Halloween is Grinch Night (aka Grinch Night) revisits the titular Grinch on a different holiday, this time Halloween. The return of the sour sweet wind leads to several disturbances in the wildlife surrounding Whoville which causes a chain reaction of annoyances that spurs the Grinch to embark towards Whoville with his paraphernalia wagon to inflict his grinchly mischief, and only young who Euchariah can stop him.
Although allegedly a prequel to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in truth the short has very little connective tissue to the previous short. Chuck Jones does not return to direct Grinch Night with the reins instead being handled to Rocky and Bullwinkle veteran director Gerard Baldwin and executive produced by Looney Tunes alum Friz Freleng and Dr. Seuss himself being the sole connective element on both shorts returning to his role as producer and writer respectively. Boris Karloff does not reprise his role as the titular Grinch having passed on 8 years prior, and the role is succeeded by veteran voice actor/character actor Hans Conried best known for voicing Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan and playing the villain in another Seuss project, Dr. T in the, in my opinion, overlooked film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.
The short certainly maintains the same visual style as its predecessor with its coloring, designs and animation being well produced and bearing the signature Seuss style with ease. Unfortunately Grinch Night suffers heavily when compared to its Christmas based counterpart, but even if that weren't the case this would still be an above average but unexceptional holiday short.
The biggest issue is for the first two thirds of the special not much happens as it's very dialogue heavy and there's not much in the way of a plot or characters that drives the special forward. Most of the beginning parts of the special are the Whos in the village hunkering down awaiting the arrival of the Grinch in fear simply because he's the Grinch. There's never a detailed plan as to what the Grinch plans to do once he arrives in Whoville with his paraphernalia wagon and the stakes of the special feel lacking as a result. The Grinch despite being in a Halloween special also feels less threatening as a presence because even though his name is in the title there really isn't all that much time spent developing the Grinch.
Despite the drawbacks that come from comparison, Grinch Night does boast some positive traits. The music, sounds, and voice acting are effectively done and do well to build that Halloween atmosphere Grinch Night is going for. The third act of the special is also quite effective as once we see the inside of the Grinch's Paraphernalia wagon it leads to many elaborate, creepy, unsettling, and creative designs that bear the signature Seuss weirdness while having a threatening presence that fits in well with the rest of the short. That's probably where Grinch Night succeeds the most, its story is unfortunately lacking in much substance but it does manage to salvage itself with an effective use of atmosphere and unsettling surreal imagery in the last third that make it worth viewing at least once.
Grinch Night's biggest drawback is being in the unfortunate position of being compared to a timeless holiday classic, but even that aside it still has its own personal hurdles to overcome. The first two thirds are marred by turgid pacing and an over abundance of dialogue and a story that just isn't that strong. However the show also makes effective use of its sound design, voice acting and visuals(especially in the third act) that make Grinch Night, not unlike the Halloween candy we consume, a pleasant enough treat that helps overlook its lack of substance.
