In my life, there are very, very few "children's" storyworlds that I believe matter. Few, very few of these have made successful films. I know of only two. Both are American.
One is the "Muppet Movie," the first one, which I think is still a sort of gold standard for films of any type. The other is this.
Suess is the only writer that I believe equals Lewis Carroll on his own terms. He finds that sweet spot triangulating the parts of real life we acutely know, parts of fantasy life that we don't but from non-adjacent locations, and text-centric rhythms. His drawings are the things we notice, in a clever strategy of distraction; we infuse them with the mysteries from those others.
This little movie preserves all those qualities, and I think it is because of a rare collaboration of three giants. One is Suess (Geisel) of course. His books are inherently cinematic, with the drawings containing more information than the words. Sure, the "message" is usually from a Norman Rockwell fantasy, but the means of telling the story is unique.
A second is Chuck Jones. He invented modern animation, the kind of work that grows from the situation rather than simply served. He changed our imagination as much as Kubrick or Hitchcock. Turns out he had been friends with Suess for 25 years before making this. Now, I can report that the entire intent of this thing is that somewhat repellent stuff that has grown up around Christmas, that sickly sweet stuff that is wholly modern and has nothing to do with the Christian celebration or its several predecessors. But the manner in which this is animated is pure genius.
Sure, he had the Suess illustrations and Seuss himself. But look at how he has assembled the thing. The edits are just a hair shorter than you would expect, even today, giving energy. The transitions do something clever, for instance look at the business about the little girl's service of a strawberry (Russian doll-style), how it transitions to the Grinch's eye and how that is mirrored with the transfer from her heart to his.
And third, there is Boris. Its my opinion that merely by being there when scary movies were invented, his presence, even in voice especially in voice turns this project into a masterpiece of illustrated narrative.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
