weekly halloween cartoon

Here we are, once again, with a Halloween cartoon. Last week's cartoon was great! JC came out of the chute swinging for the fences with that one. This week we tried to fulfill the request of our lone commentor from last week's installment. Mr. (or Mrs.) Anonymous asked for something "obscure that isn't on T.V. anymore". I think we found something that fits the bill. It's definately obscure and certainly not on T.V. anymore. What we're talking about here kids is none other than Dr. Seuss's presentation of 'Halloween is Grinch Night'. Origionally released on T.V. in 1977, it's not the typical Halloween special. There are no costumes and no trick-or-treating. What it does have is ghosts, ghouls, and Grinch. The first thing you notice while watching is the voice of the Grinch/narrator. In this film, our green buddy is voiced by Hans Conried replacing Boris Karloff who passed away 8 years prior to the making of this Grinch tale. Mr. Conried isn't bad, but having grown up with a Karloff powered Grinch, it takes getting used to. This tale surrounds not only the Grinch, but Eukariah Who. The latter is the eventual hero of this tale.
It seems the Grinch has missed a few of his anger management classes and is back-sliding into Whoville terrorization again. Halloween in Whoville is apparently a pretty nasty night. It's the night the Grinch chooses to come out and scare any Who he might find. The Whos all lock themselves in and wait for the night to pass. For some reason, Eukariah ventures out and bumps into you-know-who. Suddenly the boy decides he can save his little burg from a night of frights. He decides to stall the Grinch by daring him to prove how scary he can be. This is where the ghosts and such come in. Dr. Seuss takes on quite a (presumably drug fueled) journey through the green one's bag of tricks which includes quite a few 'Seussian' creatures of the creepy sort. We see Max the dog again in this feature and he is presumably upset that he's still got a green jerk for a room-mate. The coloring in this feature is quite 'Halloweeny' and certainly has the air of the holiday. I think you can buy this on VHS through Amazon. There is also a DVD out there containing a collection of Seuss cartoons and one of them is Grinch Night. Seuss fans will certainly enjoy this. On a side note: 'Halloween is Grinch Night' actually won an emmy for Outstanding Children's Special in it's year of release. Hopefully you will all get a kick out of this somewhat obscure blast from the past. Without further trivialities from myself, the Shelf proudly presents for your viewing pleasure: 'Halloween is Grinch Night'.