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DVD Dr. Seuss - How the Grinch Stole Christmas/Horton Hears a Who
This all-time classic now has Horton Hears a Who! on the same video for a great double bill.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas To heck with the kids--this is one of the best holiday presents you can give yourself. Adapted from the children's book by Dr. Seuss, this charming story is one to watch every holiday season. It is just edgy enough to help you forget the more cloying aspects of Christmas, yet it is also sweet enough to remind you of the reason for all that holiday cheer. Animation genius Chuck Jones directed this 1966 television production featuring the voice of Boris Karloff as the mean greenie. Bitter and selfish, the Grinch decides to steal Christmas away from the Whos, the sweet little folk who live at the bottom of his mountain home. When little Cindy Loo Who returns his hateful act with kindness, she melts the old miser's heart. There are many reasons to watch this: inventive wordplay, Karloff's impressive narration, and a very memorable soundtrack. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Horton Hears a Who! Chuck Jones was chief animator on this lively adaptation of the famous book by Dr. Seuss. The story of a friendly elephant named Horton who discovers--deep inside a daisy--a tiny city called Whoville with tiny, intelligent residents--this film (fleshed out a bit from the source) is strong on character and has striking, appealing visuals. The little folks of Whoville, with their natural air of aristocracy, are a kick, and when they come to see Horton as a hero for his democratic view of all life big and small, the effect is quite touching. This should be a real treat for kids already familiar with the book, and just might inspire those who haven't read it to pick it up. --Tom Keogh
Review(s): DVD Dr. Seuss - How the Grinch Stole Christmas/Horton Hears a Who
The Grinch Is Susposed To Be A Pea Green Color Not The Color Of Gulden's Mustard!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of my favorite Christmas cartoons, I loved it when I was little and I still love it so I bought this DVD and the cartoon is as good as ever except for that fact that for most of the cartoon the Grinch is the wrong color, he starts off with a mustardy yellow color and stays that way for a long time before changing to the correct light yellowish green (pea green color). Someone really goofed that up! If you watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas on the video version or even on TV the Grinch is light yellow-Green so why is he the color of Gulden's Mustard on the DVD? I know it is true that The Grinch was never dark green like depicted on the cover but I do know that he was never the color of Guldens Mustard and was more like a yellowish green, or lime green! BTW: On this DVD there is also a cartoon called Horton Hears a Who which is also based on a Dr. Seuss book. I have read some reviews that claim that they have fixed the color flaws on newer DVDs but I really don't know if those claims are true or not. If I knew for sure that new DVD's have the corrected color of the GrinchI would buy it
A Christmas television classic for the ages...
One of only a handful of essential, "must-see" animated Christmas classics, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a Dr. Seuss holiday masterpiece. Created in 1966 on the heels of the phenomenal success surrounding such TV specials as A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), the Grinch has morphed into a sacred annual Christmas rite perfect for any child from one to ninety-two.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas tells the story of a lumbering green monster who has a heart seven-sizes-to-small. Living with his dog in a mountaintop cave high above the town of Whoville, the Grinch (voiced by Boris Karloff) hates all the Whos, but what he hates worst of all is their happiness and celebration at Christmas. So the Grinch (smiling an evil Grinch grin) hatches a plan to steal Christmas. Fashioning reindeer horns for his dog and Santa suit for himself, the Grinch drives a sleigh down into Whoville while the Whos are asleep on Christmas Eve. He steals their lights, their ribbons, and their bows. He steals their boxes, packages, and bags. He steals wreathes and Christmas trees and even their Roast Beast (why that evil Grinch even stole the Who hash). And only thing he left behind was a crumb far too small for even a mouse. Caught in the act of stealing a Christmas tree by tiny little Cindy Loo Who, the Grinch tells an evil lie about taking the tree to his shop to fix the lights and sends the girl back to bed.
Leaving Whoville with his bounty, the Grinch starts off the highest mountain peak where he plans to throw all the Who stuff off a cliff. But first, he waits to hear the cries of pain from the Whos as they wake up to find all of their things long gone. Instead, every Who down in Whoville gathers together to sing a song. They aren't sad. In fact, they seem to be glad. The Grinch ponders this unaccounted for event and discovers the true meaning of Christmas. In an effort to save the sleigh full of Who stuff from falling off of the cliff, his heart grows seven sizes on that day, and he gains the strength of seven Grinches times ten. He rides the sleigh full of presents back into Whoville, where he celebrates Christmas with the Whos and even carves the Roast Beast...
Created under the direction of Chuck Jones (creator of famed Warner Brothers characters Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe Le Pew), How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a masterful production with stellar voice-overs, imaginatively drawn characters, and Karloff's impressive narration. Several songs interspersed throughout are memorable in and of themselves (such as "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch"). In a nutshell, no celebration of the Christmas holidays is truly complete without at least one viewing of How The Grinch Stole Christmas...
The DVD Report
Why Isn't the Grinch Bright Green?
Because he wasn't bright green in 1966. Lots of reviewers complain about the Grinch's color. This DVD contains the original TV broadcast where the Grinch was a yellowish-green (pea green) color. This is not a digitally enhanced version and neither the product description, nor the DVD case itself, mislead you into thinking it is. The Grinch had no color in the book, and I would think Dr. Seuss had some say in what color Chuck Jones made him in the original animation. The "ugly" color (as some people would call it) just personifies the Grinch's character - he wasn't meant to be "bright and merry". If it suited Dr. Seuss, it suits me. You'll notice that the Christmas trees and wreaths are their proper green color when in the same frame as the Grinch - it's unlikely that just the Grinch's color would fade or deteriorate, and not any others. Being that it's not digitally enhanced, it does suffer from the "graininess" of the original film, but it's minimal.
All that aside, hopefully a digitally enhanced DVD version is on the way for all who prefer a greener Grinch. Other reviewers have noted the short clips of digitally enhanced animation shown in the short documentary entitled "TNT's How The Grinch Stole Christmas! Special Edition" in the special features section of the DVD, but fail to mention the disclaimer that's at the beginning of it: "This film is a demonstration of work in progress." Which means back in 1996, when the documentary was made, they were in the middle of digitally enhancing it (evidently deciding that a bright green Grinch looked better/more commercial than a pea green Grinch in the process). That was over 8 years ago, and I personally don't know if the digitally enhanced version has been shown on TV or not. I also haven't seen the VHS version, but did notice it's cover says "New Digitally Enhanced Version" on it (unlike this DVD, which doesn't). Maybe what's in the documentary on this DVD is what's on the digitally enhanced VHS version, but for whatever reason, they haven't released a digitally enhanced DVD version yet.
If what you want is the classic animation in its original state, this is for you.
Related DVD's Dr. Seuss - How the Grinch Stole Christmas/Horton Hears a Who
When I first saw this collection in the store, I just had to buy it!! Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is my all time favorite Christmas special! The others in this collection are great also, especially Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.
On a more troublesome note, I was reading some about the original production of Rudolph and found some interesting info. First of all, nowhere on this package does it credit Rankin and Bass. Also, there is a cover of Burl Ives' classic song by (of all people) Destiny's Child. I'm not a fan of theirs anyways, but this is almost sacrilege! I also found out that this version is different from the version that originally aired in 1964. The next year (1965) some songs were changed and some scenes cut. There were also deleted scenes that were never even... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kizo Nagashima - Larry Roemer - Arthur Rankin Jr. DVD Release Date: Released the 14 September 2004 This item is currently not available.
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This television classic features the Peanuts characters in the story of Charlie Brown's problematic efforts to mount a school Christmas pageant. Everybody's on board: Lucy, Snoopy, Schroeder, Pig-Pen, but the biggest impression is surely made by Linus, who stops the show with his recitation from the gospels of the story of Christ's birth. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Director(s): Bill Melendez DVD Release Date: Released the 12 September 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This DVD contains three holiday titles from Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass.
The Year Without a Santa Claus Even Santa can suffer a case of the holiday blues. In this 1974 stop-motion holiday family favorite, a sparkly eyed Mrs. Claus (voiced by Shirley Booth) sings and tells about the year her hubby felt too weary and too unappreciated to prepare for his annual Christmas rounds. Mickey Rooney stars as the voice of Santa, a rosy-nosed puppet who travels incognito to Southtown in search of his tiniest reindeer, Vixen, and two well-meaning elves. Seems Mrs. Santa sent them to find proof of Christmas spirit--but all they've discovered is ambivalence about Santa's year off. Luckily, when Santa arrives and befriends a buck-toothed lad named Ignatius Thistlewhite, spirits... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jules Bass - Arthur Rankin Jr. DVD Release Date: Released the 31 October 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Two of the all-time cartoon classics It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) and A Charlie Brown Christmas (a Peabody and Emmy winner from 1965) highlight this three-disc, six-episode set. Although the DVDs contain no extras (good grief!) and could have been combined on a single disc (drat!), the collection looks and sounds wonderful on DVD. The content is the same on the VHS and DVD sets, with two episodes per tape or disc. Accompanying Pumpkin is You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, a cute spin on politics that has aged very well since its 1972 release. Christmas sports a lackluster sequel of sorts, It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown (1992) that has Sally dwelling on getting (instead of giving), Charlie Brown facing a spending dilemma,... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 12 September 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This classic 1964 television special featuring Rudolph and his misfit buddies set the standard for stop-motion animation for an entire generation before Tim Burton darkly reinvented it in the early 1990s. Burl Ives narrates as Sam the Snowman, telling and singing the story of a rejected reindeer who overcomes prejudice and saves Christmas one particularly blustery year. Along the way, he meets an abundance of unforgettable characters: his dentally obsessed elf pal Hermey; the affable miner Yukon Cornelius and his motley crew of puppies; the scary/adorable Abominable Snow Monster; a legion of abandoned, but still chatty, toys; and a rather grouchy Santa. In addition to the title song that inspired it, this 53-minute tape is crammed with catchy tunes such as "Silver and Gold" and "Holly... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 14 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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