The Man Behind the TV Grinch

Mr. Naylor makes a compelling analysis of the most enduring of the televised holiday specials, but it would be a shame to let any discussion of their respective virtues pass without at least a mention of the folks whose contributions figured most heavily into their creation. Of course, both specials were drawn from the printed page: A Charlie Brown Christmas from the funny pages, where the round-headed boy and his ageless pals held forth in the comic strip Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles M. Schulz; How the Grinch Stole Christmas from the book of the same name, written and drawn by Dr. Seuss, aka Theodore Geisel. Both adaptations do a lovely job of transferring the flavor of the originals to the screen, keeping intact the delicate whimsy that helped make them so popular. And as Naylor suggests, the adaptations add something new to these characters, too: a liveliness. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first of the Peanuts specials for animator Bill Melendez, and while it suffers a bit from the stiffness of TV-style animation, Melendez manages a peppiness and joy in movement that suits Schulz's gang; anyone who has seen that crew dance can never forget it. The Grinch, however, was lucky enough to have Chuck Jones bringing him to the small screen and, using Naylor's measure, the advantage is definitely to the Grinch. Jones was one of the legendary Warner Bros. animators, and his cartoons are among the most highly regarded of all time. (In fact, in a survey of animators this year, Jones' Bugs & Elmer epic What's Opera, Doc was voted the greatest cartoon ever.) Jones was always a great one for character, and so much of Grinch's humor, pathos, and drama, comes from Jones' direction: Max falling under the shadow of the overloaded sleigh, the Grinch's malevolent smile speading, and later, his discovery of love. Seuss put it in the book, but Jones made it move -- and move us.

-- Robert Faires