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Friday the 13th
Dec. 13th, 2024 11:42 pmI could have watched the Original Recipe Friday the 13th movie Franchise or the Friday The 13th TV series (which I bet has a holiday episode), but I decided to watch the Grinch again.
I enjoyed livetweeting this version. I really can’t get into the live action version that starred Jim Carrey. Or the other CGI version. My main bone of contention with them continue to be that I really don’t need a psychoanalytical backstory that essentially tells us that the reason why the Grinch is the Grinch is because he wasn’t loved enough as a little Grinch, coupled with some pablum about valuing diversity.
The animated version keeps it simple. He’s the mean guy who lives on the hill. He is miserable and wants the Whos in Whoville to be miserable because they are happy and he is not. Simple. Basic. No backstory that screams “therapy intervention” and holds up the story as a crutch. And yes, somewhere in there, the Grinch discovers the TMOC (True Meaning of Christmas).
One could argue that the songs make this story a little too long in the animated version, but they add to the flavour of the piece.
The animation still holds up in this age of CGI and 3D everything. Chuck Jones and his team were definitely the old masters. Each frame brought Dr. Seuss’ strange and wonderful world to life and captured Seuss’ and Chuck Jones’ wicked sense of humour.
This version was broadcast first on tv in 1967. Boris Karloff (Monster, Horror and Thriller royalty), narrated, but he did not sing the “Grinch” songs. That honor went to voice actor and singer Thurl Ravenscroft, who achieved additional immortality as the definitive voice for Kellogg’s Tony The Tiger for Frosted Flakes.
It amuses me at how much Peacock and other sites will pummel me with the recommendation that I should watch the other Grinchs – even a musical that is coming to a theater near me? Meanwhile, they treat this version like the ugly daughter they have to hide under the stairs.
I’ll always be firmly in its corner as its champion.
I enjoyed livetweeting this version. I really can’t get into the live action version that starred Jim Carrey. Or the other CGI version. My main bone of contention with them continue to be that I really don’t need a psychoanalytical backstory that essentially tells us that the reason why the Grinch is the Grinch is because he wasn’t loved enough as a little Grinch, coupled with some pablum about valuing diversity.
The animated version keeps it simple. He’s the mean guy who lives on the hill. He is miserable and wants the Whos in Whoville to be miserable because they are happy and he is not. Simple. Basic. No backstory that screams “therapy intervention” and holds up the story as a crutch. And yes, somewhere in there, the Grinch discovers the TMOC (True Meaning of Christmas).
One could argue that the songs make this story a little too long in the animated version, but they add to the flavour of the piece.
The animation still holds up in this age of CGI and 3D everything. Chuck Jones and his team were definitely the old masters. Each frame brought Dr. Seuss’ strange and wonderful world to life and captured Seuss’ and Chuck Jones’ wicked sense of humour.
This version was broadcast first on tv in 1967. Boris Karloff (Monster, Horror and Thriller royalty), narrated, but he did not sing the “Grinch” songs. That honor went to voice actor and singer Thurl Ravenscroft, who achieved additional immortality as the definitive voice for Kellogg’s Tony The Tiger for Frosted Flakes.
It amuses me at how much Peacock and other sites will pummel me with the recommendation that I should watch the other Grinchs – even a musical that is coming to a theater near me? Meanwhile, they treat this version like the ugly daughter they have to hide under the stairs.
I’ll always be firmly in its corner as its champion.
