Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So, today I'm doing something a little bit different. I have a vast physical media collection including CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, comic books, novels, and VHS tapes and they're what I watch the most even though I have access to Disney+ and movies and TV shows on iTunes. So that's going to be the geeky focus of this blog: My physical media collection, past, present, future, rented, borrowed, and owned. And since it's Christmastime, I thought I would begin with the 2006 DVD and 1995 CD releases of the 1966 classic Christmas special, Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. So let's get into it.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a staple of Christmas. Especially for me. My family never owned it on VHS when I was growing up, but it didn't matter because it was on TV twice every year. We tended to watch it on Christmas Eve. I finally got a copy on DVD last year, before the pandemic hit. This copy was my grandfather's and when he passed away in February 2020 I inherited his DVD collection and a number of VHS tapes.One of them was the 2006 DVD release of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the TV special and the 50th anniversary of the original book by Dr. Seuss. The cover even says 50th Birthday Deluxe Edition, with no mention of it being 40 years since the TV special had first aired.
What's unique about the TV special is that, aside from shots of the Who children playing with their noisy toys, it's a straight translation of the original Dr. Seuss book. The difference is that the animation was done by Chuck Jones and his team. Chuck Jones is, of course, the man behind the Looney Tunes for most of the '40s, '50s, and early '60s. And you can tell because the special has that Looney Tunes look and flavour to it. Especially with the visual gags the special has near the end with Max and the Grinch that the original book doesn't.
Unlike the audio CD, which has Boris Karloff as the voice of the narrator, the Grinch, and Cindy Lou Who, the TV special has June Foray as the voice of Cindy Lou Who, though nobody but Karloff is credited on the title cards at the beginning of the special. Also Thurl Ravenscroft, who many people know as the voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellog's Frosted Flakes cereal, as well as the voice from several Disney movies, shorts, and theme park attractions. Including "Grim Grinnin' Ghosts" from Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun.
This CD came out in 1995, though I think it's a re-release of an older LP release from around the time the special first aired on TV in the late '60s. There's no indication of that anywhere on the cover except on the back it gives credit to the person who did the remaster work. The CD has five tracks. The first track is the story itself, narrated by Boris Karloff. The remaining four tracks are the songs featured in the special. Track 2 is "Welcome Christmas", track 3 is "Trim Up the Tree", track 4 is "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", and the final track is a longer, reprise version of "Welcome Christmas".
The story is very simple, because it's adapting a very simple story, being that it's a children's picture book. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. When the Jim Carrey version was made in 2000 I felt they added alot of unnecessary backstory for the Grinch. I get that they needed to have the movie be a certain length, but the backstory in that movie doesn't add anything to the Grinch as a character. It doesn't make him any more sympathetic, nor does it make him likeable. It's just another pointless backstory that makes no sense. Of course I've heard that the 2018 animated movie also added an unnecessary backstory for the Grinch, but that's what you get from modern Hollywood. That's neither here nor there though. My point is that this is the perfect adaptation of the book and I appreciate how simple it is. And that's why this TV special is a classic.
The DVD is actually fairly light for a deluxe edition release. It's a single disc release though there's plenty of bonus features on it. I didn't watch all of them last night, but I did watch the featurette, Dr. Seuss and the Grinch - From Whoville to Hollywood, which chronicles the early career of Ted Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, how he came up for the idea of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and what the process was to adapt it into the TV special. They did it in 15 minutes, which is shorter than it took most Disney movie Making Of featurettes on the Platinum Edition DVD releases around the same time this release came out.
I say it's light on bonus features for a supposed "deluxe" edition because this release came out in 2006, when most deluxe editions were 2 to 3-disc releases with tons and tons of bonus features on them. So I find it most curious that they called this a deluxe edition when, compared to some other releases from this time, it actually isn't a deluxe edition. It's a pretty good release though. Much better than even most Blu-ray releases are today in terms of bonus features.
I think that's going to be it for this review. I'll be back tomorrow for another Christmas related post. Maybe even a VHS review since I had plenty of Christmas movies and specials on VHS when I was a kid as well as several on DVD now. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.
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