The Grinch is pretty much the only character of Dr. Seuss that I ever grew up with and most of us are familiar with How The Grinch Stole Christmas? But this character has a few more animated specials from that era and once I knew I had to see them all. The Grinch may have leaked the Smash roster but let’s take a look at the Grinch animated trilogy of holiday specials and if they hold up to the name the X-Mas special did.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Let´s begin with the one that started it all and added a bunch of details the book did not have but became iconic and essential to the character. I first watched this as a kid and likely my first taste of the world of Dr. Seuss. I won´t talk about it much since I think everyone is familiar with it so instead I´ll mention it´s indeed a classic and deserves to have made the Grinch a household name and in general a synonym for disliking things.
I’m sure they never expected it´d be this evergreen when they made it in the 60s and even the live action adaptation I feel did a decent job in adapting a book you can read in 4 minutes into a full length movie. There is a ton of untapped potential with this character and hopefully the love for this X-mas special will mean someone realizes it one of these days.
Halloween Is Grinch Night
Also called The Grinch That Stole Halloween and Grinch Night is a weird little special that came out in the 70s. The format of this special is a little different since the Grinch actually talks in it and boy is it weird to hear him. Halloween takes a bit of a backseat since it’s not really a part of the actual plot or anything other than it’s a scary cold day in autumn for bad things to happen. It still has some elements influenced by the Christmas special since there are some decent songs even if nothing as iconic.
The Grinch tries to be mean and the special tries to be scary but it´s more trippy than anything, it can be quite amusing to watch even if the plot is nowhere to be seen. Apparently there´s a big debate if this is a prequel or a sequel and while I would´ve thought it´d be a prequel before watching it, I am now a firm believer that it´s a sequel and the Grinch is doomed to be a Grinch all around. The special is worth watching at least once just to see how bizarre it is.
The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat
This might not be a holiday special but it´s the next best thing ! A crossover between Cat in the Hat and The Grinch, granted I´m not that familiar with Dr. Seuss´world or Cat in the Hat besides the Raving live action movie with Paris Hilton and adult humor in it but I was totally in. Made in the 80s this further distances from the original special as it´s mostly a normal cartoon special with dialog and whatnot, there is some music but it´s far from the focus.
The actual episode is boring as it´s a fight between these two very different characters until they make things right and go their ways. Neither character is really utilized very well and the little side quests they go through to pad out the length of the special are well nothing special. Not the crossover we deserved but a crossover nonetheless and with it we finish off all the different animated specials that The Grinch had.
There seems to be more animated specials based off Dr. Seuss and I´m sure my curiosity will be piqued and I´ll check them out eventually. If you enjoyed the article or have any thoughts let me know by commenting below or by tweeting at me. You can also share the article or hit me up an email with your thoughts, it’s nice to hear from other fans.
