How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Deluxe Edition) by Warner Home Video

Actors

• Boris Karloff

Format

• Animated
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Full Screen
• NTSC

Editorial Review

Accept no substitutes. The 1966 television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' timeless book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!–about an anti-Santa who tries to heist the holiday only to learn a powerful lesson–is a classic in its own right, and looking better than ever in its 50th Birthday Deluxe Edition. (For those doing the math, the 50 years is counting from the book's 1957 publishing date rather than the show's broadcast date.) The most significant improvement is in the digital transfer, cleaning up fuzz and specks and restoring the proper colors to the program. While the awful earlier DVDs showed the Grinch in a mustard-yellow color, this edition restores his proper green gleam. Special features are mostly ported over from the previous DVD–the Horton Hears a Who program, a featurette on the songs, Phil Hartman's special edition version, pencil tests, etc. minus the commentary track–but there is a new 15-minute featurette, “Dr. Seuss and the Grinch: From Whoville to Hollywood.” While it starts out as a fluff piece aimed at the younger set (interviews with kids, some rapping), it does provide some interesting information, including interviews with the widows of Theodore Geisel and Chuck Jones and clips of Geisel and Jones' Private Snafu. (No mention of Jim Carrey, however.) –David Horiuchi