Halloween is Grinch Night!
Halloween is Grinch Night! (titled It's Grinch Night for the 1992 videocassette release and Grinch Night for the sing-a-long videocassette release) is an animated Halloween movie made in 1977, it serves as the prequel to How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Plot
In Whoville each Halloween, a "Sour-Sweet Wind" blows and a chain of events causes the Gree-Grumps and Hakken-Krakks to arouse the Grinch into descending to Whoville in his paraphernalia wagon and wreaking havoc in the town on "Grinch Night". All of Whoville dreads the smell of the wind as an omen, and everyone retreats to their home as the whole village goes into lockdown.
Euchariah, a young Who with astigmatism, goes out to the "euphemism" and blows away. He runs into the Grinch as he is picking brickles out of his fur, the result of a failed attempt to hunt down the last Wuzzy Woozoo. After giving Euchariah a brief spook, the Grinch decides the young boy is too small to waste time on and resumes his trek to Whoville.
Euchariah decides that he must stall the Grinch in order to save Whoville. Catching up to the Grinch's wagon, the irritated Grinch decides to give Euchariah the "spook's tour", and Euchariah is drawn in to a surreal nightmare with spooks and monsters in all directions. Euchariah endures the spooks just long enough for the Sour-Sweet Wind to die down, forcing the Grinch to abandon the trek and return home. His dog Max, visibly depressed and nostalgic throughout the special, refuses to return with the Grinch and follows Euchariah home where he is greeted as a hero; the Grinch laments that he will "miss that Grinch Night Ball" but finds solace in "that wind will be coming back, someday; I'll be coming back, someday!" and then ends this promise with a sinister laugh.
Why It Isn't Grinch Night
- It feels very unnecessary to make a prequel to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, given that its a holiday film.
- While decent, its animation looks noticeable more sloppy then the original.
- The constant narration, even for Dr. Seuss standards, with the narrator saying, "And (insert name of character here) said" every time he goes to the other character.
- Odd character designs, with both the Grinch and Max not looking too much like they were in How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the Grinch especially looks different in that he has orange eyes, different design eye lids, five fingers and darker green fur), and the Whos for which they look way more humanoid then they did in How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Euchariah especially looks more humanoid than the rest of the Whos, and looks more like a rejected Charlie Brown character then something out of Dr. Seuss).
- Bizarre dialogue for some of the characters, one example goes to the very first line that the Grinch says after his introduction due to all the noises, "It's a wonderful night for eyebrows.", what the heck does that have to do with eyebrows?
- This whole film has many plot-holes, most of which also goes to the writing choose of making Halloween is Grinch Night! a prequel film.
- In this specie, the Grinch is shown to have magic powers and is able to change his size at will, even tho he never had those abilities in How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
- This leads to another plot-hole in this plot-hole, if the Grinch had powers, why didn't he use any of them in How The Grinch Stole Christmas?
- Why and how can the Grinch turn his eyebrows into a bat? And why does he does so on a few occasions?
- Biggest plot-hole: In this film, it's revealed that Whoville has a "Grinch Alarm Center", in which it alarms when the Grinch is here, in that case, why didn't it set off when the Grinch was LITERALLY breaking into every single one of the Whos' houses during How The Grinch Stole Christmas?
- Why is there only one Wuzzy Wuzu in Whoville? And what happened to the rest of them?
- After being blown off by the wind, instead of finding his way back home, Euchariach just wonders around the mountain for no reason while three times bumping into the Grinch.
- Why is Eychariach living with his grandparents? And where/what happen to Euchariach's parents?
- At the end of the film, Max has decided to ditch the Grinch in favor of liven with Euchariach, but in How The Grinch Stole Christmas (which keep in mind, takes place after Halloween is Grinch Night!) he is shown liven with the Grinch.
- Why does the Whos sniff in order to know about the "Sour-Sweet Wind" A.K.A Grinch Night/Halloween? Don't they have calendars in their homes?
- No appearance from Cindy Loo-Who(one of the main characters of How The Grinch Stole Christmas), not even so much as a mention, which is even more buzzard as she serves as a significance role for the Grinch's character development.
- Why didn't the Grinch Alarm Center say something that Euchariach is being tormented by the Grinch's Spook Tour to the Who's and/or Euchariach's family?
- It's never explained what the Grinch Night Ball is.
- In this specie, the Grinch is shown to have magic powers and is able to change his size at will, even tho he never had those abilities in How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
- The Grinch's new voice actor, Hans Conried, does an odd job of voicing the Grinch as he sounds more high pitch, and sounds nothing like how Boris Karloff previous voiced the Grinch.
- Due to Halloween is Grinch Night! being a prequel film, the Grinch barely gets any character development unlike in How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
- While having a few entertaining moments, for the most part, Halloween is Grinch Night! is somewhat boring, as not much really happens besides the Grinch coming down the Mountain in attempt to do something to the Whos with his paraphernalia wagon, all the while cutting back to the Whos who are in preparation of the Grinch, it's only until the climax during the paraphernalia wagon's Spook Tour when things start to pick up, and even then, that's near the end of the film.
- Somewhat misleading title for two reasons:
- Even though this film is titled Halloween is Grinch Night!, there's nothing in this film that has Halloween, nor does anyone in this film celebrate Halloween.
- While the Grinch appears in the both the Title Card and Box Arts, most of the film centers around Euchariah.
- Very cringe inducing scenes, most of which goes to the Grinch's evil glare that he makes when hearing the noises, which is somehow even creepier than the Grinch's grin from How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
- Halloween is Grinch Night! has a lot of scenes that are very repetitive, with Euchariah's grandfather and later the Grinch saying "I wouldn't go out on (A night like this or Grinch Night) for (insert amount of money here)", and mid-way in the film were it just constants of Euchariach bumping into the Grinch for a total of 3 times.
- Even though this is a kids film, Halloween is Grinch Night! has many moment that can be too scary for kids, one such example goes to the paraphernalia wagon's "Spook Tour" during the climax.
- Very buzzer ending, in which from how the Grinch says "That wind will be coming back, someday; I'll be coming back, someday!" in a sinister, evil tone and then laughs, its as if this ending is setting up a sequel, which so-far never happened, and is especially noticeable given that in How The Grinch Stole Christmas (which again, takes place after Halloween is Grinch Night!), the Grinch reformed.
- Generally speaking, because of how different this film is, and the fact that most of the characters looks way too different, Halloween is Grinch Night! feels more like an average Dr. Seuss Cartoon Episode, rather then be a prequel to something as popular as How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
- As a whole, Halloween is Grinch Night! serves no impact to any of the Dr. Seuss cartoon series what-so-ever as plots of this special has been ignored and Euchariach so-far makes no appearance in any other Dr. Seuss shows, you can watch any of the Dr. Seuss cartoons, skipping Halloween is Grinch Night!, and the impact would be mostly the same.
Redeeming Qualities
- While a bit sloppy, the animation is great for its time.
- With the exception of the Grinch, the voicing acting is passable.
- The characters are still likable, with the Grinch still being intimidating as he always is, and Euchariah for being an interesting protagonist.
- This is the first film in which starts the Grinch that's something not out of a remake of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, which is a nice change.
- There are a few funny moments, such as the Wuzzy Wuzu chase scene.
- Although it does go overboard, the paraphernalia wagon's Spook Tour Song segment was very entertaining, and the creatures that appear in said Spook Tour have some impressive and creative designs, given that this is from Dr. Seuss, especially for its time.
Reception
When compare to previous and even later Dr. Seuss' cartoons, Halloween is Grinch Night! received mixed reviews by fans and critics alike, while phrased for its voice cast, animation and its take on the Grinch, many fans criticizes the film for its lack of Halloween content, barely any callbacks to How The Grinch Stole Christmas and how it recons that film, and some scenes in the film for being considered a bit too scary for kids, because of this, Halloween is Grinch Night! often considered as one of Dr. Seuss' weaker entries in the Dr. Seuss Cartoon series.