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Revision as of 05:28, 27 May 2006 by Glow-in-the-Dark Guy (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 1966 film| How the Grinch Stole Christmas! | |
|---|---|
 Chuck Jones' version of The Grinch | |
| Directed by | Chuck Jones Ben Washam |
| Written by | Bob Ogle Dr. Seuss Irv Spector |
| Produced by | Chuck Jones Dr. Seuss (as Ted Geisel) |
| Starring | Boris Karloff (voice) June Foray (voice) Thurl Ravenscroft (voice) |
| Release dates | December 23, 1966 |
| Language | English |
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 1966 animated christmas television special, based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Seuss's friend and former colleague Chuck Jones, whom Seuss had worked with on the Private Snafu training cartoons for the U.S. Army during World War II. The special starred Boris Karloff as narrator and Grinch, and (unusual for adaptations) included the actual text of the book in spoken form.
Jones, who served as director, character designer, and character layout artist (as he had done for nearly all of his Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, and the latter-period MGM Tom and Jerry films) modified the appearance of the Grinch somewhat to fit the medium, rendering him in green and with a more elongated, frog-like face. In his 1996 book Chuck Reducks, Jones later said that Seuss thought the animated Grinch looked more like Jones than it did the character in the original book, a fact Jones attributed to the use of his own facial expressions as a model for the Grinch's.
Maurice Noble, one of Jones' long-time collaborators, served as production manager, and fellow Warner Bros. veteran Ben Washam served as co-director. The animation was produced by Jones' MGM animation unit, several members of which had come with him from Warner Bros.: Ken Harris, Tom Ray, Phil Roman, Richard Thompson, Don Towsley, and Lloyd Vaughan.
The songs, which helped fill out the story to the length of a television program, were written by composer Albert Hague, with lyrics by Dr. Seuss. One of the best remembered of them, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, later well-known as the voice of Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger.
Dr. Seuss also lengthened the text with two interpolated verse passages. The longer one describes the Who children (in the Grinch's imagination) noisily playing with their Christmas toys. Seuss also added a few lines to the dénouement, which in the original is laconic.
The television special has been highly praised by audiences and film and animation fans alike, and it has been rebroadcast innumerable times since its debut, with annual showings continuing to the present day. The cartoon is typically found on the Internet Movie Database's list of the top 250 films, and is considered one of Chuck Jones' greatest cartoons made after his departure from Warner Bros.
The Grinch later appeared in a few more specials, although none were as popular as his original Christmas outing. In the 1977 special Halloween is Grinch Night, the Grinch (now voiced by Hans Conried) sets out to scare everyone in Whoville after being bothered by a chain reaction of annoying sounds caused by the wind. In The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982), he attempts to ruin things for fellow Seuss star The Cat in the Hat. Most recently, he was a recurring character on the 1996 kids' show The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, where he was voiced by Anthony Asbury.
In 1992, Walter Matthau narrated an illustrated storybook version of the story that utilized Seuss' original artwork.
Voice actors and their characters
- Boris Karloff - The Grinch (speaking), Narrator
- June Foray - Cindy Lou-Who
- Thurl Ravenscroft - The Grinch (singing)