts are way too odd. It seems they could have created a better story than this one for the Halloween season but it's not a total snore either. The parts that are good are good - very visually stimulating!!

Hans Conried did The Grinch's voice in this one... he's OK but does not have the menacing voice that Boris Karloff gave in his performance in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I realize Karloff was Karloff and his voice is very hard to replace but I'm sure they could have found a voice more befitting of the Grinch in this Halloween Special than Conried's (his voice sound too nice).

6/10

"Halloween is Grinch Night" is another of the Dr. Seuss animated films based on a Theodor Seuss Geisel children's story. This cartoon short aired as a TV half-hour special in 1977 on ABC.

The comedy isn't as clearly presented here to ameliorate for the fright factor. Dr. Seuss introduces some new creatures at the edge of Whoville. They are awakened when the sour-sweet wind descends in the fall. Gree Grumps awake from their sleep in the tree trumps. Their growling stirs the water of Punker's Pond. And that awakens the Hacken Cracks whose yowling reaches to the peak of Mt. Crompet. That, in turn, stirs the Grinch into action.

The old Grinch meets his match in a young boy, Euchariah, who stumbles upon him after being blown away from home by the sour-sweet wind. It's a fun cartoon story that most kids should enjoy - those of us from two to 92.