The Grinch

Recently on reddit the story broke that there's actually a "prequel" to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" called "Halloween is Grinch Night". The reaction was shock: "how have I never heard of this 'til now?" There's actually a good reason no one's heard of it, it's terrible. If you can imagine taking the Grinch character and throwing him in a pointless, nonsense plot with many musical numbers and setting it at Halloween (sort of), you have "Halloween is Grinch Night". IMDB notes that it's the only Grinch special where he never becomes good in the end. Exactly. Why have characters with arcs?



But for all the "I can't believe there's another Grinch special" crowd, there's another surprise. There is actually a Grinch trilogy. Yes, there is a third Grinch special called "The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat" from 1982.

Now this is where you want to be - The Dr. Seuss Cinematic Universe equivalent of the first "Avengers" movie. Although, I kind of remember the Cat in the Hat also being a villain, so this is like Godzilla fighting King Kong?

In this edition, the Grinch actually wakes up feeling good one day and decides to do good for the world. But he looks in the mirror and his image convinces him that he needs to stay bad. The special has just started and already we're in very interesting psychological and philosophical waters. Since the image in the mirror is also the Grinch, the Grinch is both good and bad but the bad side convinces the good side to be bad. The psychology motif will be repeated.

Following his re-dedication to evil, he has a road rage incident with the Cat in the Hat (the Cat in the Hat is on a picnic) and the Grinch decides he needs to make the rest of the Cat's life a living Hell.... using technology.

The Grinch makes a machine that causes any creature to naturally make any sound he wishes them to make, he makes a machine that projects darkness and then switches it up and projects pinkness. Then there are other things that I don't even comprehend. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

This is an interesting twist on the Grinch mythos. He's an inventor? In the first special, he's a caveman who works hard to sew and create a wooden sled. Now suddenly he's created a supercomputer that defies the very laws of physics.

What is the point of any of this? It's unclear other than he just wants to ruin the Cat's day. The Cat wonders about the psychology of the Grinch and what has caused his Grinchiness. Possibilities explored: it's genetic, he was abused by his mom, a bad word from his teacher, brain damage, he was bullied, excess sauerkraut. The Grinch is even seen on a psychiatrist's chair.

In the end, psycho-analysis IS how the Cat in the Hat defeats him - the Grinch's love for his mother is the key to unlocking the Grinch psychology and he turns good.

Don't get me wrong, I generally like this special, it's obviously miles better than the Halloween special. Having two major stars pitted against each other is interesting and I like the imaginative machines. But when you compare the moral of the story here (which is that Freud is the answer), with "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" (in which the answer is "the spirit of Christmas" or whatever) and it's suddenly so clear that science will never be able to satisfy the deeper human need.