Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. Every who down in Whoville liked

Christmas a lot. But the Grinch, who lived just

north of Whoville, did not. The Grinch hated

Christmas the whole Christmas season. Please

don't ask why no one quite knows the reason.

It could be perhaps that his shoes were too tight.

It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.

But I think that the most likely reason of all

may have been that his heart was two sizes too

small. Hello and welcome to the 25 days to gas

beyond Christmas here on to gas beyond on the

geek cast or radio network the first annual Christmas

special series Replacing tune cast classic episode

30 the holiday show. I am of course TF2 on Mike

Joining me through the interwebs. Of course as

always in Michigan There is in the blizzard facing

Michigan. So it's kind of it's kind of great

here that We have this Christmas special in December

and in Michigan right now. There's like 10 feet

of snow. We have Steve Megatron. Hello Hello,

yeah, there's nothing we're supposed to we're

supposed to get ten inches on Saturday, so yeah

We're supposed to have rain on Friday and 75

degrees that doesn't make me feel better 60 but

yeah, we're supposed to have rain. Hey 60 degree

in rain is better than 20 below in snow All right.

So as you can hear, Del Gable is here from talking

about my generation as always. I better be. It's

my own damn house. So in case anyone hasn't noticed,

I'm on vacation currently. I didn't get a chance

to record all 25 days of the June Cast Beyond

25 Days of Christmas before I headed up to California

to see my fiance, Jen, hang out with my buddy

Doug. And and we are actually recording live

from his ghetto cast radio studio here. Yeah,

there's a lot of eye rolls and finger flips.

well there was a lot of finger flips before we

started this uh but yes 25 days to you guys be

on christmas this is day 21 and this is where

we are going to be talking about dr seuss is

how the grinch stole christmas this came out

out in 66 yeah along with batman this thing is

50 years old wow all right so how the grinch

stole christmas the animated tv special is 50

years old this year I'm pretty sure all three

of us Know about this and I'm sure all three

of us grew up watching this Steve when was the

first time that you saw this as a kid? Early

on I think because My family kind of gravitated

towards the older content like this So it wasn't

It wasn't abnormal for For me to know about something

like this. So like any of the old animation any

of the old claymation any of that kind of Christmasy

content It was like a tradition to watch when

it came on and I believe like once it came on

on like Sunday nights Typically and I mean they

didn't have like the 25 days of Christmas like

they do now but Yeah, I think I recall watching

it on something similar to that though Probably

when I was like five or six Very cool. Very cool.

What about you Doug? When did you first see how

the Grinch stole Christmas? God, I want to say

I was probably eight or nine years old and my

mom turned on CBS and said here sit down and

watch this and I went okay and And I remember

watching it and being completely fascinated and

doing wow. This looks a lot like Tom and Jerry

I mean the artwork and I remember thinking that

at eight years old Just kinda like, okay, that's

fine, Mom, thanks. I loved it at the time. You

know, my family always just kinda, my mom just

said, here's the Christmas special, sit down

and watch it, and away I went. Yeah, absolutely.

For me, the same kinda thing like with Doug,

I mean, this was just a staple. I don't even

remember when, I mean, I maybe remember seeing

this when I was six, so 30 years ago. So, you

know, this was just... one of the main four or

five Christmas staples for me. That was kind

of the point, again, as I've mentioned in the

last 20 days here on Tooncast Beyond, that started

out this new special thing here with the 25 days

of Tooncast Beyond Christmas, where some of it

was good, some of it was bad, some of it was,

what the hell? Kind of like Neil and I talking

about, trying to talk about the Space Ghost Christmas

special. Oh my God, that was weird. but i when

i originally planned all this out but it was

going to be charlie brown grinch grandma uh day

23 got changed around a little bit and then day

24 and 25 are going to be frosty and rudolph

uh and no not christmas in july um that's next

year so For me, this was just always a staple.

This was always this guy this green guy living

on it in a cave on a mountaintop wanting to cancel

Christmas and You know, I don't even remember

if as a kid I had any real grasp of what the

story was going to turn into like I just assumed

he was gonna be the villain of the piece and

he wasn't gonna have any kind of Redemption qualities

or anything like that Doug, what was your thing

with it when you were a kid? Did you like Other

than just watching it and enjoying it, did you

have any feelings about it or did you know where

the story was going to go? Well, I knew kind

of where it was going to go. I knew that the

Grinch was going to end up, you know, coming

around and saving Christmas because, you know,

it just had to happen somehow that somebody was

going to save Christmas. And I always thought,

OK, who's going to be? But I always hated the

Grinch because I thought he was mean and nasty

and he looked ugly. I know that sounds horrible,

but that's always what I thought of him. What

about you Steve what were your initial feelings

if you can remember that far back as far as the

store how the story goes and how it progresses

The fact that he was creepy and Wasn't sure if

he was supposed to be the one that You know saved

Christmas or not but uh Yeah, I mean I I wasn't

like I said, I kind of wasn't sure what to expect

with it being a kid and kind of Like okay is

this you know this? Weird green guy that's slithering

around people's houses stealing stuff you know,

but I don't know how he's gonna actually come

into play, but Yeah, absolutely Yeah, I wasn't

sure either. I knew he was gonna steal Christmas

from you know the people down in Whoville and

I'd always known about Cindy Lou who and all

that stuff and everything else as a kid and I

think for me, throughout the whole piece, even

when the Grinch goes good, still the character

I felt the most sorry for was Max. That dog went

through a whole crap ton of stuff at Christmastime.

Oh, God, yes. Having to have the the antler that

was cut onto his head and having to pull the

sleigh with all the 50000 pounds of everything

that was on there. You know what you're saying

is the Grinch is a dick. Essentially, yes, he

was. Dude, you're You've been hanging out with

Dodd too much while I've been gone So Yeah for

anyone that missed my part of the dude you're

getting a Dale joke. I'm like, why would anyone

want her? oh come on i don't think she's that

bad her voice is oh my god it's like nails on

a chalkboard that's a discussion for another

day though um that's why you're doing scotch

every time she sings take a drink you'll get

drunk in less than five seconds all right so

how the grinch stole christmas everybody should

know this by now but basically the grinch as

i already said hates christmas he wants to ruin

christmas for everybody and it comes to find

out that Whether they have stuff or not That

you know Christmas comes anyway, you know, he

took all their Christmas trees He took all their

hams and roost be beasts and and everything else

and took all the candy canes and all the Jim

Jobblers and jube jubilers and whatever else

and mint juleps and who knows and whatever and

No, no, no mint juleps are for Kentucky. Yeah,

I know right. I had to throw that in there somewhere

Theodore guys. Oh, he grew up. He actually lived

here in San Diego Diego right down right Down

the coast in La Jolla that was where he was where

he would live when he died for those that don't

know he's talking about Dr. Seuss Yep, Theodore

Geisel. He actually has a library down there

at UCSD the Dr. Seuss library. Yes matter of

fact, yes The Theodore Geisel library it's down

there. It's pretty cool looking awesome Awesome.

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah What I love about this

special is it just goes to show you how one person

can change as other people affect him or her,

and that it's a story of a guy that just wants

to hate Christmas, but it's because he lives

alone. The only person, the only person he has

with him is his dog Max, and he treats his dog

Max worse than anything else. Um, but as the

story progresses we see him changing and you

know whatever else and of course the animation

i mean this is chuck jones at his finest it really

really is and that's probably one of the reasons

why someone i think it was you know you steve

or you don't forget which one you guys said oh

it reminds me of tom and jerry that's well chuck

jones did a series run out of tom and jerry um

steve what going back and i know that you're

you've told me off air that you're TV watching

habits cartoon watching habits have changed because

you and your wife now have two children and all

that and everything else is This something you're

going to show your kids and teach them the difference

between Being negative and being positive or

is this something that you guys are going to

avoid with with kids? See for for Christmas.

It's a little touchy because we're still kind

of deciding and then Okay, I know well, I mean

the kids seem This one and the live -action one

and he knows that what the Grinch does is wrong

Right But I don't know if we're gonna continue

with watching so I mean I remember it The thing

about me with animation is and anything I've

watched in the past I remember the content so

well that I don't have to necessarily watch it

to remember it for a refresher, I mean. Unless

it's like a television series, then I'd have

a hard time. But with this, I don't really see

us having... I don't see myself introducing it

to Nolan, for instance. Okay, so for those that

may not know, Ian is how old and Nolan is how

old? Ian's four and Nolan is a year and a half.

Okay, well, yeah, Nolan's a little young. But

I'm saying, once Ian gets a little bit older,

and as you said, you'd already shown it to him,

and maybe it doesn't have to be a Christmas tradition

every year that you show it to the kids, but

I'm sure at Christmas time, because we all feel

this way at some point or another every single

year, we have to watch those classic Christmas

specials like this, like Charlie Brown, like

Rudolph and Frosty. I don't know of anyone out

there that doesn't want to watch these for themselves,

you know, at some point during the season. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, for you know, for me, it's like

I always watch it on free form. Now, what used

to be ABC Family, we would watch the 25 days

of Christmas. And this was one of those things

that it always would air. And so we would sit

there and watch it. And, you know, I would see

it six or seven times in. The span of that 25

days of Christmas and it was just it's always

fun to watch. I like it just because of what

it is Absolutely. Now Steve did mention the the

2000 Jim Carrey film Which isn't terrible out

of the different dr. Seuss live -action renditions,

I can't complain about that one too much I would

Yeah, that that is like completely off -limits

for my kids because oh the cat in the hat oh

Yeah, that movie is horrible Yeah, I mean you

know it's like Mike Myers tries, but Yeah, it

was it was just there's too many bad innuendos

in there that I would never let my kid watch

that In fact if it's on at somebody's house.

I'm like come on. Let's find something to distract

Yeah, they brought Paris Hilton into that film,

so that's just just say it all right there Well,

and then and then the fact that oh you dirty

little hoe I still love you, and he's holding

like a yards. You know a garden tool Yeah, and

and then he's there's the part where he chops

his tail off in an infomercial and he's like

so and then it goes like So yeah, it's Back to

the cringe The superior film yes superior film

the the original TV special the Jim Carrey one

was alright to me it It's basically Jim Carrey

as the mask in a full body masks The sad thing

is, right before we started this episode, folks,

I went on Wikipedia to look at just, and I'm

not even really reading or looking at it from

Wikipedia at all, but it's one of those things

where I went to look up just general information

to do a refresher and everything else, even though

I watched it today. I noticed that when I was

searching Wikipedia, some of the search options

that came up was, Dr. Seuss's how the... Grinch

stole Christmas 2018 film they are gonna be making

a new one of these things. Oh, yeah I knew that

was coming down the pipe. They they wanted to

redo the Grinch Yet again to try and recapture

a new generation without Jim Carrey Yeah, do

you want to know who's playing the Grinch do

I want to know is it is it Sasha Barricone? No,

no, no, no, no that wouldn't surprise me No,

it's Benedict Cumberbatch. It's Khan. Khan is

on. You mean the fake impression of Ricardo Montalban?

Yes. You can't replace the original. It's like

when you eat off brand. I mean, it's not as good

as the original. Absolutely, absolutely. Doug

what else do we want to say about the the Grinch

the animated special before we get the heck out

of here Well, it had one of my favorite voices

singing for the Grinch Yes, thorough Ravenscroft

uncredited, but he really should have credit

for this because I loved his voice I remember

hearing his voice in the sword in the stone and

then when I came back and watched this I went

oh my god, this is the guy from this is that

guy from the sword in the stone Boom and I could

totally hear it. I just I loved that that and

June for Ray, you know Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle

was the voice of Cindy Lou who? Yeah uncredited

but you know, we need I want to make sure that

she gets recognition for that Absolutely And

you know the funny thing is I bet and I'm and

Doug will find this on his phone because I'm

not looking at the computer right now I bet they

get Tara strong to be the new Cindy Lou who?

Ooh, that would be a good thing. I mean all they've

announced for the new one is just Benedict Cumberbatch

But you know they haven't had anybody else yet

But that would I would love to see Tara Strong

do the voice for Cindy Lou who it would be great

if June was And again, I don't want to speak

ill of someone who is you know her age and whatever

but let's face it she is how old she is and Unless

they're working on the production for this now

or in the next few months in 2017 I don't think

she's gonna come back as Cindy Lou who so if

we can't get June for a I don't think that they'll

ask her to either Yeah, that's cuz that's that's

modern Hollywood That's very true very very true

um Steve any other final thoughts on the animated

classic Grinch? Anything else you wanna bring

up that you like I didn't like about it. I love

the soundtrack Just because of how iconic it

is and then the The fact that Tony the tiger

is singing Yeah Yeah And then you got Boris Karloff

narrating can't forget about that Yeah, I'm trying

to think the Was he the original Frankenstein?

I forget he was he was I know he was a movie

monster. Yeah Universal Yeah All right folks,

I think that's gonna do it for day 21 I know

as I've said on all these other ones, it's kind

of short but After all, it's Christmas time and

I'm on vacation. Damn it. So I should have had

all this stuff done before and but whatever Final

verdict on the Grinch is zero to five stars.

Doug. What do you give it? I got to give it a

five I love this, you know, it's it's Christmas

Steve out of all the Christmas movies I could

watch it's probably one of my my favorite that

I I don't get sick of so I'm gonna give it a

five Same here. I absolutely love what it's a

must -watch every single year for me. No matter

where I am I'll say this last year because it

was the first year without my mom Because she

had passed away in May of 2015 last year i wasn't

even sure if i was going to watch it because

my mom wasn't here but thankfully uh jennifer

my girlfriend slash fiance talked me into watching

it and had a good time with it and as always

still love a special i also give it a five where

can the people find you online steve uh well

if you don't know i might get cast radio something's

wrong with you but uh you can find me on twitter

at scp21 Doug what about you? You can find me

out. I'm on Twitter at spurs out SPR zout You

can also find me for talking about my generation

out at my generation podcast calm And I am at

TFG on Mike on Twitter You can follow at geek

cast radio for all the other network updates

on Twitter at tune cast beyond for all the other

show Updates on Twitter as well Be sure to visit

as Doug said my generation podcast calm and of

course geekcastradio .com unleashed the Christmas

geek in you and we will catch you tomorrow when

Jen and I will be here to talk about something

Doug and his wife and I just watched. Grandma

got run over by a reindeer. It came without packages,

boxes, or bags. He puzzled and puzzled, until

his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought

of something he hadn't before. Maybe Christmas,

he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe

Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

His small heart grew three sizes that day. And

then, the true meaning of Christmas came through,

and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches,

plus two. And now that his heart didn't feel

quite so tight, he whizzed with his load through

the bright morning light. With a smile in his

soul, he descended Mount Crumpet. Do you like

retro cartoons then Saturday morning rewind is

the podcast for you Join them each month as they

talk about classic cartoons and interview legendary

voice actors like Jim Cummings Cory Burton Rob

Paulson Nancy Cartwright, and many more. So grab

a bowl of Lucky Charms. Put on your hammer pants.

Go to SaturdayMorningRewind .com. And be prepared

to feel like a kid again. Once again, that's

SaturdayMorningRewind .com. Saturday Morning

Rewind was voted best podcast ever by its host,

Tim Neidell. So it's gotta be good. It's the

Christmas season, a time for telling colorful

holiday stories. My favorite story of all time

is about my grandma. She had this encounter with

a reindeer. Grandma got run over by a reindeer

Walking home from our house Christmas Eve You

can say there's no such thing as Santa Grandma

got run over by a reindeer all right and as incredible

as that was it almost put an end to Christmas

But I'm getting ahead of myself. So let's go

back to the beginning