How 'The Grinch' Became an Icon

He was the cruel, evil green-animated Ebenezer Scrooge of our childhood props to author Dr. Seuss for making the Grinch a Christmas icon. The Grinch is based on the 1957 children's illustrated book How the Grinch Stole Christmas introduces the Grinch, a green, furry, Pot-bellied, pear-shaped, snub-nosed humanoid creature with a cat-like face and cynical personality who hates Christmas and decides to rob everybody's gifts and holiday decorations down in Whoville to make them feel sad. The story would be adapted in a 1966 short television special, a television series, a 2000 live-action film, a 2018 animation film, musicals, and a song written by the author himself that would be the theme song fitted for the Grinch.

Here's how the Grinch became a Christmas icon.

It started when Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss wrote a 33-line illustrated poem by Dr. Seuss called "The Hoobub and the Grinch", which was originally published in the May 1955 edition of Redbook magazine. Around the time he completed The Cat in the Hat, his then-wife Helen Palmer suffered a stroke during Christmas causing him to be "very Grinch-ish" or a huge b***h. It got him to think about writing a children's book about the Grinch.

"I got hung up getting the Grinch out of the mess. I got into a situation where I sounded like a second-rate preacher or some biblical truism... Finally in desperation... without making any statement whatever, I showed the Grinch and the Whos together at the table, and made a pun of the Grinch carving the 'roast beast'. ... I had gone through thousands of religious choices, and then after three months it came out like that."

He wrote and completed the book in a few weeks.

The Story

The story tells the Grinch, an anti-Christmas green spirit, and is always portrayed as a bitter and ill-tempered character with his heart sizes too small living on top of the mountain away from the Who's from Whoville aided by his pet dog Max. The Grinch is set to ruin Christmas for all of the residents of Whoville by disguising himself as Santa Claus and breaking into every Whoville homes stealing their Christmas gifts and joys. Although the Grinch tries to ruin Christmas by stealing all the village's presents and food, the Who’s still sings cheerfully on Christmas morning as they show Mr. Grinch that they are just happy to have each other. The moral of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is one we can all relate to. With strong messages about family and making the best of what you have. Christmas is a spirit, a state of mind, a joyous feeling to be shared with friends and loved ones.

1966 Television special

Looney Tunes animator and director Chuck Jones and Seuss had worked together on the Private Snafu training cartoons at Warner Bros. Cartoons during World War II. Jones had an interest in adapting The Grinch into an animated holiday television special. Seuss agreed to adapt the rights and the special was on a $300,000 budget. Jones and Seuss cast Boris Karloff to narrate the special because of his "beautiful, rhythmic, caring" voice and the poetic quality of the way he read the script and voiced the Grinch.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas premiered on CBS on Sunday, December 18, 1966. The television special was well-received by audiences and critics and was ranked number six during the period between December 5–18, 1966, by Nielsen Media Research. After the Grinch, the Grinch would appear in more animated specials: Halloween Is Grinch Night in 1977 and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat in 1981.

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

The score consists of 60 musicians playing a 34-piece orchestra with a 12-voice choir. They worked for a total of eight hours. It included three songs: "Trim Up the Tree", "Welcome Christmas", and "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" which became a staple theme song for the Grinch. The lyrics were written by Dr. Seuss himself and the music was composed by Albert Hague. The song was performed by bass singer Thurl Ravenscroft.

The song won a Grammy for Best Album for Children at the 10th Annual Grammy Awards making him a Grammy winner.

2000

Years after Dr. Seuss's death, The Grinch's legacy continues. Universal Pictures wanted to adapt the film rights to director Ron Howard. Comedian Jim Carey was cast for the role, former young child Taylor Momsen as Cindy Lou Who, and Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins voiced the narrator. The film premiered on November 17, 2000. The film debuted at number one at the box office.

Critics and fans have praised Jim Carrey's performance as the Grinch however critics critizing besides the critics the film became an ultimate Christmas cult classic.

Fun Fact: The Grinch was the first film I saw in movie theatres.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and was nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. The Grinch gained so much popularity that Universal Studio Resort in Florida would be a part of a cast character at the theme park.

The Popularity of the Grinch

After Dr. Seuss’s television special and 2000 film, Dr. Seuss’s second wife Audrey approved allowing the Grinch to a selling merchandise. The Grinch would be the best-selling merchandise from Walmart to Amazon even on when December comes around. Most would sell during December at the Universal Studios in Florida.

Here are more Grinch Merch from Universal Studios

Musicals

The Grinch would be portrayed on the stage when the story was turned into a 1994 musical by the Children's Theater Company out of Minneapolis. The show made it to Broadway by way of a limited run in 2006. Geisel gifted them the rights, about which the former artistic director said, it was "a gift that has continued giving to our theatre and the community long after both of our individual departures." Geisel had a walk-on part in the 2006 production

Icelandic actor and Lazytown star Stefán Karl Stefánsson portrayed the Grinch in the touring production of the musical from 2008 to 2015.

The Grinch is also a minor character in the 2000 musical Seussical, which is based on multiple Seuss works.

The musical would be adapted into an NBC live musical television special starring Matthew Morrison as the Grinch which became a huge flop.

Youtube

Even Youtubers like Todrick Hall and Rudy Mancuso made a YouTube parody of the Grinch.

2018

In 2018, Illumination Entertainment, the animation behind Despicable Me and The Lorax, developed a 3D animated feature film based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Benedict Cumberbatch was cast as the Grinch, Cameron Seely as Cindy Lou Who, and Pharrell Williams as the narrator. Rapper Tyler the Creator and Danny Elfman collaborated on the new version of Dr. Seuss's song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch".

The film premiered on November 9, 2018. This was the final Dr. Seuss film adaptation to be released during the lifetime of Seuss's widow Audrey Geisel, who served as executive producer of the film and died on December 19, 2018, five weeks after the film's release. The film became the highest-grossing Christmas film of all time, as well as the highest-grossing Dr. Seuss film adaptation. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the animation and the vocal performances (particularly from Cumberbatch), but criticized the lack of creative license.

The moral of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is one we can all relate to. With strong messages about family and making the best of what you have. Christmas is a spirit, a state of mind, a joyous feeling to be shared with friends and loved ones.

Merry Grinch-mas!

Source

YouTube

Wikipedia

https://granitebeltchristmasfarm.com.au/the-history-of-the-grinch/

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