By Angela Flunker
Many people have several Christmas holiday traditions. They put up a tree, lights, and decorations, cook a large family dinner, open gifts, and perhaps do some carol singing or chestnut roasting.
Many people have several Christmas holiday traditions. They put up a tree, lights, and decorations, cook a large family dinner, open gifts, and perhaps do some carol singing or chestnut roasting.
I, however, am a bit of a Humbug and haven't even celebrated the holiday with my family until the middle of January the last several years due to my work schedule. The one thing I try to do every year and have since I was a pretty young child is watch the animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. For over 30 years, this Christmas special has never failed to make me laugh, especially when the Grinch's sled goes so fast it outruns his dog Max and the Grinch peers underneath the sled to look for him and doesn't see him, so he turns around to find Max sitting on the back of the sled with his adorable puppy dog expression on his face as he shrugs and waves at the Grinch. In fact, Max pretty much mugs adorably in every scene he's in and I am a complete sucker for it every time.
As I've said, I have seen this special probably about 30 times over my lifetime but it wasn't until recently that I actually thought to read the book.
Like much of the Seuss oeuvre, the book is short and only takes a few minutes to read. Clocking in at 64 pages, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was far too short to fit into a 30 minute TV show (the shortest time available in US television at the time), so the creators of the special needed to add things in order to pad it out to a half hour with commercials.
As I've said, I have seen this special probably about 30 times over my lifetime but it wasn't until recently that I actually thought to read the book.
Like much of the Seuss oeuvre, the book is short and only takes a few minutes to read. Clocking in at 64 pages, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was far too short to fit into a 30 minute TV show (the shortest time available in US television at the time), so the creators of the special needed to add things in order to pad it out to a half hour with commercials.
These additions included two songs, “You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and the song the Whos in Whoville sing called “Welcome Christmas”. They also added (or in some cases switched out real words for) many Seussian type nonsense words for toys and gifts. Other changes from the book are small, like the string used to tie Max's antlers on was red in the book and black in the show, or bigger like those who've only seen the special would be surprised to learn the book version of the Grinch was black and white instead of green.
Now, in most cases where I've read a book and seen it's filmed counterpart, I generally end up loving the book version better, but there are always exceptions and this special is one of them.
While there's a special love in my heart Dr. Seuss's books, there's just too much love built up over time for that grumpy green Grinch and his plucky yet abused puppy Max that the TV special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas will always reign supreme in my heart. (Let's not even mention the Jim Carrey movie version. I refuse to see it on the grounds that it might make me weep for my childhood, even though a friend who has seen it says it's good. Sometimes it's just the principle of the thing.)
Now, in most cases where I've read a book and seen it's filmed counterpart, I generally end up loving the book version better, but there are always exceptions and this special is one of them.
While there's a special love in my heart Dr. Seuss's books, there's just too much love built up over time for that grumpy green Grinch and his plucky yet abused puppy Max that the TV special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas will always reign supreme in my heart. (Let's not even mention the Jim Carrey movie version. I refuse to see it on the grounds that it might make me weep for my childhood, even though a friend who has seen it says it's good. Sometimes it's just the principle of the thing.)
RSS Feed
