The stolen Christmas presents

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The stolen Christmas presents
Original title How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 25 minutes
Rod
Director Chuck Jones ,
Ben Washam
script Theodor Seuss Geisel ,
Irv Spector ,
Bob Ogle
production Chuck Jones,
Theodor Seuss hostage
music Albert Hague ,
Eugene Poddany ,
Theodor Seuss Geisel
camera Ted C. Bemiller ,
Nick Vasu
cut Lovell Norman ,
John O. Young
occupation
synchronization

The Stolen Christmas Presents (original title How the Grinch Stole Christmas! ) Is an American television film from 1966 . It is a film adaptation of the children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Theodor Seuss Geisel and is about the Grinch, a green creature who hates Christmas . For this reason he decides to spoil the festival for the residents of the village of Werstadt, above which he lives, by stealing their decorations and gifts.

The Stolen Christmas Presents was the first animated film adaptation of a work by Dr. Seuss, who initially opposed the adaptation due to negative experiences with the film business. However, his friend Chuck Jones , who became known in the United States as the director of several Looney Tunes productions and had the idea for the film, successfully changed his mind.

In the United States, the film was first released on CBS in December 1966 . Since then, it has been considered a cult film and Christmas classic in the country , which is now shown twice on different television channels in December. These broadcasts regularly achieve high ratings .

plot

The Grinch, a sullen, misanthropic green creature, has a heart two sizes too small and lives alone with his dog Max in a cave on Mount Crumpit. Under the mountain lies the village of Werstadt, whose residents are looking forward to the upcoming Christmas festivities .

The Grinch particularly dislikes Christmas, especially the sumptuous feast, songs, and noise that residents throw every year. After 53 years he has finally had enough and decides to prevent Christmas this time. He made himself a red coat and hat to resemble Santa Claus and disguised Max as a reindeer . Then the Grinch goes to Werstadt at night with empty sacks after he doesn’t ride the dog with him in his sled, but lets him pull it to his disappointment.

He sneaks into the first house of the sleeping residents and steals all decorations, gifts and treats. He is surprised by the girl Cindy-Lou Who, who wanted to get something to drink and sadly asks him why he is taking the Christmas tree with him. The Grinch feels sorry for Cindy-Lou and says he'll take the tree to his workshop and fix it because one of the balls is broken. Then he gives her a glass of water and sends her back to bed. After he has stowed all the items in the sack, he continues this in the other houses in the village.

The Grinch and Max return to the mountain, where the former is about to drop the sled. Before doing this, he listens intently because he wants to hear the desperate reaction of the residents. To his surprise, they sing their Christmas carols as usual. When the Grinch realizes that Christmas is not about material things, his heart grows by three numbers. This gives him the strength to stop the sledge from sliding down. Then he gives the residents their things back and is invited to stay for Christmas dinner. The Grinch happily accepts and is allowed to cut the traditional roast. For his efforts, Max, who previously had to suffer from the whims of his owner, receives the first disc.

production

The animation director Chuck Jones and the well-known children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel , better known as Dr. Seuss, worked on the Private Snafu cartoon series during World War II . Jones took a liking to Geisel's books, which is why he wanted to produce a television animation adaptation of one of his works. He turned to Geisel and suggested that How the Grinch Stole Christmas film for the 1966 Christmas season. He initially quarreled with the proposal, as he was during the production of his film The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. had had unpleasant experiences. Because he was asked to bring the film up to standard Hollywood standards and to shut down his own bizarre ideas, he felt he did not fit into the mainstream film business. However, Jones was finally able to persuade him, whereupon Geisel hired his own film production company The Cat in the Hat Productions . Additional support came from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , where Jones was employed at the time.

The broadcaster was CBS , which in late 1965 had a surprise hit with The Peanuts . CBS gave Jones and MGM an amount of $ 315,000 for production (this would be just under $ 3 million in 2021); that sum was roughly four times the budget Bill Meléndez received for the Peanuts film. To Jones' amazement, after several other companies had turned them down, he found an advertising partner in the banking association Foundation For Full-Service Banks . Jones noted that this was highly unusual, not only because the film criticized the commercialization of Christmas, but also because Jones could not guarantee the repayment of the loan provided by the association due to the production's unclear prospects of success. The association's advertising messages were cut from the film when it was repeated later.

British actor Boris Karloff was cast as the narrator and Grinch . Geisel protested against this decision unsuccessfully because he found his voice too creepy. Jones was able to convince Geisel, however, that Karloff would find the right balance between scary and weird. Karloff spoke the entire film in an elegant, friendly tone, for the parts as Grinch, filter technology turned it into a threatening, rough voice. Karloff was also the only member of the ensemble mentioned in the credits.

Jones initially had difficulties with the adaptation because he did not know how to produce a Christmas film without typical elements such as Christian references and the classic Santa Claus. He finally got the idea of having Geisel write his own Christmas carols in Seussian Latian , a kind of kitchen Latin . After Jones' view, there would be for the Latin language no differences between Geisel passage not powerful individuals Fahoofores, Dahoodores and Adeste Fideles . (Jones' assumption was confirmed when several viewers wrote to CBS asking for an English translation of the "Latin" songs after the broadcast).

Jones made a few changes to the character Cindy-Lou Who . In the book, she has an insect-like appearance, initially just a few thin, upward strands of hair, and only appears at the end with blonde hair and a red bow. In the film, on the other hand, she has a human appearance, both blonde hair and individual protruding black hair, and her face in some places resembles that of the Grinch. Although she plays a slightly larger role in the production than in the book, Jones, to his disappointment, had to cut more scenes with her due to time constraints.

The dog Max was interpreted by Jones as a silent observer of the action of the Grinch and a victim of his meanness, similar to the characters Daffy Duck and Piggy Dick in Jones' films Astro-Daffy and Robin Hood Daffy . As the coat color for the Grinch, which was black and white in the book, Jones chose green because, according to him, all rental cars he drove during this time were of a similar shade. Overall, the production phase lasted almost a year, included 15,000 Cel drawings and more than 1,000 drafts, and 60 musicians were involved in the recording of the soundtrack. Geisel felt that the finished drawings differed too much from his original drawings and contained too much of Jones' own style. Especially when looking at the Grinch, he annoyed Jones that the Grinch didn't look like his literary model, but more like Jones himself. Jones simply replied that something like this happens sometimes.

publication

The Stolen Christmas Presents first aired on CBS on December 18, 1966. Before the publication, Jones and his childhood friend Marian Dern met again, who interviewed Geisel on behalf of TV Guide on the occasion of the upcoming publication . 15 years after the conversation, Jones and Dern were married.

The film was shown on CBS every Christmas season until 1988, after which it was seen on the cable channels TNT , TBS and The WB . After the end of the latter, the broadcasting rights were briefly with ABC . Since 2015, the film has aired twice during the Christmas season on TBS, TNT and NBC , which acquired the rights that year from Warner Bros. Entertainment .

In the 1990s, MGM released the film on VHS , among others . In 1997 MGM brought out the production together with the hostage adaptation Das Sprechende Staubkorn on DVD , followed by another VHS and DVD from Warner Bros. in 2000. The latter also included an audio commentary by the animator Phil Roman and the spokeswoman June Foray , interviews with the composer Albert Hague and the singer Thurl Ravenscroft as well as a documentary about the production process. The DVD was praised in the media for this bonus material, but at the same time criticized for the poor picture quality.

In 2006, another DVD was released to mark the 50th anniversary of the book's publication. In addition to a retrospective , this one again included the previous bonuses except for the audio commentary, and the image quality was also improved. A second version of this DVD with audio commentary was released shortly afterwards; The film was also part of the Classic Christmas Favorites DVD set . In September 2012 the film was released together with the sequels Dr. Seuss - On Halloween, Grinch and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat is back on DVD.

In Germany, The Stolen Christmas Presents appeared together with Das sprechende Staubkorn, initially on VHS, and later also on DVD. The film is also available from several streaming services .

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack included the songs Welcome Christmas , Trim Up The Tree With Christmas Stuff, and You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch . Trim Up The Tree With Christmas Stuff was created by Albert Hague , who chose a square dance- inspired melody for the composition . You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch , the most successful song on the soundtrack, was set to music in the production by the then popular singer Thurl Ravenscroft . Ravenscroft was selected for his famous bass voice, known to the public as the promotional voice of Kellogs mascot Tony the Tiger . Because Ravenscroft was inadvertently omitted from the credits, many viewers thought that You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch was made by Karloff, as he spoke the narrator. After realizing the mistake, Geisel apologized by phone call to Ravenscroft and wrote letters to all the major newspapers in the country explaining the matter and asking for a mention of Ravenscroft in articles about the film.

reception

In the Internet Movie Database, the film achieved a rating of 8.4 out of ten stars based on 47,907 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes , the critic rating is 100 percent, based on 25 reviews, the audience rating is 95 percent, based on 54 votes. Current television broadcasts of the film regularly achieve high ratings, with the Nielsen rating of NBC 1.6 / 6 in 2017. That corresponded to a good five million viewers and secured the broadcaster second place in the ratings on Christmas Day.

In the United States, The Stolen Christmas Presents are considered Christmas classics alongside productions like Rudolph the Red Nose , The Peanuts, and Frosty the Snowman . Jamie Righetti wrote in IndieWire that although the story is now well known, the film causes a new wave of fluffy nostalgia every time it is viewed every year due to its timelessness. According to J. R. Jones of the Chicago Reader , the snarling, insidious Grinch is Karloff's last great role. Jones made full use of the limited budget, which was shown, among other things, in the scene in which the Grinch drives up the mountain with his sleigh, as Jones will be reunited with his favorite muse, gravity. James Poniewozik from Time was particularly positive about the grinch's wickedness. Geisel thus created a villain for the ages, this pleasure would be perfectly represented by Jones and Karloff's excellent game in the film. The happy, bright, kind-hearted adaptation is a wonderful, terrible idea.

Sequels

In 1977 the sequel was Dr. Seuss - This Halloween, Grinch is broadcasting on ABC. She is a prequel to The Stolen Christmas Presents . It is about the Grinch, who terrifies the residents of Werstadt every Halloween . The production won an Emmy for Best Animation Program . Five years later, The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat was released. In it, the Grinch meets the cat from Geisel's book The Cat with a Hat . The latter wants to find out why the Grinch is evil, which this does not make it easy for him with new inventions that cause chaos. This film also won an Emmy in the same category.

Award

In 1967, Karloff won a Grammy in the Best Children's Album category for the film's soundtrack .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chuck Jones : Chuck Reducks: Drawing From the Fun Side of Life . Warner Books, New York 1996, ISBN 0-446-51893-X , p. 263.
  2. ↑ Judith Morgan, Neil Morgan: Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel: A Biography . Da Capo Press, Boston 1996, ISBN 0-306-80736-X , p. 136.
  3. ^ William D. Crump: Happy Holidays - Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film . McFarland & Company, Jefferson 2019, ISBN 978-1-4766-3646-7 , p. 88.
  4. ↑ Jeff Lenburg: Who's who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-winning and Legendary Animators . Applause Theater & Cinema Books, Montclair 2006, ISBN 1-55783-671-X , p. 351.
  5. ↑ Janet Giovanelli: The True Story of Santa Claus: The History, The Traditions, The Magic . Centennial Books, New York 2020, ISBN 978-1-951274-42-9 , p. 118.
  6. ↑ Chuck Jones: Chuck Reducks: Drawing From the Fun Side of Life . Warner Books, New York 1996, ISBN 0-446-51893-X , p. 276.
  7. ↑ a b Mark Voger: Holly Jolly . TwoMorrows Publishing, Raleigh 2020, ISBN 978-1-60549-097-7 , p. 176.
  8. ^ A b Chuck Jones: Chuck Reducks: Drawing From the Fun Side of Life . Warner Books, New York 1996, ISBN 0-446-51893-X , p. 270.
  9. ↑ Andrew N. Wong: 12 Spirited Facts About How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In: Mental Floss. November 9, 2018, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  10. ↑ Chuck Jones: Chuck Reducks: Drawing From the Fun Side of Life . Warner Books, New York 1996, ISBN 0-446-51893-X , p. 272.
  11. ↑ Chuck Jones: Chuck Reducks: Drawing From the Fun Side of Life . Warner Books, New York 1996, ISBN 0-446-51893-X , p. 271.
  12. ^ Brian Cronin: How Did the Grinch Get to Become Green? In: Comic Book Resources. December 10, 2019, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  13. ↑ Chuck Jones: Chuck Reducks: Drawing From the Fun Side of Life . Warner Books, New York 1996, ISBN 0-446-51893-X , p. 278.
  14. ↑ Brian Jay Jones: Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination . Penguin Group, London 2019, ISBN 978-1-5247-4280-5 , p. 337.
  15. ↑ Chuck Jones: Chuck Reducks: Drawing From the Fun Side of Life . Warner Books, New York 1996, ISBN 0-446-51893-X , pp. 281-283.
  16. ↑ Lee Margulies: Garfield, the animated cat who stars in ... In: The Los Angeles Times . November 20, 1988, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  17. ↑ Nellie Andreeva: 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas' Animated Special Moves To NBC - TCA. In: Nellie Andreeva. August 13, 2015, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  18. ↑ Top Kid Video . Billboard , Eldridge Industries, New York 1994, Dec. 24 issue, p. 76.
  19. ↑ Early Stages of Divx, DVD Feud Set in Papers; VSDA to Study Vid Habits . Billboard , Eldridge Industries, New York 1997, Nov. 1, 1997 issue, p. 71.
  20. ↑ Top Kid Video . Billboard , Eldridge Industries, New York 2000, January 22nd issue, p. 108.
  21. ^ A b Colin Jacobson: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas / Horton Hears A Who !: Special Edition (1966). In: DVD Movie Guide. November 22, 2006, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  22. ↑ Colin Jacobson: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Classic Christmas Favorites) (1966). In: DVD Movie Guide. October 29, 2008, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  23. ↑ Dr. Seuss: DVDs & Blu-rays. In: Fernsehserien.de . Retrieved December 13, 2021 .
  24. ↑ The stolen Christmas presents and the talking speck of dust. In: Amazon . November 8, 2001, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  25. ↑ The stolen Christmas presents. In: Moviepilot.de . Retrieved December 13, 2021 .
  26. ↑ The stolen Christmas presents. In: Who Streamt.es? Retrieved December 13, 2021 .
  27. ^ Doug Lennox: Now You Know Christmas: The Little Book of Answers . Dundurn Press, Toronto 2007, ISBN 978-1-55488-247-2 , p. 67.
  28. ↑ Elizabeth McCracken: Our Cereal Hero. In: The New York Times . December 25, 2005, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  29. ↑ Daven Hiskey: The Guy Who Did the Voice for Tony the Tiger also Sang “You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. In: Today I Found Out. December 18, 2012, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  30. ^ How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Movie Reviews. In: Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved December 13, 2021 .
  31. ↑ Jennifer Maas: Ratings: The Grinch Steals (Some of) Christmas for NBC. In: The Wrap. December 26, 2017, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  32. ↑ Jamie Righetti: The 20 Best Holiday Films of All Time Ranked, from 'Bad Santa' to 'It's a Wonderful Life'. In: IndieWire . December 22, 2017, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  33. ↑ JR Jones: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! In: Chicago Reader . October 26, 1985, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  34. ↑ James Poniewozik: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In: Time . November 29, 2007, accessed December 13, 2021 .
  35. ^ Mark Arnold: Think Pink: The Story of DePatie-Freleng . BearManor Media, Albany 2015, ISBN 978-1-59393-169-8 , chapter Halloween is Grinch Night .
  36. ^ Mark Arnold: Think Pink: The Story of DePatie-Freleng . BearManor Media, Albany 2015, ISBN 978-1-59393-169-8 , chapter The Cat in the Hat .
  37. ^ Winners & Nominees. In: Grammy Awards . Retrieved October 8, 2021 .