.......cal
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/22/cias-wtf-to-investigate-impact-of-wikileaks/
By Donald Melanson 
posted Dec 22nd 2010 5:12PM
posted Dec 22nd 2010 5:12PM 
From Our Partners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_prisonerEXCERPT:
The term "political prisoner" is used by persons or groups challenging the legitimacy of the detention of a prisoner. Supporters of the term define a political prisoner as someone who is imprisoned for his or her participation in political activity. If a political offense was not the official reason for detention, the term would imply that the detention was motivated by the prisoner's politics.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/argentina-relives-scandal-of-babies-stolen-from-political-prisoners-788588.html
Argentina relives scandal of babies stolen from political prisoners
By Paul Scheltus in Buenos Aires
Thursday, 28 February 2008
The 9-millimetre gun and the letter found next to the lifeless body of Lt-Col Paul Alberto Ravone seemed to indicate suicide. Argentine human rights groups, however, suspect foul play as he is not the first key witness in a baby-theft trial to turn up dead.
In a series of cases gripping Argentina, men and women are on trial for stealing newborn babies from political prisoners during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. Couples faithful to the regime illegally adopted the babies, supposedly raising them free of "subversive doctrines". Meanwhile, their mothers were "disappeared," in many cases thrown from planes into the sea, in what was known as the "Dirty War".
Ravone, 65 and retired, was due to testify on 3 March in a case involving the theft of twins born to a political dissident in a military hospital in 1976. Shortly before, the twins' parents had been arrested and joined the ranks of the 30,000 desaparecidos or disappeared.
Although the police suspect suicide, the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo expressed their doubts after Ravone's body was found on Monday. Estela de Carlotto, the leader of the group searching for their abducted grandchildren, claims that witnesses are being "eliminated."
On 10 December a key witness in a similar trial, Hector Febres, was found dead in his cell. The autopsy revealed cyanide poisoning as the cause of death. The Justice minister, Anibal Fernandez, says he has no doubt that Febres was murdered. The Dirty War is still being fought.
The discovery of Ravone's body follows two other incidents linked to the baby- theft trials, pushing the issue to the front pages of newspapers here. The first was a police raid on the home of Evelyn Vazquez, 30, who is possibly the daughter of disappeared parents. The police came looking for articles that might contain DNA.
The action followed Ms Vazquez's refusal to have a blood test. She says she will do nothing to implicate the couple that raised her – even if they do know about the possible fate of her biological parents and are accomplices to her alleged kidnapping. "I'll not be used as a weapon against my adoptive parents" she said.
Nine years ago her alleged biological grandparents started an investigation to find out if Ms Vasquez was the child stolen from their daughter. But Ms Vasquez feels no desire to see her adoptive parents jailed. "My parents have been my parents for the past 30 years and nothing will change that," she said in a radio interview on Tuesday.
DNA recovered during the raid will be used to determine her identity. If she is who the Grandmothers think she is, prosecutors will want to question her adoptive parents about how they came by a stolen baby.
The second case, that of Maria Eugenia Sampallo, could not be more different. Ms Sampallo is pressing charges against the couple who raised her. She always doubted her identity and submitted herself to a DNA test in 2000. The results produced a grandmother and an elder brother who had been looking for her all her life. Her parents, she found out, were union delegates, arrested in October 1977 and never seen again.
She accuses her adoptive parents of kidnap, deceit and falsifying her birth certificate. The slow wheels of justice in Argentina have delayed the trial until now.
Last week Ms Sampallo testified about her childhood. "At first they told me my parents had died in a car crash," she said. "Later they changed their story... Gomez [the wife] refused to tell me who I was. That was the deal. If they said nothing they could keep me." Apart from the couple – Cristina Gomez and Osvaldo Rivas – there is a third accused. Enrique Berthier, a former soldier, is suspected of giving the baby to Mrs Gomez. He claims to have no knowledge of Ms Sampallo's background. All three could spend up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
According to the Grandmothers organisation at least 500 children were taken from their jailed mothers. Thanks to a DNA databank, 88 young people now know their biological mothers were tortured and killed and that the people they thought were their parents had lied to them. Cases like Ms Vazquez's are rare: most have cut all ties with their adoptive parents.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3687055.ece
From
April 5, 2008
Maria Barragan succeeds in getting adoptive parents jailed
In a landmark decision, a court in Buenos Aires sentenced a former military officer and the adoptive parents of one of the country’s many babies “stolen” during the dictatorship to prison for concealing the child’s identity and falsifying adoption documents.
Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragán, 30, had brought charges against the three after discovering her true identity seven years ago. Ms Sampallo is one of hundreds of people who were snatched from their parents or born in captivity during the country’s dictatorship of 1976-83, but she was the first to face her adoptive parents in court.
Osvaldo Rivas, 65, and MarÍa Cristina Gómez Pinto, 60, her adoptive parents, were sentenced to eight and seven years in prison respectively. Enrique Berthier, a former army captain who handed Ms Sampallo over to the couple when she was a baby, received ten years.
“These are not my parents,” Ms Sampallo said at a press conference on Monday. “They are my kidnappers . . . there is no emotional bond that binds me to them. These are my parents,” she said, picking up photos of her biological parents.
Argentina’s military regime arrested Leonardo Sampallo and Mirta Barragán, suspected leftist dissidents, in December 1977. Soon after Ms Sampallo was born, her parents died in prison and the infant was given to Captain Berthier to pass on to another family, which hid her real identity.
Ms Sampallo learnt about her past from the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. They have found 88 people like Ms Sampallo, children of their own sons and daughters who “disappeared”.
The Argentine military imprisoned tens of thousands of people suspected of being subversives and killed as many as 30,000. The junta also decided to “rehabilitate” its enemies’ children by placing them with families that supported the dictatorship. Many of the children were given to the families of men who may have participated in the torture and deaths of their parents.
The Grandmothers say that up to 500 children were abducted by the military or were born in captivity. During the dictatorship the group kept note of women who suddenly appeared with babies without being pregnant, and began investigations that, with recent advances in DNA technology, have begun to get results. Cases involving abducted children have proved crucial to bringing the dictatorship’s architects and executioners to justice. An amnesty for military and police officers imposed by the first postdictatorship government did not include the theft of babies, jurists contended.
“My hope is that each conviction acts as a step toward building the truth,” said Victoria Donda, an MP and activist who was taken from her biological parents at birth and learnt of her real identity in 2003.
The Dirty War
— Approximately 30,000 Argentinians disappeared during the Dirty War, a campaign of violence and intimidation by a series of governments
— The collapse of the alliance between left and right factions in the Peronist movement is seen as the catalyst of the trouble. A paranoid conservative Argentinian group backed the army in taking extreme action to control the Left
— Most disappearances occurred under the military regimes that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983, after the overthrow of Isabel Perón by Jorge Rafael Videla, then head of Argentina's army
— Democracy was swept away and the military became increasingly violent. It regarded a “cleansing” of Argentine society as necessary to the country’s survival
— Liberals, trade unionists, and others suspected of less than wholehearted support for the regime were rounded up. After their interrogation and murder, their bodies were never returned
Sources: desaparecidos.org ; nuncamas.org; National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons
http://www.johnstoncenter.org/content/silly-rabbit-satire-kids-or-so-it-seems-literature
EXCERPT:
http://www.enotes.com/topic/How_the_Grinch_Stole_Christmas!_(TV_special)
EXCERPT and then full article....
Original CBS version
The film was originally sponsored by the Foundation for Full Service Banks ("A Full Service Bank"), and ended with a short advertisement for the FFFSB presented in the mold of Dr. Seuss' poetic stories. This original print, unseen since its first telecast, exists among film collectors.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1966
Followed by Halloween Is Grinch Night
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 1966 American animated television special directed by Chuck Jones. It is based on the homonymous children's book by Dr. Seuss, the story of The Grinch trying to take away Christmas from the townsfolk of Whoville below his mountain hideaway. The special, which is considered a short film as it runs less than an hour, is one of the very few Christmas specials from the 1960s to still be shown regularly on television. Boris Karloff narrates the film and also provides the speaking voice of The Grinch (the opening credits state, "The sounds of the Grinch are by Boris Karloff. And read by Boris Karloff, too!").
The 26-minute short was originally telecast on CBS on December 18, 1966. CBS repeated it annually during the Christmas season until 1987. It was eventually acquired by Turner Broadcasting System, which now shows it several times between November and January. It has since been broadcast on TNT, Cartoon Network, and The WB Television Network. Most recently, it has been shown on ABC, but with some scenes trimmed down because of time constraints (the show was made at a time when commercial breaks on television were shorter than they are now). In any event, as of the present time, it is the lead-off "classic" special (i.e. the first classic special) that airs on network television each Christmas season.
The special was originally produced by The Cat in the Hat Productions in association with the television and animation divisions of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. MGM owned the special until 1986. Today, the rights stand with Turner Entertainment (the copyright holder) and Warner Bros. Animation (a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment; its predecessor company had employed Chuck Jones for many years). Warner Bros. Television owns the TV distribution rights, and Warner Home Video the DVD/Blu-ray rights.
Plot
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (November 2009)
The plot is faithful to that of the original book. The only notable additions being the addition of color (the original book was in dichromatic red and black, with the occasional pink), the early appearance of the Grinch's dog Max, and the insertion of three songs: the Christmas carol "Welcome Christmas" (sung by a studio chorus at the beginning and closing of the program), the polka-styled "Trim Up the Tree," and the now famous "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (performed by an uncredited Thurl Ravenscroft). Almost all narrations are made verbatim from the book. The major additions to the narration are a description of the noise-making Whos on Christmas morning and the substitution of nonsensical Seuss-like gifts such as "bizzle-binks" instead of the mundane gifts such as bicycles and popcorn. A protracted animation sequence, with no spoken parts, in which the Grinch and Max advance from the mountain to Whoville with comical difficulty on Christmas Eve was also added, to extend the time length of the special.
It is Christmas Eve down in Whoville, and everyone's decorating for the big day tomorrow. Everyone, that is, but the Grinch (voiced by Boris Karloff), a depressed, wicked-tempered grouch with a sour attitude who lives in a mountain cave just north of Whoville. He absolutely hates everything about Christmas because of the noise surrounding the entire town on Christmas Day (though it seems that, despite his sour attitude, he is very patient seeing as it was said, by the Grinch, that, "For fifty-three years I've put up with this, now!"). The Grinch tries to come up with a plan of "keeping Christmas from coming." Just then, he notices his dog, Max (voiced by Dallas McKennon), covered in snow in a Santa Claus-like way. The Grinch then gets the notion of disguising himself as Santa and stealing all of the Whos' presents, believing that that is enough to stop the holiday from coming.
First, he cuts out a coat and a hat and sews some fluff onto them. Next, he takes a reindeer horn and ties it to Max. Finally, the Grinch brings out a big stack of bags, loads it onto his ramshackle sleigh, and starts down on his journey to Whoville in a very comical way.
Down in Whoville, the Grinch starts to steal everything in the first house. Cindy Lou Who (voiced by June Foray) wakes up and asks him why he's taking the Christmas tree. The Grinch lies and tells her that something is wrong with a lightbulb on this tree and he will fix it up. After tucking Cindy Lou back in bed, the Grinch stuffs up the tree, takes the log for their fire, and goes up "the chimney himself, the old liar." He does the same thing for every house afterwards.
Loaded with everything related to Christmas that the Whos own, the Grinch and Max takes up the loot to Mt. Crumpit to send the whole load off the side of the mountain. Feeling joyous at the moment, the Grinch listens for a sad cry from the Whos. Instead, the Whos are still happy and are singing carols. The Grinch realizes he didn't prevent Christmas - "Somehow or other, it came just the same!" - and begins to understand the true meaning of Christmas. The Grinch barely retrieves the sled from falling over the edge of the mountain (thanks to his heart growing three sizes that day, giving him "the strength of ten Grinches plus two!"). He brings everything back to the Whos and is invited to participate in the holiday feast, where he carves the roast beast.
Reaction
At the cartoon's original release, the program received mixed reviews (critic Rick Du Brow termed it merely "passable"[citation needed]), but it has since been recognized as a classic, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 100% "fresh" rating on its website[citation needed].
Original CBS version
The film was originally sponsored by the Foundation for Full Service Banks ("A Full Service Bank"), and ended with a short advertisement for the FFFSB presented in the mold of Dr. Seuss' poetic stories. This original print, unseen since its first telecast, exists among film collectors.
Home video releases
The 1966 opening and closing sponsor tags are officially unavailable on video by Turner/Warner Bros., but otherwise the main body of the special as first seen in 1966 is available on DVD and Blu-Ray. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was released to VHS in 1994. The special was released to the DVD format in 2000 (the two earlier releases were by MGM prior to Warner Home Video's acquisition of home video rights). The DVD featured another Seuss-based special, Horton Hears a Who!, and contained an audio commentary by Phil Roman and June Foray, interviews with Albert Hague and Thurl Ravenscroft, and the "Special Edition" documentary which aired alongside the special on TNT in the 1990s. The DVD was well-received for these bonus features, but also criticized for its subpar picture quality (many critics pointed out that the Grinch looked yellow in this release[1]).
The special was released on DVD again in 2006, labeled as a "50th Birthday Deluxe Edition". The "50th Birthday" inaccurately refers to the date of the book's publication - it was published in 1957, not 1956 as the cover would have buyers believe - and not to the date of the 1966 TV special. This DVD release presented the special in a better-quality digital transfer and contained all of the bonus features from the previous release, except for the audio commentary and did not have a chapter selection. The Grinch was restored back to his original green color.[2] This DVD also featured a new retrospective featurette. It is currently available on DVD (with some of the supplements carried over from previous DVD releases) as part of the 4-disc Classic Christmas Favorites box set, which also includes several of the Rankin/Bass holiday specials WB currently owns.
The special was made available on high definition Blu-Ray Disc on October 6, 2009, containing all the bonus features from the 2000 DVD except for Horton Hears a Who!, which was made available separately. It also included a DVD of the special and a Digital Copy.[3]
Soundtrack
CD cover
On December 18, 1966, MGM released a soundtrack LP in conjunction with the television special. In October 1995, Island released a CD duplicating the 1966 LP release. On October 5, 1999, Rhino Entertainment released a new soundtrack for the special, and also included the soundtrack for another Dr. Seuss cartoon, Horton Hears a Who, on the disc. Both story collections contain selected dialogue and music numbers. Although the "isolated music tracks" are re-recorded, the dialogue excerpts are from the actual soundtracks of the television specials, being voiced by Boris Karloff for "Grinch" and Hans Conried for "Horton."
The tracklisting is as follows:
From How the Grinch Stole Christmas:
Opening (How The Grinch....) 1:29
Trim Up The Tree 0:45
Tomorrow Is Christmas, It's Practically Here 4:11
Welcome Christmas 0:46
I Must Stop Christmas 0:59
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch 5:15
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Reprise) 5:15
A Quarter Of Dawn 1:43
Welcome Christmas 2:52
Finale (How The Grinch....) 3:06
Opening (How The Grinch....) (Isolated Music Track) 1:29
Trim Up The Tree (Isolated Music Track) 0:47
Welcome Christmas (Isolated Music Track) 2:06
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Isolated Music Track) 3:32
From Horton Hears a Who:
Opening (Horton Hears...) 5:57
Mrs. Toucanella Told Me 2:53
Old Doc Hoovey 2:01
Wickersham Brothers Song 2:14
Who-Ville Aloft 3:22
Doctor Hoovey, You Were Right 1:33
Horton The Elephant's Going To Be Caged 5:22
Be Kind To Your Small Person Friends 1:17
Finale (Horton Hears...) 0:48
Old Doc Hoovey (Isolated Music Track) 1:23
Wickersham Brothers Song (Isolated Music Track) 2:06
We Are Here (Isolated Music Track) 1:22
Be Kind To Your Small Person Friends (Isolated Music Track) 1:32
Sequels
A television special called Halloween Is Grinch Night, created by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, aired on CBS in 1977, 11 years after the Christmas special. This special involved a tale of the Grinch coming down to scare the Whos every Halloween. Though less successful than the original, it was awarded an Emmy.[4]
A later cartoon, The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (alternately titled The Cat in the Hat Gets Grinched), aired on ABC in 1982. Though credited to DePatie-Freleng, it was produced by Marvel Productions, which had taken over DePatie-Freleng in 1981. This special also earned an Emmy.[5]
Special TV edition
In 1994, a special edition of the original cartoon classic aired on TNT (Turner Network Television). Narrated by Phil Hartman, an extra 20 minutes was added for this special with several "behind-the-scenes" looks at the animation, the making of the cartoon, and special interviews, including Tim Burton. It also featured Thurl Ravenscroft, the non-credited singing voice behind "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." Ravenscroft explained that the oversight, caught after the film was presented to the studio for airing, left him off the closing credits of the original short cartoon. He is credited at the end of the special edition. The Bonus special was revived in 2006 on the ABC broadcast (in recut form), with Hartman's narrations removed and new segments hosted and narrated by Tom Bergeron.
http://blog.chuckjones.com/
EXCERPT:
Ted Geisel (second from left) and Chuck Jones (second from right) pose with members of the Foundation of Commercial Banks for a publicity photo before the airing on December 18, 1966 of the animated television special, "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragán, 30, had brought charges against the three after discovering her true identity seven years ago. Ms Sampallo is one of hundreds of people who were snatched from their parents or born in captivity during the country’s dictatorship of 1976-83, but she was the first to face her adoptive parents in court.
Osvaldo Rivas, 65, and MarÍa Cristina Gómez Pinto, 60, her adoptive parents, were sentenced to eight and seven years in prison respectively. Enrique Berthier, a former army captain who handed Ms Sampallo over to the couple when she was a baby, received ten years.
“These are not my parents,” Ms Sampallo said at a press conference on Monday. “They are my kidnappers . . . there is no emotional bond that binds me to them. These are my parents,” she said, picking up photos of her biological parents.
Argentina’s military regime arrested Leonardo Sampallo and Mirta Barragán, suspected leftist dissidents, in December 1977. Soon after Ms Sampallo was born, her parents died in prison and the infant was given to Captain Berthier to pass on to another family, which hid her real identity.
Ms Sampallo learnt about her past from the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. They have found 88 people like Ms Sampallo, children of their own sons and daughters who “disappeared”.
The Argentine military imprisoned tens of thousands of people suspected of being subversives and killed as many as 30,000. The junta also decided to “rehabilitate” its enemies’ children by placing them with families that supported the dictatorship. Many of the children were given to the families of men who may have participated in the torture and deaths of their parents.
The Grandmothers say that up to 500 children were abducted by the military or were born in captivity. During the dictatorship the group kept note of women who suddenly appeared with babies without being pregnant, and began investigations that, with recent advances in DNA technology, have begun to get results. Cases involving abducted children have proved crucial to bringing the dictatorship’s architects and executioners to justice. An amnesty for military and police officers imposed by the first postdictatorship government did not include the theft of babies, jurists contended.
“My hope is that each conviction acts as a step toward building the truth,” said Victoria Donda, an MP and activist who was taken from her biological parents at birth and learnt of her real identity in 2003.
The Dirty War
— Approximately 30,000 Argentinians disappeared during the Dirty War, a campaign of violence and intimidation by a series of governments
— The collapse of the alliance between left and right factions in the Peronist movement is seen as the catalyst of the trouble. A paranoid conservative Argentinian group backed the army in taking extreme action to control the Left
— Most disappearances occurred under the military regimes that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983, after the overthrow of Isabel Perón by Jorge Rafael Videla, then head of Argentina's army
— Democracy was swept away and the military became increasingly violent. It regarded a “cleansing” of Argentine society as necessary to the country’s survival
— Liberals, trade unionists, and others suspected of less than wholehearted support for the regime were rounded up. After their interrogation and murder, their bodies were never returned
Sources: desaparecidos.org ; nuncamas.org; National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons
http://www.johnstoncenter.org/content/silly-rabbit-satire-kids-or-so-it-seems-literature
EXCERPT:
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas can be seen as another example of satire relating to capitalist culture. In the beginning of the story, all of the Whos from Whoville are preparing for the largest consumer holiday of the year. They were purchasing toys and gifts, and food for a great feast. When the trinkets and meals were lost, everyone still came together when the essence of the festival was recollected. They still were able to have a wonderful time as one big group singing together. This is commentary on the consumer-driven nature of Christmas, and how the presents and excessive spending are not the real reasons to celebrate any holiday. It was satirical in the way that the story listed a number of elaborate excesses that were being purchased around Christmas time, like the feast of roast beast, or the ridiculous amounts of presents. The Grinch, who only noticed this materialistic side of Christmas was sure that if the “Pop-guns, bicycles, roller skates, drums, checkerboards, tricycles, popcorn and plumbs,” were taken, then the Who’s Christmas would be destroyed. The values, which are diluted because of the consumer aspect of Christmas, are family and togetherness, which the Grinch found at the end of the story. Even though this satire was not sarcastic and rude, it completed the task of pointing out the extremes of Christmas time shopping, and noted that it was not the most important part of that time of year. Once the purchasing and spending facets of Christmas are removed, it is significant to say they had a better time when everyone was able to share the blessings they brought together. While this may be a somewhat obscure example of satire I think that satire can definitely be useful in this harmless way and still be relevant by teaching positive messages through very light-hearted criticism. I can remember as a child reading this book and wanting to feeling a little less concerned with the adequacy of the presents that I would receive on Christmas morning, rather than which one to open first. However, this type of satire does have the potential to be much less meaningful and subtle. I’m not sure, however, if subtlety necessarily means that the issue being satirized is not a serious matter.
EXCERPT and then full article....
Original CBS version
The film was originally sponsored by the Foundation for Full Service Banks ("A Full Service Bank"), and ended with a short advertisement for the FFFSB presented in the mold of Dr. Seuss' poetic stories. This original print, unseen since its first telecast, exists among film collectors.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1966
Followed by Halloween Is Grinch Night
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 1966 American animated television special directed by Chuck Jones. It is based on the homonymous children's book by Dr. Seuss, the story of The Grinch trying to take away Christmas from the townsfolk of Whoville below his mountain hideaway. The special, which is considered a short film as it runs less than an hour, is one of the very few Christmas specials from the 1960s to still be shown regularly on television. Boris Karloff narrates the film and also provides the speaking voice of The Grinch (the opening credits state, "The sounds of the Grinch are by Boris Karloff. And read by Boris Karloff, too!").
The 26-minute short was originally telecast on CBS on December 18, 1966. CBS repeated it annually during the Christmas season until 1987. It was eventually acquired by Turner Broadcasting System, which now shows it several times between November and January. It has since been broadcast on TNT, Cartoon Network, and The WB Television Network. Most recently, it has been shown on ABC, but with some scenes trimmed down because of time constraints (the show was made at a time when commercial breaks on television were shorter than they are now). In any event, as of the present time, it is the lead-off "classic" special (i.e. the first classic special) that airs on network television each Christmas season.
The special was originally produced by The Cat in the Hat Productions in association with the television and animation divisions of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. MGM owned the special until 1986. Today, the rights stand with Turner Entertainment (the copyright holder) and Warner Bros. Animation (a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment; its predecessor company had employed Chuck Jones for many years). Warner Bros. Television owns the TV distribution rights, and Warner Home Video the DVD/Blu-ray rights.
Plot
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (November 2009)
The plot is faithful to that of the original book. The only notable additions being the addition of color (the original book was in dichromatic red and black, with the occasional pink), the early appearance of the Grinch's dog Max, and the insertion of three songs: the Christmas carol "Welcome Christmas" (sung by a studio chorus at the beginning and closing of the program), the polka-styled "Trim Up the Tree," and the now famous "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (performed by an uncredited Thurl Ravenscroft). Almost all narrations are made verbatim from the book. The major additions to the narration are a description of the noise-making Whos on Christmas morning and the substitution of nonsensical Seuss-like gifts such as "bizzle-binks" instead of the mundane gifts such as bicycles and popcorn. A protracted animation sequence, with no spoken parts, in which the Grinch and Max advance from the mountain to Whoville with comical difficulty on Christmas Eve was also added, to extend the time length of the special.
It is Christmas Eve down in Whoville, and everyone's decorating for the big day tomorrow. Everyone, that is, but the Grinch (voiced by Boris Karloff), a depressed, wicked-tempered grouch with a sour attitude who lives in a mountain cave just north of Whoville. He absolutely hates everything about Christmas because of the noise surrounding the entire town on Christmas Day (though it seems that, despite his sour attitude, he is very patient seeing as it was said, by the Grinch, that, "For fifty-three years I've put up with this, now!"). The Grinch tries to come up with a plan of "keeping Christmas from coming." Just then, he notices his dog, Max (voiced by Dallas McKennon), covered in snow in a Santa Claus-like way. The Grinch then gets the notion of disguising himself as Santa and stealing all of the Whos' presents, believing that that is enough to stop the holiday from coming.
First, he cuts out a coat and a hat and sews some fluff onto them. Next, he takes a reindeer horn and ties it to Max. Finally, the Grinch brings out a big stack of bags, loads it onto his ramshackle sleigh, and starts down on his journey to Whoville in a very comical way.
Down in Whoville, the Grinch starts to steal everything in the first house. Cindy Lou Who (voiced by June Foray) wakes up and asks him why he's taking the Christmas tree. The Grinch lies and tells her that something is wrong with a lightbulb on this tree and he will fix it up. After tucking Cindy Lou back in bed, the Grinch stuffs up the tree, takes the log for their fire, and goes up "the chimney himself, the old liar." He does the same thing for every house afterwards.
Loaded with everything related to Christmas that the Whos own, the Grinch and Max takes up the loot to Mt. Crumpit to send the whole load off the side of the mountain. Feeling joyous at the moment, the Grinch listens for a sad cry from the Whos. Instead, the Whos are still happy and are singing carols. The Grinch realizes he didn't prevent Christmas - "Somehow or other, it came just the same!" - and begins to understand the true meaning of Christmas. The Grinch barely retrieves the sled from falling over the edge of the mountain (thanks to his heart growing three sizes that day, giving him "the strength of ten Grinches plus two!"). He brings everything back to the Whos and is invited to participate in the holiday feast, where he carves the roast beast.
Reaction
At the cartoon's original release, the program received mixed reviews (critic Rick Du Brow termed it merely "passable"[citation needed]), but it has since been recognized as a classic, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 100% "fresh" rating on its website[citation needed].
Original CBS version
The film was originally sponsored by the Foundation for Full Service Banks ("A Full Service Bank"), and ended with a short advertisement for the FFFSB presented in the mold of Dr. Seuss' poetic stories. This original print, unseen since its first telecast, exists among film collectors.
Home video releases
The 1966 opening and closing sponsor tags are officially unavailable on video by Turner/Warner Bros., but otherwise the main body of the special as first seen in 1966 is available on DVD and Blu-Ray. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was released to VHS in 1994. The special was released to the DVD format in 2000 (the two earlier releases were by MGM prior to Warner Home Video's acquisition of home video rights). The DVD featured another Seuss-based special, Horton Hears a Who!, and contained an audio commentary by Phil Roman and June Foray, interviews with Albert Hague and Thurl Ravenscroft, and the "Special Edition" documentary which aired alongside the special on TNT in the 1990s. The DVD was well-received for these bonus features, but also criticized for its subpar picture quality (many critics pointed out that the Grinch looked yellow in this release[1]).
The special was released on DVD again in 2006, labeled as a "50th Birthday Deluxe Edition". The "50th Birthday" inaccurately refers to the date of the book's publication - it was published in 1957, not 1956 as the cover would have buyers believe - and not to the date of the 1966 TV special. This DVD release presented the special in a better-quality digital transfer and contained all of the bonus features from the previous release, except for the audio commentary and did not have a chapter selection. The Grinch was restored back to his original green color.[2] This DVD also featured a new retrospective featurette. It is currently available on DVD (with some of the supplements carried over from previous DVD releases) as part of the 4-disc Classic Christmas Favorites box set, which also includes several of the Rankin/Bass holiday specials WB currently owns.
The special was made available on high definition Blu-Ray Disc on October 6, 2009, containing all the bonus features from the 2000 DVD except for Horton Hears a Who!, which was made available separately. It also included a DVD of the special and a Digital Copy.[3]
Soundtrack
CD cover
On December 18, 1966, MGM released a soundtrack LP in conjunction with the television special. In October 1995, Island released a CD duplicating the 1966 LP release. On October 5, 1999, Rhino Entertainment released a new soundtrack for the special, and also included the soundtrack for another Dr. Seuss cartoon, Horton Hears a Who, on the disc. Both story collections contain selected dialogue and music numbers. Although the "isolated music tracks" are re-recorded, the dialogue excerpts are from the actual soundtracks of the television specials, being voiced by Boris Karloff for "Grinch" and Hans Conried for "Horton."
The tracklisting is as follows:
From How the Grinch Stole Christmas:
Opening (How The Grinch....) 1:29
Trim Up The Tree 0:45
Tomorrow Is Christmas, It's Practically Here 4:11
Welcome Christmas 0:46
I Must Stop Christmas 0:59
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch 5:15
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Reprise) 5:15
A Quarter Of Dawn 1:43
Welcome Christmas 2:52
Finale (How The Grinch....) 3:06
Opening (How The Grinch....) (Isolated Music Track) 1:29
Trim Up The Tree (Isolated Music Track) 0:47
Welcome Christmas (Isolated Music Track) 2:06
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Isolated Music Track) 3:32
From Horton Hears a Who:
Opening (Horton Hears...) 5:57
Mrs. Toucanella Told Me 2:53
Old Doc Hoovey 2:01
Wickersham Brothers Song 2:14
Who-Ville Aloft 3:22
Doctor Hoovey, You Were Right 1:33
Horton The Elephant's Going To Be Caged 5:22
Be Kind To Your Small Person Friends 1:17
Finale (Horton Hears...) 0:48
Old Doc Hoovey (Isolated Music Track) 1:23
Wickersham Brothers Song (Isolated Music Track) 2:06
We Are Here (Isolated Music Track) 1:22
Be Kind To Your Small Person Friends (Isolated Music Track) 1:32
Sequels
A television special called Halloween Is Grinch Night, created by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, aired on CBS in 1977, 11 years after the Christmas special. This special involved a tale of the Grinch coming down to scare the Whos every Halloween. Though less successful than the original, it was awarded an Emmy.[4]
A later cartoon, The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (alternately titled The Cat in the Hat Gets Grinched), aired on ABC in 1982. Though credited to DePatie-Freleng, it was produced by Marvel Productions, which had taken over DePatie-Freleng in 1981. This special also earned an Emmy.[5]
Special TV edition
In 1994, a special edition of the original cartoon classic aired on TNT (Turner Network Television). Narrated by Phil Hartman, an extra 20 minutes was added for this special with several "behind-the-scenes" looks at the animation, the making of the cartoon, and special interviews, including Tim Burton. It also featured Thurl Ravenscroft, the non-credited singing voice behind "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." Ravenscroft explained that the oversight, caught after the film was presented to the studio for airing, left him off the closing credits of the original short cartoon. He is credited at the end of the special edition. The Bonus special was revived in 2006 on the ABC broadcast (in recut form), with Hartman's narrations removed and new segments hosted and narrated by Tom Bergeron.
http://blog.chuckjones.com/
EXCERPT:
Ted Geisel (second from left) and Chuck Jones (second from right) pose with members of the Foundation of Commercial Banks for a publicity photo before the airing on December 18, 1966 of the animated television special, "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
