Halloween Is Grinch Night

A strange wind blows into Whoville, making all the inhabitants stay indoors. They know the wind means the Grinch will be in a foul mood and out to do harm. However, young Eukariah decides to confront the Grinch.

Written by Dr. Seuss but not really up to his usual high standards. The creativeness and imagination are there in terms of strange animals, names for things, narration and general wordplay but the plot is so-so.

Entertaining enough but a bit disappointing too. Certainly not in the same league as How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

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.

Halloween is Grinch Night takes place one evening when a 'sour-sweet wind' blows through Whoville and warns the Who's that the Grinch is coming down with his Paraphernelia Wagon from Mt.Crumpit to celebrate the much feared "Grinch Night." One boy, Euchariah is swept away by the wind and comes face to face with the Grinch himself. Now Euchariah must stall the Grinch until the wind dies down, even if he has to face the horrors in the Paraphernelia Wagon.

Halloween is Grinch Night is surprisingly good. The length of the movie is only about 30 minutes but during that time there's at least more then 10 songs, which are all incredibly catchy. Most of them are describing what Grinch Night is, how nasty the Grinch is, even the Grinch sings a song. One song sung by Max, Grinch's dog, really surprised me due to how sad it is and how Max longs to get away from his terrible master.

Unlike "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" there's a lot of dialogue in this special and the voice acting is very good. The most impressive comes from Hans Conried who voices The Grinch(and narrator). It's down right terrifying at times.

The animation is also great with everything detailed in that classic Dr. Seuss style. The most impressive scene is when the Grinch opens the Paraphernelia Wagon. It's then when everything from your nightmares you had as a kid comes out at once. With scary visuals and scary lyrics sung by the one and only Thurl Ravenscroft, that scene is no doubt the best in the special.

If you have kids or if you want to watch something to kill your time that's Halloween related, this special is for you. It's not as classic as How the Grinch Stole Christmas but it is nonetheless a good Halloween special.

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 (1977)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This twenty-five minute television special is a sequel to HOW THE GRINCH STOLE Christmas but of course this doesn't feature Boris Karloff's voice sadly. As far as the film goes, this time out the Grinch decides he needs to return to Whoville and make sure they don't have any fun at Halloween time.

HALLOWEEN IS GRINCH NIGHT certainly isn't the masterpiece that the original film was but to be fair one really shouldn't turn this on and expect it to be. For the most part this is a mildly entertaining special that will probably keep the kids a lot happier than their parents. Once again we're treated to some wonderful animation and there's no question that the Grinch character is one of legend. The major problem that I had with the film is that I didn't really care for any of the musical numbers. They were decent but just not good enough to hold my attention throughout the running time.