There are a few things that my family looks forward to on Thanksgiving – the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, seeing Santa at the end of the parade and stuffing ourselves with great food. There are also movies that we look forward to on Thanksgiving day including Miracle on 34th Street, March of the Wooden Soliders and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
It wouldn’t be the same without watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas at least a few times during the holiday season. I know many people who feel the same way.
We have How the Grinch Stole Christmas on DVD, however there is a new DVD collection that takes the movie a step further. The collection is called Dr. Seuss’s Holidays on the Loose! It features the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie and includes two other movies, Halloween is Grinch Night and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat. More on those movies later.
I have seen How the Grinch Stole Christmas more times then I can count (LOL). It wasn’t so much the movie that impressed me as it was the bonus features. Dr. Seuss’s Holidays on the Loose! contains some must see bonus features.
One of the bonus features I really enjoyed is called Dr. Seuss and the Grinch – from Whoville to Hollywood. This feature tells you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Dr. Seuss, whose real name is Theodor Geisel. Seuss is his mother’s maiden name. She always wanted him to grow up to be a doctor so he gave himself the pen name Dr. Seuss.
This bonus feature gave you an in-depth look into the many behind such memorable characters as the Grinch, the Lorax, Horton (Horton Hears a Who) and of course the Cat in the Hat. I thought it was fascinating how he became such a beloved author.
There is also a special featurette which had to be filmed a very long time ago because it was hosted by actor and comedian Phil Hartman who was killed by his wife in 1998.
This featurette shows you all that went on with the making of the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Did you know that it took 170,000 animation frames/panels just to make this film? That means it took about 10-12 frames/panels for just ONE SECOND of animation. That blows my mind! That is A LOT of drawing.
I always thought that Boris Karloff sang the songs in the Grinch movie. The songs were actually song by the man who voiced the Tony the Tiger/Frosted Flakes commercials. He was not given credit in the film either. His name was Thurl Ravenscroft and he passed away in 2005. He also voiced the role of Kirby in the Brave Little Toaster movies. He also did voice characters for other Dr. Seuss movies/shows.
Albery Hague, who played the role of Mr. Shorofsky (Music Teacher) in the series Fame wrote the music for How the Grinch Stole Christmas. WOW! Pretty interesting stuff.
At one point in the featurette Phil Hartman re-voiced scenes from How the Grinch Stole Christmas with voices of John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Jack Nicholson to show you just how different the Grinch would be if he wasn’t voiced by Boris Karloff.
The movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas are all on one DVD. There is a second DVD included in the package. The seconds DVD features two Grinch movies.
In Halloween is Grinch Night the Grinch is coming back to Whoville to declare that Halloween is really Grinch Night. All the residents run and hide from him, all except one boy who is determined to stop the Grinch.
The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat has the Grinch on a quest to ruin the Cat in the Hat’s life. The mean Grinch goes out of his way to do mean things to the Cat in the Hat, but the Cat in the Hat has a plan to not only stop the Grinch but also to see that his bad behavior is very disappointing to someone very special in his life.
To be honest with you I didn’t like either of the movies. I have never even heard of them before but my husband says he saw them, but a long time ago. We’ve been married 15 years so it had to be before we were married because I have never heard of them before.
I didn’t find anything appealing about them. The Grinch in the Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat looked more like the original drawings of the Grinch, where as the Grinch in Halloween is Grinch Night looked more like the Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Even Max the dog looked different.
My husband said he doesn’t even remember watching both movies all the way through because he lost interest in them right away. Sadly I was the same way. I watched them so I could do a fair review, but if I wasn’t reviewing them I’d probably turn them off too. But that is just my opinion. Other people might love them.
For me the highlight of the DVD collection is the bonus features. I learned a lot about Dr. Seuss and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I will never look at the movie the same away again.
Dr. Seuss’s Holidays on the Loose! is currently available where most DVDs are sold.
Kimberly
*I received a free screener copy in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.
** Images found on the Internet. Copyright is unknown. If you know the copyright please contact me so I can apply the appropriate copyright information. Thank you.
trishden says
Hi Kimberly, I remember the documentary on How the Grinch Stole Christmas was made with Phil Hartmann and I do agree, it is real interesting. However, I wouldn’t waste my time watching the other two, I mean how do these studios expect to improve on greatness? There is only one Grinch and one story, don’t give us these cheap imitations. Thanks for a great review.
judy gardner says
thank u for this review! the other 2 movies do not sound appealing to me either, but i am tempted to purchase this for the extras. you have already told me things in this review that i did not know, and i am curious to know more. plus, i loved phil hartman – so funny!
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