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How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is Chuck Jones’s 1966 American animated television special adapting Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book about a sour green creature who plots to steal Christmas from the inhabitants of Whoville. Boris Karloff narrates the special and provides the speaking voice of the Grinch. Thurl Ravenscroft sings the song ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch’. June Foray voices Cindy Lou Who. The teleplay was written by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) from his own book. MGM Television produced the special and CBS broadcast it on December 18, 1966. Chuck Jones directed and storyboarded the special with the Warner Bros. animation craftsmanship he had brought to the Looney Tunes Road Runner and Bugs Bunny shorts over the previous two decades.
Jones’s adaptation is one of the strongest examples in any medium of a major artist adapting another major artist’s source material with full respect for the original while improving on it where the new medium allows. Geisel’s Whos, the Grinch, and Mount Crumpit are rendered with Jones’s superior sense of animation rhythm and timing. The drawings remain Seussian but the movement, the comic beats, and the visual storytelling are pure Chuck Jones. The result is a collaboration where both authors are present and neither is diluted by the other. The special is one of the few cases where animated adaptation has produced something genuinely better than its excellent source.
Chuck Jones’s Animation
Jones brought twenty-five years of Warner Bros. cartoon-direction experience to the production. The Grinch’s facial timing, his physical comedy, the precise calibration of his cumulative reaction to the Christmas-morning Whos singing in defiance of his theft: every comic beat is shaped with the craftsmanship that the Road Runner cartoons had developed. The Grinch is recognizably a Chuck Jones character within Seussian visual design.
The smile that grows three sizes is one of the strongest single comic-animation sequences in television history. Jones holds the moment, lets the Grinch’s face stretch beyond reasonable physiological possibility, and times the gag against Boris Karloff’s narration with the precision of a Bugs Bunny short. The sequence has been imitated and never matched.
For Writers
Adapting major source material requires the adapting artist to bring their own craft equal to or exceeding the source. Jones’s animation craft is fully equal to Geisel’s drawing and writing.
Boris Karloff’s Narration
Karloff was seventy-eight during production and brought the full weight of his classic-horror career to the role. His narration carries the special’s tonal complexity: warmth, menace, comic timing, genuine sadness, and final reconciliation. The Grinch’s speaking voice is also Karloff, with subtle distinction between the third-person narrator and the green protagonist.
Karloff won the Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children in 1968 for his work on the special, an unusual late-career honor that recognized the performance’s craft. His delivery of ‘Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more’ is one of the most beautifully read moments in any animated production.
For Writers
Late-career performers can bring resources to adaptations that no younger actor can replicate. Karloff’s seventy-eight years of theatrical and cinematic work registered through every line he delivered.
Thurl Ravenscroft’s Song
Thurl Ravenscroft performs ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch’, written by Albert Hague with lyrics by Seuss himself. Ravenscroft’s deep-voice delivery turned what could have been a throwaway insult song into a permanent Christmas-comedy standard. He received no on-screen credit for the performance, a production oversight that Seuss publicly corrected after broadcast.
The song’s lyrics are some of the most inventively vicious lines in any holiday production. ‘Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled-up knots’ represents Seuss working in his most pleasurable insult-cataloging mode. Ravenscroft’s performance honors the venom.
For Writers
Insult songs in children’s productions work when the insults are inventive enough to delight rather than wound. The ‘Mr. Grinch’ song earns its reputation through Seuss’s specifically pleasurable cruelty.
Craft Note
Jones’s production cost approximately three hundred fifteen thousand dollars, exceptionally high for 1966 animated television but justified by the resulting quality. The special’s annual broadcast on CBS continued through 2014 when the rights moved to NBC, which has held the broadcast since. Live-action remakes followed in 2000 (Ron Howard’s Jim Carrey vehicle) and animated remakes in 2018 (Illumination Entertainment), neither of which has approached the original’s craftsmanship or cultural standing.
Verdict
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is one of the greatest animated productions ever made and the strongest Dr. Seuss adaptation in any medium. The Jones direction, Karloff narration, Ravenscroft song, and Seuss source material combine to produce something that has only grown in cultural standing across six decades of annual broadcast. Required viewing.
FAQ
Who directed the 1966 Grinch?
Chuck Jones directed and storyboarded the special. He had previously directed the Road Runner and many of the Bugs Bunny Warner Bros. shorts during the 1950s.
Did Boris Karloff sing the ‘Mr. Grinch’ song?
No. Karloff narrated and voiced the Grinch’s speaking parts. Thurl Ravenscroft performed ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch’. The original broadcast did not credit Ravenscroft, which Dr. Seuss publicly corrected after the special aired.
Who wrote the Grinch song?
Albert Hague composed the music and Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) wrote the lyrics.
Is the Grinch really green?
In Dr. Seuss’s original book the Grinch is uncolored. The 1966 special set the green coloring that has been used in every subsequent adaptation.
How many Grinch adaptations exist?
The 1966 Chuck Jones special remains the definitive version. A 2000 Ron Howard live-action film with Jim Carrey, a 2018 Illumination Entertainment animated film, various television sequels and Broadway productions, and assorted shorter holiday tie-ins.
Who narrated the original broadcast?
Boris Karloff narrated. Karloff won the 1968 Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children for the role.
What is the special’s rating?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is rated G.